iyj6;
Auguft, was alfd laid on in fmall patches tlpofl the fa£e, and drawn
in a circle round each eye. The red feemed to be ochre, but
what the white was we could not difcover; it was clofe
grained, faponaceous to the touch, and almoft as heavy as
white lead; poffibly it might be a kind of Steatites, but to
our great regret we could not procure a bit of it to examine.
They have holes in their ears, but we never faw any thing
worn in them. Upon fuch ornaments as they had, they fet
fo great a value, that they would never part with the leaft
article for any thing we could offer; which was the more extraordinary
as our beads and ribbons were ornaments of the
fame kind, but of a more regular form and more Ihowy materials.
They had indeed no idea of traffic, nor could we
communicate any to them: they received the things that we
gave them ; but never appeared to underftand our figns
when we required a return. The fame indifference which
prevented them from buying what we had, prevented them
alfo from attempting tofteal: if they had coveted more, they
would have been lefs honeft; for when we refufed to give
them a turtle, they were enraged, and attempted to take it
by force, and we had nothing elfe upon which they feemed
to fet the leaft value; for, as I have before obferved, many o f
the things that we had given them, we found left negligently
about in the woods, like the playthings of children,
which pleafe only while they are new. Upon their bodies
we law no marks of difeafe or fores, but large fears in irregular
lines, which appeared to be the remains of wounds
which they had inflicted upon themfelves with fome blunt
inftrument, and which we underftood by ligns to have been
memorials of grief for the dead.
They appeared to have no fixed habitations, for we faw
nothing like a town or village in the whole country. Their
houfes, if houfes they may be called, feem to be formed
6 with
with lefs art and induftry than any we had feen, except the 1770.
wretched hovels at Terra del Fuego, and in fome refpects >
they are inferior even to them. At Botany Bay, where they
were bell, they were juft high enough for a man to fit upright
in; but not large enough for him to extend himfelf in
his whole length in any direction: they are built with pliable
rods about as thick as a man’s finger, in the form o f an
oven, by flicking the two ends into the ground, and then
covering them with palm leaves, and broad pieces of bark:
the door is .nothing but a large hole at one end, oppofite to
which the fire is made, as we perceived by the allies, Under
thefe houfes, or fheds, they lleep, coiled up with their heels
to their head; and in this pofition one of them will hold
three or four perfons. As we advanced northward, and the
climate became warmer, we found thefe lheds ftill more
flight: they were built, like the others, of twigs, and covered
with bark; but none of them were more than four feet deep,
and one fide was intirely open: the clofe fide was always op-
pofed to the courfe of the: prevailing wind, and oppofite to
the open fide was the fire, probably more as a defence from
the mufquitos than the cold. Under thefe hovels it is probable,
that they thruft only their heads and. the upper part
of their bodies, extending their feet towards the fire. They-
were fet up occafionally by a wandering hord in any place
that would furnifh them for a time with fubfiftence, and
left behind them when, after it was exhaufted, they went
away: but in places where they remained only for a -night
or two, they flept without any fhelter, except the bullies or
grafs, which is here near two feet high. We obferved, however,
that though the fleeping huts which we found upon
the main, were always turned from the prevailing wind,:
thofe upon the illands were turned towards i t ; which feems
to be a proof that they have a mild feafon here, during which
the