Their offensive Weapons, &c. described. 149 
atone end, and a crofs piece about three or four inches Jong at 
the other : the knob at one end is received in a fmall dent or 
hollow, which is made for that purpofe in the (haft of the 
lance, near the point, but from which it eaftly flips, upon be- 
ing impelled forward : when the lance is laid along upon this 
machine, and fecured in a proper pofition by the knob, the 
S erfon that is to throw it holds it over his fhoulder, and after 
inking it, delivers both the throwing flick and lance with all 
his force, but the flick being flopped by the crofs piece which 
comes again ft the fhoulder, with a fudden jerk, 'the lance flies 
forward with incredible fwiftnefs, and with fo good an aim* 
that at the diftance of fifty yards thefe Indians were more fure 
of their mark than we could be with a Angle bullet. BeAdes 
thefe lances we faw no offenfive weapon upon this coaft, ex- 
cept when we took our laft view of it with our glafles, and 
then we thought we faw a man with a bow and arrows, in 
which it is poffible we might be miftaken. We faw, how- 
ever, at Botany Bay, a fhield or target, of an oblong fhape, 
about three feet long, and eighteen inches broad, which was 
made of the bark of a tree : this was fetched out of a hut by 
one of the men that oppofed our landing, who, when he ran 
away, left it behind him, and upon taking it up, we found 
that it had been pierced through with a Angle pointed lance 
near the center. Thefe fhields aie certainly in frequent ufe 
among the people here, for though this was the only one that 
we faw in their pofleffion, we frequently found trees from 
which they appeared manifeftly to have been cut, the marks 
being eaAly diilinguifhed from thole that were made by cut- 
ting buckets : fometimes alfo we found the fhields cut out, 
but not yet taken off from the tree, the edgts of the bark on- 
ly being a little raifed by wedges, fo that thefe people appear 
to have difcovered that the bark of a tree becomes thicker and 
ftronger by being fuffered to remain upon the trunk after it 
has been cut round. 
The canoes of New Holland are as mean and rude as the 
houfes. Thofe on the fouthern part of the coaft are nothing 
more than a piece of bark, about twelve feet long, tied toge- 
ther at the ends, and kept open in the middle by fmall bows of 
wood : yet in a vefi'el of this conflruflion we once faw three 
people. In fhallovv water they arc fet forward by a pole, and 
in deeper by paddles, about eighteen inches long, one of 
which the boatman holds in each hand ; mean as they are, 
.they have many conveniences, they draw but little water, and 
tney are very light, fo that they go upon mud banks to pick 
Bp fhell Afh, the moll important ufe to which they can be ap- 
plied, better perhaps than veftels of any other confirmation. 
We ©bferved, that in the middle of thefe canoes there was a 
N 3 heap 
