A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 by Robert Kerr

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The sea in this country is much more liberal of food to the inhabitants
than the land; and though fish is not quite so plenty here as they
generally are in higher latitudes, yet we seldom hauled the seine
without taking from fifty to two hundred weight. They are of various
sorts; but, except the mullet, and some of the shell-fish, none of them
are known in Europe: Most of them are palatable, and some are very
delicious. Upon the shoals and reef there are incredible numbers of the
finest green turtle in the world, and oysters of various kinds,
particularly the rock-oyster and the pearl-oyster. The gigantic cockles
have been mentioned already; besides which, there are sea-crayfish, or
lobsters, and crabs: Of these, however, we saw only the shells. In the
rivers and salt creeks there are aligators.

The only person who has hitherto given any account of this country or
its inhabitants is Dampier, and though he is, in general, a writer of
credit, yet in many particulars he is mistaken. The people whom he saw
were indeed inhabitants of a part of the coast very distant from that
which we visited; but we also saw inhabitants upon parts of the coast
very distant from each other, and there being a perfect uniformity in
person and customs among them all, it is reasonable to conclude, that
distance in another direction has not considerably broken it.

The number of inhabitants in this country appears to be very small in
proportion to its extent. We never saw so many as thirty of them
together but once, and that was at Botany Bay, when men, women, and
children, assembled upon a rock to see the ship pass by: When they
manifestly formed a resolution to engage us, they never could muster
above fourteen or fifteen fighting men; and we never saw a number of
their sheds or houses together that could accommodate a larger party. It
is true, indeed, that we saw only the sea-coast on the eastern side; and
that, between this and the western shore, there is an immense tract of
country wholly unexplored: But there is great reason to believe that
this immense tract is either wholly desolate, or at least still more
thinly inhabited than the parts we visited. It is impossible that the
inland country should subsist inhabitants at all seasons without
cultivation; it is extremely improbable that the inhabitants of the
coast should be totally ignorant of arts of cultivation, which were
practised inland; and it is equally improbable that, if they knew such
arts, there should be no traces of them among them. It is certain that
we did not see one foot of ground in a state of cultivation in the whole
country; and therefore it may well be concluded that where the sea does
not contribute to feed the inhabitants, the country is not inhabited.

The only tribe with which we had any intercourse, we found where the
ship was careened; it consisted of one-and-twenty persons; twelve men,
seven women, one boy, and one girl: The women we never saw but at a
distance; for when the men came over the river they were always left
behind. The men here, and in other places, were of a middle size, and in
general well-made, clean-limbed, and remarkably vigorous, active, and
nimble: Their countenances were not altogether without expression, and
their voices were remarkably soft and effeminate.

Their skins were so uniformly covered with dirt, that it was very
difficult to ascertain their true colour: We made several attempts, by
wetting our fingers and rubbing it, to remove the incrustations, but
with very little effect. With the dirt they appear nearly as black as a
negro; and according to our best discoveries, the skin itself is of the
colour of wood-soot, or what is commonly called a chocolate-colour.
Their features are far from being disagreeable, their noses are not
flat, nor are their lips thick; their teeth are white and even, and
their hair naturally long and black, it is however universally cropped
short; in general it is straight, but sometimes it has a slight curl; we
saw none that was not matted and filthy, though without oil or grease,
and to our great astonishment free from lice. Their beards were of the
same colour with their hair, and bushy and thick: They are not however
suffered to grow long. A man whom we had seen one day with his beard
somewhat longer than his companions, we saw the next, with it somewhat
shorter, and upon examination found the ends of the hairs burnt: From
this incident, and our having never seen any sharp instrument among
them, we concluded that both the hair and the beard were kept short by
singeing them.[90]

[Footnote 90: It is somewhat curious that almost all savages entertain
an abhorrence at hair on any other part of the body than the head; and
some of them even to that. Two reasons, at least, may be assigned for
it, both of them, however, somewhat hypothetical, it must be owned. 1.
Their admiration of youth--the same principle which induces some
_civilized_ people to powder their heads, and _dye_ their whiskers, &c.
when assuming the silvery hue of age! And, 2. Their having learned by
experience that it rendered them more obnoxious to vermin and filth. The
hair of the head is one of the finest objects in human beauty, and as
such, probably in defiance of interlopers, has been generally saved in
its natural state, or made the basis of important decorations.--E.]

Both sexes, as I have already observed, go stark naked, and seem to have
no more sense of indecency in discovering the whole body, than we have
in discovering our hands and face. Their principal ornament is the bone
which they thrust through the cartilage that divides the nostrils from
each other: What perversion of taste could make them think this a
decoration, or what could prompt them, before they had worn it or seen
it worn, to suffer the pain and inconvenience that must of necessity
attend it, is perhaps beyond the power of human sagacity to determine:
As this bone is as thick as a man's finger, and between five and six
inches long, it reaches quite across the face, and so effectually stops
up both the nostrils that they are forced to keep their mouths wide open
for breath, and snuffle so when they attempt to speak, that they are
scarcely intelligible even to each other. Our seamen, with some humour,
called it their spritsail-yard; and indeed it had so ludicrous an
appearance, that till we were used to it, we found it difficult to
refrain from laughter.[91] Beside this nose-jewel, they had necklaces
made of shells, very neatly cut and strung together; bracelets of small
cord, wound two or three times about the upper part of their arm, and a
string of plaited human hair about as thick as a thread of yarn, tied
round the waist. Besides these, some of them had gorgets of shells
hanging round the neck, so as to reach cross the breast. But though
these people wear no clothes, their bodies have a covering besides the
dirt, for they paint them both white and red: The red is commonly laid
on in broad patches upon the shoulders and breast; and the white in
stripes, some narrow, and some broad: The narrow were drawn over the
limbs, and the broad over the body, not without some degree of taste.
The white was also laid on in small patches upon the face, and drawn in
a circle round each eye. The red seemed to be ochre, but what the white
was we could not discover; it was close-grained, saponaceous to the
touch, and almost as heavy as white lead; possibly 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 saw any thing worn
in them. Upon such ornaments as they had, they set so great a value,
that they would never part with the least article for any thing we could
offer; which was the more extraordinary as our beads and ribbons were
ornaments of the same kind, but of a more regular form and more showy
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 understand our signs when we required a return. The same
indifference which prevented them from buying what we had, prevented
them also from attempting to steal: If they had coveted more, they would
have been less honest; for when we refused to give them a turtle, they
were enraged, and attempted to take it by force, and we had nothing
else upon which they seemed to set the least value; for, as I have
observed before, many of the things that we had given them, we found
left negligently about in the woods, like the playthings of children,
which please only while they are new. Upon their bodies we saw no marks
of disease or sores, but large scars in irregular lines, which appeared
to be the remains of wounds which they had inflicted upon themselves
with some blunt instrument, and which we understood by signs to have
been memorials of grief for the dead.[92]

[Footnote 91: Other people, we know, have a fancy for such ornaments.
According to Captain Carver's account of some of the North American
Indians, "it is a common custom among them to bore their noses, and wear
in them pendants of different sorts." And more instances might be
mentioned. But we shall have occasion hereafter to speak of some
remarkable modes in which the love of distinction and ornament manifests
itself The very same principle leads human nature to embellish itself
from the "crown of the head to the sole of the foot." One's own dear
self is so lovely as to become every sort of ornament that ingenuity can
contrive!--E.]

[Footnote 92: It might be worth one's while to enquire as to the
prevalency of this practice amongst different people, and whether or not
it is in general connected with any peculiarities of religious belief.
That it was in use in early times, is certain, for we find a prohibition
against it in the Mosaic code, Deut. xiv. 1. and an allusion to it in
Jerem. xvi. 6. Mr Harmer, who has some observations on the subject,
seems to be of opinion that the expression used in Deuteronomy, _the
dead_, means _idols_, and that the practice accordingly was rather of a
religious nature. But the language of the prophet in the verse alluded
to, does not fall in with such a notion. Cicero speaks contemptuously of
such modes of mourning for the dead, calling them _varie et detestabilia
genera lugendi_. Tusc. Quaest. 3.--E.]

They appeared to have no fixed habitations, for we saw nothing like a
town or village in the whole country. Their houses, if houses they may
be called, seem to be formed with less art and industry than any we had
seen, except the wretched hovels at Terra del Fuego, and in some
respects they are inferior even to them. At Botany Bay, where they were
best, they were just high enough for a man to sit upright in; but not
large enough for him to extend himself in his whole length in any
direction: They are built with pliable rods about as thick as a man's
finger, in the form of an oven, by sticking 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, opposite to which
the fire is made, as we perceived by the ashes. Under these houses, or
sheds, they sleep, coiled up with their heels to their head; and in
this position one of them will hold three or four persons. As we
advanced northward, and the climate became warmer, we found these sheds
still more slight: They were built, like the others, of twigs, and
covered with bark; but none of them were more than four feet deep, and
one side was entirely open: The close side was always opposed to the
course of the prevailing wind, and opposite to the open side was the
fire, probably more as a defence from the musquitos than the cold. Under
these hovels it is probable, that they thrust only their heads and the
upper part of their bodies, extending their feet towards the fire. They
were set up occasionally by a wandering horde in any place that would
furnish them for a time with subsistence, and left behind them when,
after it was exhausted, they went away: But in places where they
remained only for a night or two, they slept without any shelter, except
the bushes or grass, which is here near two feet high. We observed,
however, that though the sleeping huts which we found upon the main,
were always turned from the prevailing wind, those upon the islands were
turned towards it; which seems to be a proof that they have a mild
season here, during which the sea is calm, and that the same weather
which enables them to visit the islands, makes the air welcome even
while they sleep.

The only furniture belonging to these houses that fell under our
observation, is a kind of oblong vessel made of bark, by the simple
contrivance of tying up the two ends with a withy, which not being cut
off serves for a handle; these we imagined were used as buckets to fetch
water from the spring, which may be supposed sometimes to be at a
considerable distance. They have however a small bag, about the size of
a moderate cabbage-net, which is made by laying threads loop within
loop, somewhat in the manner of knitting used by our ladies to make
purses. This bag the man carries loose upon his back by a small string
which passes over his head; it generally contains a lump or two of paint
and resin, some fish-books and lines, a shell or two, out of which their
hooks are made, a few points of darts, and their usual ornaments, which
includes the whole worldly treasure of the richest man among them.

Their fish-hooks are very neatly made, and some of them are exceedingly
small. For striking turtle they have a peg of wood which is about a
foot long, and very well bearded; this fits into a socket at the end of
a staff of light wood, about as thick as a man's wrist, and about seven
or eight feet long: To the staff is tied one end of a loose line about
three or four fathom long, the other end of which is fastened to the
peg. To strike the turtle, the peg is fixed into the socket, and when it
has entered his body, and is retained there by the barb, the staff flies
off and serves for a float to trace their victim in the water; it
assists also to tire him, till they can overtake him with their canoes,
and haul him ashore. One of these pegs, as I have mentioned already, we
found buried in the body of a turtle, which had healed up over it. Their
lines are from the thickness of a half-inch rope to the fineness of a
hair, and are made of some vegetable substance, but what in particular
we had no opportunity to learn.

Their food is chiefly fish, though they sometimes contrive to kill the
kangaroo, and even birds of various kinds; notwithstanding they are so
shy that we found it difficult to get within reach of them with a
fowling-piece. The only vegetable that can be considered as an article
of food is the yam; yet doubtless they eat the several fruits which have
been mentioned among other productions of the country; and indeed we saw
the shells and hulls of several of them lying about the places where
they had kindled their fire.

They do not appear to eat any animal food raw; but having no vessel in
which water can be boiled, they either broil it upon the coals, or bake
it in a hole by the help of hot stones, in the same manner as is
practised by the inhabitants of the islands in the South Seas.

Whether they are acquainted with any plant that has an intoxicating
quality, we do not know; but we observed that several of them held
leaves of some sort constantly in their mouths, as an European does
tobacco, and an East-Indian betele; we never saw the plant, but when
they took it from their mouths at our request; possibly it might be a
species of the betele, but whatever it was, it had no effect upon the
teeth or lips.

As they have no nets, they catch fish only by striking, or with a hook
and line, except such as they find in the hollows of the rocks, and
shoals, which are dry at half-ebb.

Their manner of hunting we had no opportunity to see; but we
conjectured, by the notches which they had every where cut in large
trees in order to climb them, that they took their station near the tops
of them, and there watched for such animals as might happen to pass near
enough to be reached by their lances: It is possible also, that in this
situation they might take birds when they came to roost.

I have observed that when they went from our tents upon the banks of
Endeavour River, we could trace them by the fires which they kindled in
their way; and we imagined that these fires were intended some way for
the taking the kangaroo, which we observed to be so much afraid of fire,
that our dogs could scarcely force it over places which had been newly
burnt, though the fire was extinguished.

They produce fire with great facility, and spread it in a wonderful
manner. To produce it they take two pieces of dry soft wood, one is a
stick about eight or nine inches long, the other piece is flat: The
stick they shape into an obtuse point at one end, and pressing it upon
the other, turn it nimbly by holding it between both their hands as we
do a chocolate mill, often shifting their hands up, and then moving them
down upon it, to increase the pressure as much as possible. By this
method they get fire in less than two minutes, and from the smallest
spark they increase it with great speed and dexterity. We have often
seen one of them run along the shore, to all appearance with nothing in
his hand, who stooping down for a moment, at the distance of every fifty
or a hundred yards, left fire behind him, as we could see first by the
smoke and then by the flame among the drift-wood, and other litter which
was scattered along the place. We had the curiosity to examine one of
these planters of fire, when he set off, and we saw him wrap up a small
spark in dry grass, which, when he had run a little way, having been
fanned by the air that his motion produced, began to blaze; he then laid
it down in a place convenient for, his purpose, inclosing a spark of it
in another quantity of grass, and so continued his course.

There are perhaps few things in the history of mankind more
extraordinary than the discovery and application of fire: It will
scarcely be disputed that the manner of producing it, whether by
collision or attrition, was discovered by chance: But its first effects
would naturally strike those to whom it was a new object, with
consternation and terror: It would appear to be an enemy to life and
nature, and to torment and destroy whatever was capable of being
destroyed or tormented; and therefore it seems not easy to conceive
what should incline those who first saw it receive a transient existence
from chance, to reproduce it by design. It is by no means probable that
those who first saw fire, approached it with the same caution, as those
who are familiar with its effects, so as to be warmed only and not
burnt; and it is reasonable to think that the intolerable pain which, at
its first appearance, it must produce upon ignorant curiosity, would sow
perpetual enmity between this element and mankind; and that the same
principle which incites them to crush a serpent, would incite them to
destroy fire, and avoid all means by which it would be produced, as soon
as they were known. These circumstances considered, how men became
sufficiently familiar with it to render it useful, seems to be a problem
very difficult to solve: Nor is it easy to account for the first
application of it to culinary purposes, as the eating both animal and
vegetable food raw, must have become a habit, before there was fire to
dress it, and those who have considered the force of habit will readily
believe, that to men who had always eaten the flesh of animals raw, it
would be as disagreeable dressed, as to those who have always eaten it
dressed, it would be raw. It is remarkable that the inhabitants of Terra
del Fuego produce fire from a spark by collision, and that the happier
natives of this country, New Zealand and Otaheite, produce it by the
attrition of one combustible substance against another: Is there not
then some reason to suppose that these different operations correspond
with the manner in which chance produced fire in the neighbourhood of
the torrid and frigid zones? Among the rude inhabitants of a cold
country, neither any operation of art, or occurrence of accident, could
be supposed so easily to produce fire by attrition, as in a climate
where every thing is hot, dry, and adust, teeming with a latent fire
which a slight degree of motion was sufficient to call forth; in a cold
country therefore, it is natural to suppose that fire was produced by
the accidental collision of two metallic substances, and in a cold
country, for that reason, the same expedient was used to produce it by
design: But in hot countries, where two combustible substances easily
kindle by attrition, it is probable that the attrition of such
substances first produced fire, and here it was therefore natural for
art to adopt the same operation, with a view to produce the same effect.
It may indeed be true that fire is now produced in many cold countries
by attrition, and in many hot by a stroke; but perhaps upon enquiry
there may appear reason to conclude that this has arisen from the
communication of one country with another, and that with respect to the
original production of fire in hot and cold countries, the distinction
is well founded.

There may perhaps be some reason to suppose that men became gradually
acquainted with the nature and effects of fire, by its permanent
existence in a volcano, there being remains of volcanoes, or vestiges of
their effects, in almost every part of the world: By a volcano, however,
no method of producing fire, otherwise than by contact, could be learnt;
the production and application of fire therefore, still seem to afford
abundant subject of speculation to the curious.[93]

[Footnote 93: Mr Jones, who writes on this subject in one of his
Physiological Disquisitions, is not a little displeased with some of the
observations made here, which seem to imply that mankind were left
destitute of the knowledge of fire, and had to acquire it by mere
accidental notice.--Mr Jones's zeal, however, appears more conspicuous
in this matter than either his judgment or his acquaintance with the
remarks of various authors. President Goguet has shewn his usual
industry in this matter. He refers to a considerable number of authors
for proof that the knowledge of fire was by no means very extensive
among the early nations, and that even where it existed, it had been
often discovered by accident. A summary of what this excellent writer
has said on the subject, with a quotation or two, cannot fail to be
interesting to the reader, and will scarcely run any risk of being
judged either ill-timed or tedious. The Chinese, Persians, Egyptians,
Phoenicians, Greeks, and several other nations, admit that their
ancestors were once without the use of fire. This is said on the
authority of Plato, Diodorus Siculus, Sanchoniathon, authors mentioned
by Bannier, as Hesiod, Lucretius, Virgil, &c. &c. And we learn from
Pomponius Mela, Pliny, Plutarch, and others, that in their times there
were nations who were either quite ignorant of fire, or had but just
learned its nature and effects. These authorities are strengthened by
what has been related of people discovered in modern times. Thus the
inhabitants of the Marian or Ladrone Islands, and also of the Philippine
and Canaries, are said to have been without this knowledge, at the time
of their discovery. We are told besides of several nations in America
and Africa being in the same state of ignorance. As to these, however,
it is but fair to apprize the reader, that the authorities adduced by
the President are not such as can be implicitly relied on--a remark,
perhaps, which some readers will not fail to apply to certain of the
writers formerly mentioned. The Egyptians owed their knowledge of fire
to thunder and lightning; the Phoenicians to the effect of the wind on
woods and forests; volcanos, burning earth, (as in a province of Persia)
and boiling wells (frequent in several countries), gave rise to this
knowledge amongst other people. "We may form very probable conjectures
about the methods which men at first used to procure fire, when they had
occasion for it, from ancient traditions, and from the present practices
of the savages. They could not be long in discovering, that by striking
two flints each against other, there went sparks from them:" "They
remarked, that by rubbing two pieces of hard wood very strongly against
each other, they raised sparks; nay, that by rubbing for some time two
pieces of wood, they raised flame." "The Chinese say that one of their
first kings taught them this latter method; and the Greeks had nearly
the same tradition." This method, we learn from Lawson, was in use
amongst the natives of Carolina, before they became acquainted, with the
use of steel and flints. "They got their fire," says he, "with sticks,
which by vehement collision, or rubbing together, take fire." "You are
to understand," he adds, "that the two sticks they use to strike fire
withal, are never of one sort of wood, but always differ from each
other." Indeed it is probable that this method has been very generally
practised. Seneca makes mention of it in the 2d book, chap. 22. of his
Nat. Quaest., and he specifies some of the kinds of wood known by the
shepherds to be fit for the purpose, "_sicut lauris, hederae, et alia in
hunc usum nota pastoribus_." This is noticed by Mr Jones, who gives it
as his opinion that the _lauris_, here spoken of, is the bay-tree,
which, according to the poet Lucretius, is remarkable for its
inflammability. The reader may desire to see the opinion of Mr Jones as
to the origin of man's acquaintance with fire.--It is certainly worthy
of consideration, and supposing it restricted to the parent of our race,
and his immediate offspring, may be held with no small confidence. It
embraces indeed a wider field than can possibly be investigated in this
place. "The first family," says he, "placed by the Creator upon this
earth, offered sacrifices; which being an article of religious duty,
they were certainly possessed of the means of performing it, and
consequently of the knowledge and use of fire, without which it could
not be practised. The next generation presents us with artificers in
brass and iron, which could not possibly be wrought without the complete
knowledge of fire; neither indeed could any works of art be well carried
on. The account of this affair in the Bible is much more natural,
because it is much more agreeable to the goodness of God, and the
dignity of the human species, than to suppose, on the principles of a
wild and savage philosophy (alluding to Dr Hawkesworth's poor
conjectures, as Mr Jones styles them), that men were left ignorant of
the use of an element intended for their accommodation and support. To
interdict a man from the use of fire and water, was accounted the same
in effect as to send him out of life; so that if men, upon the original
terms of their creation, were thus interdicted by the Creator himself,
as the Heathen mythologists supposed them to be, they were sent into
life upon such terms as others were sent out of it. If we admit any such
gloomy suppositions, where shall we stop? If mankind were left destitute
in respect to the knowledge of fire, perhaps they were left without
language, without food, without clothing, without reason, and in a worse
condition than the beasts, who are born with the proper knowledge of
life, but man receives it by education; therefore he who taught the
beasts by instinct, taught man by information." Much might be said for
and against this mode of reasoning, which this place, already so fully
occupied, will not admit. The history of fire is involved in
difficulties, and has really obtained less attention from men of
learning than it deserves. Probably, on appointing the rites of
sacrifice, which there is reason to believe was immediately after the
first gracious promise to Adam, God testified his acceptance of the
offering by fire from heaven, which was the beginning of man's
acquaintance with it, and in this manner it is certain God afterwards
shewed his approbation.--E.]