i S o C O O K ’s VOYAGE. 
heap of fea-weed, and upon that a fmall fire ; probably that 
the fiffi may be broiled and eaten the moment it is caught. 
The canoes that we faw when we advanced farther to the 
northward, are not made of bark, but of the trunk of a tree 
hollowed, perhaps by fire. They are about fourteen feet long, 
■and, being very narrow, are fitted with an outrigger, to pre- 
vent their overfetting. Thefe are worked with paddles, that 
are fo large as to require both hands to manage one of them : 
the outfide is <wholly unmarked by any tool, but at each end 
the wood is left longer at the top than at the bottom, fo that 
there is a proje&ion beyond the hollow part, refembling the 
end of a plank ; the fides are tolerably thin, but how the 
tree is felled and falhioned, we had no opportunity to learn. 
The only tools that we faw among them are an adze, wretch- 
edly made of ftone, fome fmall pieces of the fame fubftance 
an form of a wedge, a wooden mallet, and fome fhells and 
fragments of coral. For poliffiing their throwing Hicks, and 
the points of their lances, they ufe the leaves of a kind of wild 
fig-tree, which bites upon wood almoft as keenly as the Ihave- 
grafs of Europe, which is ufed by pur joiners : with fuch tools, 
the making even fuch a canoe as I have defcribed, muft be a 
moll difficult and tedious labour : to thofe who have been ac- 
quftomed to the ufe of metal, it appears altogether imprac- 
ticable ; but there are few difficulties that will not yield to 
patient perfeverance, and he who does all he can, will cer- 
tainly produce effefts that greatly exceed his apparent power. 
The utmoft freight of thefe canoes is four people, and if 
more at any time wanted to come over the river, one of thofe 
who came firft was obliged to go back for the reft : from this 
circumftance we conjectured that the boat we faw, when we 
were lying in Endeavour River, was the only one in the neigh- 
bourhood : we have however fome reafon to believe that the 
bark canoes are alfo ufed where the wooden ones are con- 
ftrufted, for upon one of the fmall iflands where the natives 
had been fifning for turtle, we found one of the little paddles, 
which had belonged to fuch a boat, and would have been ufe* 
fefs on board any other. 
By what means the inhabitants of this country are reduced 
to fuch a number as it can fubfift, is not perhaps very ealy 
to guefs ; whether, like the inhabitants of New Zealand, 
they are deftroyed by the hands of each other in contefts for 
food; whether they are fwept off by accidental famine, or 
whether there is any caufe which prevents the increafe of the* 
fpecies, muft be left to future adventurers to determine. That 
they have wars, appears by their weapons ; for fuppofing the 
lances to ferve merely for the ftriking of fiffi, the ffiield could 
be intended for nothing but a defence againft men ; the only 
mark of hofiility, however, wlueh we faw among ?h«n, was 
