A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Xiii Part 18

The island that forms the streight or channel through which we had pa.s.sed, lies about four miles without these, which, except two, are very small: The southermost is the largest, and much higher than any part of the main land. On the north-west side of this island there appeared to be good anchorage, and on sh.o.r.e, vallies that promised both wood and water. These islands are distinguished in the chart by the name of _York Isles_. To the southward, and south-east, and even to the eastward and northward of them, there are several other low islands, rocks, and shoals: Our depth of water in sailing between them and the main, was twelve, thirteen, and fourteen fathom.

We stood along the sh.o.r.e to the westward, with a gentle breeze at S.E.

by S., and when we had advanced between three and four miles, we discovered the land ahead, which, when we first saw it, we took for the main, to be islands detached from it by several channels: Upon this we sent away the boats, with proper instructions, to lead us through that channel which was next the main; but soon after discovering rocks and shoals in this channel, I made a signal for the boats to go through the next channel to the northward, which lay between these islands, leaving some of them between us and the main: The s.h.i.+p followed, and had never less than five fathom water in the narrowest part of the channel, where the distance from island to island was about one mile and a half.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, we anch.o.r.ed, being about a mile and a half, or two miles, within the entrance, in six fathom and a half, with clear ground: The channel here had begun to widen, and the islands on each side of us were distant about a mile: The main-land stretched away to the S.W., the farthest point in view bore S. 48 W., and the southermost point of the islands, on the north-west side of the pa.s.sage, bore S. 76 W. Between these two points we could see no land, so that we conceived hopes of having, at last, found a pa.s.sage into the Indian sea; however, that I might be able to determine with more certainty, I resolved to land upon the island which lies at the south-east point of the pa.s.sage. Upon this island we had seen many of the inhabitants when we first came to an anchor, and when I went into the boat, with a party of men, accompanied by Mr Banks and Dr Solander, in order to go ash.o.r.e, we saw ten of them upon a hill: Nine of them were armed with such lances as we had been used to see, and the tenth had a bow, and a bundle of arrows, which we had never seen in the possession of the natives of this country before: We also observed, that two of them had large ornaments of mother-of-pearl hanging round their necks. Three of these, one of whom was the bowman, placed themselves upon the beach abreast of us, and we expected that they would have opposed our landing, but when we came within about a musket's shot of the beach, they walked leisurely away. We immediately climbed the highest hill, which was not more than three times as high as the mast-head, and the most barren of any we had seen. From this hill, no land could be seen between the S.W. and W.S.W., so that I had no doubt of finding a channel through. The land to the north-west of it consisted of a great number of islands of various extent, and different heights, ranged one behind another, as far to the northward and westward as I could see, which could not be less than thirteen leagues. As I was now about to quit the eastern coast of New Holland, which I had coasted from lat.i.tude 38 to this place, and which I am confident no European had ever seen before, I once more hoisted English colours, and though I had already taken possession of several particular parts, I now took possession of the whole eastern coast, from lat.i.tude 38 to this place, lat.i.tude 10 1/2 S. in right of his Majesty King George the Third, by the name of _New South Wales_, with all the bays, harbours, rivers, and islands situated upon it: We then fired three vollies of small arms, which were answered by the same number from the s.h.i.+p. Having performed this ceremony upon the island, which we called _Possession Island_, we re-embarked in our boat, but a rapid ebb-tide setting N.E. made our return to the vessel very difficult and tedious. From the time of our last coming among the shoals, we constantly found a moderate tide, the flood setting to the N.W. and the ebb to the S.E. At this place, it is high water at the full and change of the moon, about one or two o'clock, and the water rises and falls perpendicularly about twelve feet. We saw smoke rising in many places from the adjacent lands and islands, as we had done upon every part of the coast, after our last return to it through the reef.

We continued at anchor all night, and between seven and eight o'clock in the morning, we saw three or four of the natives upon the beach gathering sh.e.l.l-fish; we discovered, by the help of our gla.s.ses, that they were women, and, like all the other inhabitants of this country, stark naked. At low water, which happened about ten o'clock, we got under sail, and stood to the S.W. with a light breeze at E. which afterwards veered to N. by E.: Our depth of water was from six to ten fathom, except in one place, where we had but five. At noon, Possession Island bore N. 53 E., distant four leagues, the western extremity of the main-land in sight bore S. 43 W., distant between four and five leagues, and appeared to be extremely low, the south-west point of the largest island on the north-west side of the pa.s.sage bore N. 71 W., distant eight miles, and this point I called _Cape Cornwall_. It lies in lat.i.tude 10 43'S., longitude 219 W.; and some lowlands that lie about the middle of the pa.s.sage, which I called _Wallis's Isles_, bore W. by S. 1/2 S., distant about two leagues: Our lat.i.tude, by observation, was 10 46' S. We continued to advance with the tide of flood W.N.W. having little wind, and from eight to five fathom water. At half an hour after one, the pinnace, which was a-head, made the signal for shoal-water, upon which we tacked, and sent away the yawl to sound also: We then tacked again, and stood after them: In about two hours, they both made the signal for shoal-water, and the tide being nearly at its greatest height, I was afraid to stand on, as running aground at that time might be fatal; I therefore came to an anchor in somewhat less than seven fathom, sandy ground. Wallis's Islands bore S. by W. 1/2 W., distant five or six miles, the islands to the northward extended from S. 73 E.

to N. 10 E., and a small island, which was just in sight, bore N.W. 1/2 W. Here we found the flood-tide set to the westward, and the ebb to the eastward.

After we had come to an anchor, I sent away the master in the long-boat to sound, who, upon his return in the evening, reported that there was a bank stretching north, and south, upon which there were but three fathom, and that beyond it there were seven. About this time it fell calm, and continued so till nine the next morning, when we weighed with a light breeze at S.S.E.; and steered N.W. by W. for the small island which was just in sight, having first sent the boats a-head to sound: The depth of water was eight, seven, six, five, and four fathom, and three fathom upon the bank, it being now the last quarter ebb. At this time, the northermost island in sight bore N. 9 E., Cape Cornwall E., distant three leagues, and Wallis's Isles S. 3 E., distant three leagues. This bank, at least so much as we have sounded, extends nearly N. and S., but to what distance I do not know: Its breadth is not more than half a mile at the utmost. When we had got over the bank, we deepened our water to six fathom three quarters, and had the same depth all the way to the small island a-head, which we reached by noon, when it bore S., distant about half a mile. Our depth of water was now five fathom, and the northermost land in sight, which is part of the same chain of islands that we had seen to the northward from the time of our first entering the streight, bore N. 71 E. Our lat.i.tude by observation was 10 33' S., and our longitude 219 22' W.: In this situation no part of the main was in sight. As we were now near the island, and had but little wind, Mr Banks and I landed upon it, and found it, except a few patches of wood, to be a barren rock, the haunt of birds, which had frequented it in such numbers as to make the surface almost uniformly white with their dung: Of these birds the greater part seemed to be b.o.o.bies, and I therefore called the place _b.o.o.by Island_. After a short stay, we returned to the s.h.i.+p, and in the mean time the wind had got to the S.W.; it was but a gentle breeze, yet it was accompanied by a swell from the same quarter, which, with other circ.u.mstances, confirmed my opinion that we were got to the westward of Carpentaria, or the northern extremity of New Holland, and had now an open sea to the westward, which gave me great satisfaction, not only because the dangers and fatigues of the voyage were drawing to an end, but because it would no longer be a doubt whether New Holland and New Guinea were two separate islands, or different parts of the same.[86]

[Footnote 86: Here it may be proper to introduce a paragraph from M.

Peron's Historical Relation of a Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Islands, as presented to the Imperial Inst.i.tute in June 1806. It will show his conception of the difficulties attendant on navigating these parts: "In fact, it is not in voyages on the high seas, however long they may be, that adverse circ.u.mstances or s.h.i.+pwrecks are so much to be dreaded; those, on the contrary, along unknown sh.o.r.es and barbarous coasts, at every instant present new difficulties to encounter, with perpetual dangers. Those difficulties and dangers, the woeful appendage of all expeditions begun for the purposes of geographic detail, were of more imminent character from the nature of the coasts we had to explore; for no country has. .h.i.therto been discovered more difficult to reconnoitre than New Holland, and all the voyages of any extent made for the purpose in this point, have been marked either by reverses or infructuous attempts. For example, Paliser on the western coast was one of the first victims of these sh.o.r.es; Vlaming speaks of wrecks by which Rottnest island was covered when he landed there in 1697; and we ourselves observed others of much more recent date. Captain Dampier, notwithstanding his intrepidity and experience, could not preserve his vessel from grounding when on the northwest coast of this continent, a coast already famous for the s.h.i.+pwreck of Vianin; on the east, Bougainville, menaced with destruction, was constrained to precipitate flight; Cook escaped by a kind of miracle, the rock which pierced his s.h.i.+p remaining in the breach it made, and alone preventing it from sinking; on the south-west, Vancouver and D'Entrecasteaux were not more fortunate in their several plans of completing its geography, and the French admiral nearly lost both his s.h.i.+ps. Towards the south, but a few years have elapsed since the discovery of Ba.s.s's Straits, and already the major part of the islands of this strait is strewed with the wrecks of s.h.i.+ps; very recently, and almost before our face, I may say, the French s.h.i.+p Enterprize was dashed to pieces against the dangerous islands which close its eastern opening. The relation of our voyage, and the dangers incurred, will still farther demonstrate the perils of this navigation; and the loss of the two vessels of Captain Flinders, sent by the English government to compete with us, will but too clearly furnish a new and lamentable evidence. The circ.u.mstance of Cook's escape, we see, is allowed its due impression on the mind of this gentleman. It is very probable that had Dr Hawkesworth himself ever been in such critical perils, and experienced any thing like such a remarkable deliverance, the placidity of his principles would have given way to more lively emotions. The deductions of reason, it is certain, are not unusually at variance with the instantaneous, but perhaps more real and genuine productions of our feelings, which it is the cant of modern days to denominate the lower parts of our const.i.tution.--E.]

The north-east entrance of this pa.s.sage or streight lies in the lat.i.tude of 10 39' S., and in the longitude of 218 36' W. It is formed by the main, or the northern extremity of New Holland, on the S.E., and by a congeries of islands, which I called the _Prince of Wales's Islands_, to the N.W., and it is probable that these islands extend quite to New Guinea. They differ very much both in height and circuit, and many of them seemed to be well clothed with herbage and wood: Upon most, if not all of them, we saw smoke, and therefore there can be no doubt of their being inhabited: It is also probable, that among them there are at least as good pa.s.sages as that we came through, perhaps better, though better would not need to be desired, if the access to it from the eastward were less dangerous: That a less dangerous access may be discovered, I think there is little reason to doubt, and to find it, little more seems to be necessary than to determine how far the princ.i.p.al, or outer reef, which bounds the shoals to the eastward, extends towards the north, which I would not have left to future navigators if I had been less hara.s.sed by danger and fatigue, and had had a s.h.i.+p in better condition for the purpose.

To this channel, or pa.s.sage, I have given the name of the s.h.i.+p, and called it _Endeavour Streights_. Its length from N.E. to S.W. is ten leagues, and it is about five leagues broad, except at the north-east entrance, where it is somewhat less than two miles, being contracted by the islands which lie there. That which I called Possession Island is of a moderate height and circuit, and this we left between us and the main, pa.s.sing between it and two small round islands which lie about two miles to the N.W. of it. The two small islands, which I called Wallis's Islands, lie in the middle of the south-west entrance, and these we left to the southward. Our depth of water in the streight was from four to nine fathom, with every where good anchorage, except upon the bank, which lies two leagues to the northward of Wallis's Islands, where at low water there are but three fathom: For a more particular knowledge of this streight, and of the situations of the several islands and shoals on the eastern coast of New Wales, I refer to the chart where they are delineated with all the accuracy that circ.u.mstances would admit; yet, with respect to the shoals, I cannot pretend that one half of them are laid down, nor can it be supposed possible that one half of them should be discovered in the course of a single navigation: Many islands also must have escaped my pencil, especially between lat.i.tude 20 and 22, where we saw islands out at sea as far as an island could be distinguished; it must not therefore be supposed, by future navigators, that where no shoal or island is laid down in my chart, no shoal or island will be found in these seas: It is enough that the situation of those that appear in the chart is faithfully ascertained, and, in general, I have the greatest reason to hope that it will be found as free from error as any that has not been corrected by subsequent and successive observations. The lat.i.tudes and longitudes of all, or most of the princ.i.p.al head-lands and bays, may be confided in, for we seldom failed of getting an observation once at least every day, by which to correct the lat.i.tude of our reckoning, and observations for settling the longitude were equally numerous, no opportunity that was offered by the sun and moon being suffered to escape. It would be injurious to the memory of Mr Green, not to take this opportunity of attesting that he was indefatigable both in making observations and calculating upon them; and that, by his instructions and a.s.sistance, many of the petty officers were enabled both to observe and calculate with great exactness. This method of finding the longitude at sea may be put into universal practice, and may always be depended upon within half a degree, which is sufficient for all nautical purposes. If, therefore, observing and calculating were considered as necessary qualifications for every sea officer, the labours of the speculative theorist to solve this problem might be remitted, without much injury to mankind: Neither will it be so difficult to acquire this qualification, or put it in practice, as may at first appear; for, with the a.s.sistance of the nautical almanack, and astronomical ephemeris, the calculations for finding the longitude will take up little more time than the calculation of an azimuth for finding the variation of the compa.s.s.[87]

[Footnote 87: Reference is made above to Cook's large chart, which of course could not be given here with advantage corresponding to the expence of engraving it. This omission is of less moment, as the chart that accompanies the work is quite sufficient for general readers; and as any additional one that may be afterwards given, must derive much of its value from the labours of Cook. Important aids have been afforded the navigator since the date of this publication; and the two great problems in nautical astronomy, viz. the deducing the longitude from lunar distances, and the lat.i.tude from two alt.i.tudes of the sun, have been brought within the reach of every one who is in full possession of elementary arithmetic. See a Collection of Tables for those important, purposes, by Joseph de Mendoza Rios, published at London, 1806,--an account of which is given in the Edinburgh Review, vol. viii. p. 451.]

SECTION x.x.xIII.

_Departure from New South Wales; a particular Description of the Country, its Products, and People: A Specimen of the Language, and some Observations upon the Currents and Tides_.[88]

[Footnote 88: All these particulars will be more fully ill.u.s.trated hereafter. The present account is certainly imperfect, but it has its value; and it could not have been omitted without some disparagement to the original work, and some loss of interest to the reader. It is worth while to possess all the histories, and more especially the original ones, of a country like New Holland, which, its extent, position, and nature, as well as some peculiar contingencies, are likely to render more and more conspicuous in the records of mankind. There is another reason for wis.h.i.+ng to retain the account now given, and which would not apply to any equally imperfect one of any other country or people where civilization had made greater progress. Dr Robertson, referring to this very description, says, "This perhaps is the country where man has been discovered in the earliest stage of his progress, and it exhibits a miserable specimen of his condition and powers in the uncultivated state. If this country shall be more fully explored by future navigators, the comparison of the manners of its inhabitants, with those of the Americans, will prove an instructive article in the history of the human species,"--Note 33, in the ninth volume of his works. What was held as a desideratum by this historian, has been accomplished in so far as additional materials are concerned: How far it has been so in a philosophical point of view, may be afterwards considered.--E.]

Of this country, its products and its people, many particulars have already been related in the course of the narrative, being so interwoven with the events as not to admit of a separation. I shall now give a more full and circ.u.mstantial description of each, in which, if some things should happen to be repeated, the greater part will be found new. New Holland, or, as I have now called the eastern coast, New South Wales, is of a larger extent than any other country in the known world that does not bear the name of a continent: The length of coast along which we sailed, reduced to a straight line, is no less than twenty-seven degrees of lat.i.tude, amounting to near 2000 miles, so that its square surface must be much more than equal to all Europe. To the southward of 33 or 34, the land in general is low and level; farther northward it is hilly, but in no part can be called mountainous; and the hills and mountains, taken together, make but a small part of the surface, in comparison with the vallies and plains. It is, upon the whole, rather barren than fertile, yet the rising ground is chequered by woods and lawns, and the plains and vallies are in many places covered with herbage: The soil, however, is frequently sandy, and many of the lawns, or savannahs, are rocky and barren, especially to the northward, where, in the best spots, vegetation was less vigorous than in the southern part of the country; the trees were not so tall, nor was the herbage so rich. The gra.s.s in general is high, but thin, and the trees, where they are largest, are seldom less than forty feet asunder; nor is the country inland, as far as we could examine it, better clothed than the sea coast. The banks of the bays are covered with mangroves to the distance of a mile within the beach, under which the soil is a rank mud, that is always overflowed by a spring tide; farther in the country we sometimes met with a bog, upon which the gra.s.s was very thick and luxuriant, and sometimes with a valley that was clothed with underwood: The soil in some parts seemed to be capable of improvement, but the far greater part is such as can admit of no cultivation. The coast, at least that part of it which lies to the northward of 25 S., abounds with fine bays and harbours, where vessels may lie in perfect security from all winds.

If we may judge by the appearance of the country while we were there, which was in the very height of the dry season, it is well watered. We found innumerable small brooks and springs, but no great rivers; these brooks, however, probably become large in the rainy season. Thirsty Sound was the only place where fresh water was not to be procured for the s.h.i.+p, and even there, one or two small pools were found in the woods, though the face of the country was every where intersected by salt-creeks and mangrove-land.

Of trees there is no great variety. Of those that could be called timber, there are but two sorts; the largest is the gum-tree, which grows all over the country, and has been mentioned already: It has narrow leaves, not much unlike a willow; and the gum, or rather resin, which it yields, is of a deep red, and resembles the _sanguis draconis_; possibly it may be the same, for this substance is known to be the produce of more than one plant. It is mentioned by Dampier, and is perhaps the same that Tasman found upon Diemen's Land, where he says he saw "gum of the trees, and gum lac of the ground." The other timber tree is that which grows somewhat like our pines, and has been particularly mentioned in the account of Botany Bay. The wood of both these trees, as I have before remarked, is extremely hard and heavy.

Besides these, here are trees covered with a soft bark that is easily peeled off, and is the same that in the East Indies is used for the caulking of s.h.i.+ps.

We found here the palm of three different sorts. The first, which grows in great plenty to the southward, has leaves that are plaited like a fan: The cabbage of these is small, but exquisitely sweet; and the nuts, which it bears in great abundance, are very good food for hogs. The second sort bore a much greater resemblance to the true cabbage-tree of the West Indies: Its leaves were large and pinnated, like those of the cocoa-nut; and these also produced a cabbage, which, though not so sweet as the other, was much larger. The third sort, which, like the second, was found only in the northern parts, was seldom more than ten feet high, with small pinnated leaves, resembling those of some kind of fern: It bore no cabbage, but a plentiful crop of nuts, about the size of a large chesnut, but rounder. As we found the hulls of these scattered round the places where the Indians had made their fires, we took for granted that they were fit to eat; those however who made the experiment paid dear for their knowledge of the contrary, for they operated both as an emetic and cathartic with great violence. Still, however, we made no doubt but that they were eaten by the Indians; and judging that the const.i.tution of the hogs might be as strong as theirs, though our own had proved to be so much inferior, we carried them to the stye: The hogs eat them, indeed, and for some time we thought without suffering any inconvenience; but in about a week they were so much disordered that two of them died, and the rest were recovered with great difficulty. It is probable, however, that the poisonous quality of these nuts may lie in the juice, like that of the ca.s.sada of the West Indies; and that the pulp, when dried, may be not only wholesome, but nutricious. Besides these species of the palm, and mangroves, there were several small trees and shrubs altogether unknown in Europe; particularly one which produced a very poor kind of fig; another that bore what we called a plum, which it resembled in colour, but not in shape, being flat on the sides like a little cheese; and a third that bore a kind of purple apple, which, after it had been kept a few days, became eatable, and tasted somewhat like a damascene.

Here is a great variety of plants to enrich the collection of a botanist, but very few of them are of the esculent kind. A small plant, with long, narrow, gra.s.sy leaves, resembling that kind of bulrush which in England is called the Cat's-tail, yields a resin of a bright yellow colour, exactly resembling gambouge, except that it does not stain: It has a sweet smell, but its properties we had no opportunity to discover, any more than those of many others with which the natives appear to be acquainted, as they have distinguished them by names.

I have already mentioned the root and leaves of a plant resembling the coccos of the West Indies, and a kind of bean; to which may be added, a sort of parsley and purselain, and two kinds of yams; one shaped like a radish, and the other round, and covered with stringy fibres: Both sorts are very small, but sweet; and we never could find the plants that produced them, though we often saw the places where they had been newly dug up: It is probable that the drought had destroyed the leaves, and we could not, like the Indians, discover them by the stalks.

Most of the fruits of this country, such as they are, have been mentioned already. We found one in the southern part of the country resembling a cherry, except that the stone was soft; and another not unlike a pine-apple in appearance, but of a very disagreeable taste, which is well known in the East Indies, and is called by the Dutch _Pyn Appel Boomen_.

Of the quadrupeds, I have already mentioned the dog, and particularly described the kangaroo, and the animal of the opossum kind, resembling the phalanger of Buffon; to which I can add only one more, resembling a pole-cat, which the natives call _Quoll_: The back is brown, spotted with white, and the belly white unmixed. Several of our people said they had seen wolves; but perhaps, if we had not seen tracks that favoured the account, we might have thought them little more worthy of credit than he who reported that he had seen the devil.

Of batts, which hold a middle place between the beasts and the birds, we saw many kinds, particularly one which, as I have observed already, was larger than a partridge: We were not fortunate enough to take one either alive or dead, but it was supposed to be the same as Buffon has described by the name of _Rouset_ or _Rouget_.

The sea and other water-fowl of this country, are gulls, s.h.a.gs, soland geese, or gannets, of two sorts, b.o.o.bies, noddies, curlieus, ducks, pelicans of an enormous size, and many others. The land-birds, are crows, parrots, paroquets, c.o.c.katoos, and other birds of the same kind, of exquisite beauty; pigeons, doves, quails, bustards, herons, cranes, hawks, and eagles. The pigeons flew in numerous flocks, so that, notwithstanding their extreme shyness, our people frequently killed ten or twelve of them in a day: These birds are very beautiful, and crested very differently from any we had seen before.

Among other reptiles, here are serpents of various kinds, some noxious, and some harmless; scorpions, centipieds, and lizards. The insects are but few. The princ.i.p.al are the musquito and the ant. Of the ant there are several sorts; some are as green as a leaf, and live upon trees, where they build their nests of various sizes, between that of a man's head and his fist. These nests are of a very curious structure: They are formed by bending down several of the leaves, each of which is as broad as a man's hand, and gluing the points of them together, so as to form a purse; the viscus used for this purpose is an animal juice, which Nature has enabled them to elaborate. Their method of first bending down the leaves, we had not an opportunity to observe; but we saw thousands uniting all their strength to hold them in this position, while other busy mult.i.tudes were employed within, in applying the gluten that was to prevent their returning back. To satisfy ourselves that the leaves were bent, and held down by the effort of these diminutive artificers, we disturbed them in their work, and as soon as they were driven from their station, the leaves on which they were employed sprung up with a force much greater than we could have thought them able to conquer by any combination of their strength. But though we gratified our curiosity at their expence, the injury did not go unrevenged; for thousands immediately threw themselves upon us, and gave us intolerable pain with their stings, especially those who took possession of our necks and our hair, from whence they were not easily driven: The sting was scarcely less painful than that of a bee; but, except it was repeated, the pain did not last more than a minute.

Another sort are quite black, and their operations and manner of life are not less extraordinary. Their habitations are the inside of the branches of a tree, which they contrive to excavate by working out the pith almost to the extremity of the slenderest twig; the tree at the same time flouris.h.i.+ng, as if it had no such inmate. When we first found the tree, we gathered some of the branches, and were scarcely less astonished than we should have been to find that we had prophaned a consecrated grove, where every tree, upon being wounded, gave signs of life; for we were instantly covered with legions of these animals, swarming from every broken bough, and inflicting their stings with incessant violence. They are mentioned by Rumphius in his _Herbarium Amboinense_, vol. ii. p. 257; but the tree in which he saw their dwelling is very different from that in which we found them.

A third kind we found nested in the root of a plant, which grows on the bark of trees in the manner of misletoe, and which they had perforated for that use. This root is commonly as big as a large turnip, and sometimes much bigger: When we cut it, we found it intersected by innumerable winding pa.s.sages, all filled with these animals, by which, however, the vegetation of the plant did not appear to have suffered any injury. We never cut one of these roots that was not inhabited, though some were not bigger than a hazle nut. The animals themselves are very small, not more than half as big as the common red ant in England. They had stings, but scarcely force enough to make them felt: They had, however, a power of tormenting us in an equal, if not a greater degree; for the moment we handled the root, they swarmed from innumerable holes, and running about those parts of the body that were uncovered, produced a t.i.tillation more intolerable than pain, except it is increased to great violence. Rumphius has also given an account of this bulb and its inhabitants, vol. vi. p. 120, where he mentions another sort that are black.

We found a fourth kind, which are perfectly harmless, and almost exactly resemble the white ants of the East Indies: The architecture of these is still more curious than that of the others. They have houses of two sorts; one is suspended on the branches of trees, and the other erected upon the ground: Those upon the trees are about three or four times as big as a man's head, and are built of a brittle substance, which seems to consist of small part of vegetables kneaded together with a glutinous matter, which their bodies probably supply. Upon breaking this crust, innumerable cells, swarming with inhabitants, appear in a great variety of winding directions, all communicating with each other, and with several apertures that lead to other nests upon the same tree; they have also one large avenue, of covered way, leading to the ground, and carried on under it to the other nest or house that is constructed there. This house is generally at the root of a tree, but not of that upon which their other dwellings are constructed: It is formed like an irregularly sided cone, and sometimes is more than six feet high, and nearly as much in diameter. Some are smaller, and these are generally flat-sided, and very much resemble in figure the stones which are seen in many parts of England, and supposed to be the remains of druidical antiquity. The outside of these is of well-tempered clay, about two inches thick; and within are the cells, which have no opening outwards, but communicate only with the subterranean way to the houses on the tree, and to the tree near which they are constructed, where they ascend up the root, and so up the trunk and branches, under covered ways of the same kind as those by which they descended from their other dwellings.

To these structures on the ground they probably retire in the winter, or rainy seasons, as they are proof against any wet that can fall, which those in the tree, though generally constructed under some overhanging branch, from the nature and thinness of their crust or wall, cannot be.[89]

[Footnote 89: There are upwards of twenty species of ants known, which differ from one another in several respects, but more especially in the materials and construction of their habitations. Some employ earth, others the leaves and bark of trees, and others again prefer straw; whilst another species, as is mentioned above, occupy the central parts of trees. Their manners too are very different, though all, in various degrees, no doubt, manifest very remarkable instinctive wisdom, and, if the expression be allowable, even acquired knowledge. The reader who is desirous of minute and most instructive information on the subject of these sagacious animals, will do well to consult the Edinburgh Review, vol. xx. page 143, &c. where an account is given of Mr Huber's observations and experiments respecting them. A single extract from the Review may prove interesting to the reader who has not the convenience of referring to the volume. "The accounts of these same animals, in other climates, sufficiently shew what formidable power they acquire when the efforts of numbers are combined. Mr Malovat mentions, in his account of his travels through the forest of Guyana, his arriving at a savannah, extending in a level plain beyond the visible horizon, and in which he beheld a structure that appeared to have been raised by human industry. M. de Prefontaine, who accompanied him in the expedition, informed him that it was an ant-hill, which they could not approach without danger of being devoured. They pa.s.sed some of the paths frequented by the labourers, which belonged to a very large species of black ants. The nest they had constructed, which had the form of a truncated pyramid, appeared to be from fifteen to twenty feet in height, on a base of thirty or forty feet. He was told that when the new settlers, in their attempt to clear the country, happened to meet with any of these fortresses, they were obliged to abandon the spot, unless they could muster sufficient forces to lay regular siege to the enemy.

This they did by digging a circular trench all round the nest, and filling it with a large quant.i.ty of dried wood, to the whole of which they fire at the same time, by lighting it in different parts all round the circ.u.mference. While the entrenchments are blazing, the edifice may be destroyed by firing at it with cannon; and the ants being by this means dispersed, have no avenue for escape except through the flames, in which they perish." It might be worthy the attention of philosophers to enquire, what general purposes in the economy of Nature these wonder-working animals accomplish. The labours of certain other creatures, there is every reason to believe, are destined to raise up habitable islands in various parts of the ocean. May not these small architects be employed in fitting certain soils for the growth of vegetable substances? There seems, indeed, to exist in our world a living spirit, or principle, continually operating in the production of creatures, and places suitable for them, to compensate the loss of those which an irrevocable law of the great Fabricator has doomed to successive destruction, as if He chose to manifest the glory of His wisdom and power, by creating new existences, rather than by preserving the old ones.--E.]

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 lat.i.tudes, 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 sh.e.l.l-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 c.o.c.kles have been mentioned already; besides which, there are sea-crayfish, or lobsters, and crabs: Of these, however, we saw only the sh.e.l.ls. In the rivers and salt creeks there are aligators.

The only person who has. .h.i.therto 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, a.s.sembled upon a rock to see the s.h.i.+p pa.s.s 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 s.h.i.+p 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 a.s.signed 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 a.s.suming 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 s.e.xes, 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 princ.i.p.al 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 sh.e.l.ls, 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 sh.e.l.ls 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 _Steat.i.tes_, 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 gra.s.s, 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 pa.s.ses over his head; it generally contains a lump or two of paint and resin, some fish-books and lines, a sh.e.l.l 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 a.s.sists also to tire him, till they can overtake him with their canoes, and haul him ash.o.r.e. 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 sh.e.l.ls 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.