The European description of the People of New Holland in 1770
Population
Banks – “This immense tract of Land, the largest known which does not bear the name of a continent, as it is considerably larger than all Europe, is thinly inhabited even to admiration, at least that part of it that we saw: we never but once saw so many as thirty Indians together and that was a family, Men women and children, assembled upon a rock to see the ship pass by.” (Family Isles)
Cook – “…neither are they very numerous, they live in small parties along by the sea coast, the banks of lakes, rivers, creeks etc.”
Banks – “The tribe with which we had connections [Endeavour River] consisted of 21 people, 12 men, 7 women a boy and a girl, so many at least we saw and there might be more, especially women whom we did not see.”
Banks – “At Sting-Rays bay [Botany Bay] where they evidently came down to fight us several times they never could muster above 14 or 15 fighting men, indeed in other places they generally ran away from us, from whence it might be concluded that there were greater numbers than we saw, but their houses and sheds in the woods which we never failed to find convinced us of the smallness of their parties. We saw indeed only the sea coast: what the immense tract of inland country may produce is to us totally unknown: we may have liberty to conjecture however that they are totally uninhabited. The Sea has I believe been universally found to be the chief source of supplies to Indians ignorant of the arts of cultivation: the wild produce of the Land alone seems scarce able to support them at all seasons, at least I do not remember to have read of any inland nation who did not cultivate the ground more or less, even the North Americans who were so well versed in hunting sowed their Maize. But should a people live inland who supported themselves by cultivation these inhabitants of the sea coast must certainly have learned to imitate them in some degree at least, otherwise their reason must be supposed to hold a rank little superior to that of monkies.”
“Whatever may be the reason of this want of People is difficult to guess, unless perhaps the Barrenness of the Soil and scarcity of fresh water; but why mankind should not increase here as fast as in other places unless their small tribes have frequent wars in which many are destroyed; they were generally furnished with plenty of weapons whose points of the stings of Sting-Rays seemed intended against nothing but their own species, from whence such an inference might easily be drawn.”
Banks – “That their customs were nearly the same throughout the whole length of the coast along which we sailed I should think very probable. Tho we had Connections with them only at one place yet we saw them either with our eyes or glasses many times, and at Sting Rays bay [Botany Bay], had some experience of their manners; their Colour, arms, method of using them, were the same as we afterwards had a nearer view of [Endeavour River]; they likewise in the same manner went naked, and painted themselves, their houses were the same, they notched large trees in the same manner and even the bags they carried their furniture in were of exactly the same manufacture, something between netting and Knitting which I have no where else seen in the intermediate places. Our glasses might deceive us in many things but their colour and want of cloths we certainly did see and wherever we came ashore the houses and sheds, places where they had dressed victuals with heated stones, and trees notched for the convenience of climbing them sufficiently evinced them to be the same people.”
Stature
Banks – “They are a very small people, or at least this tribe consisted of very small people, in general about 5 feet 6 in height and very slender; one we measured 5 feet 2 and another 5 feet 9, but he was far taller than any of his fellows.” [Endeavour River]
Parkinson – “The tallest we saw measured but 5 feet nine inches; though their slimness made them appear taller, most of them were about 5 feet five inches.”
Banks – “…the men were remarkable small and slender built in proportion; the tallest we measured was five feet nine, the shortest five feet two; their medium height seemed to be about five feet six, as the tall man appeared more disproportionate in size from his fellows than the short one.”
Magra – “…we found them very low of stature, commonly not more than five feet in height, small and slender in shape, but very active. Many of them had flat noses, thick lips, and bandy legs, like the negroes of Guinea.”
Banks – “They were all to a man lean and clean limbed and seemed to be very light and active.”
Parkinson – “Their bones were so small that I could more than span their ankles, and their arms too, above the elbow joint.”
Parkinson – “…though of a diminutive size, they ran very swiftly, …”
Cook – “The natives of this country are of a middling stature, straight bodied and slender limbed.”
Houses
Cook – “…their houses are mean small hovels, not much bigger than an oven, made of pieces of sticks, bark, grass etc. And even these are seldom used but in the wet season for in the dry times we know that they as often sleep in the open air as anywhere else. We have seen many of their sleeping places where there has been only some branches, or pieces of bark raised about a foot from the ground on the windward side [Bustard Bay]. They seem to have no fixed habitation but move about from place to place like wild beasts in search of food, and I believe depend wholly upon the success of the present day for their substance.”
Banks – “Naked as these people are when abroad they are scarce at all better defended from the injuries of the weather when at home if that name can with propriety be to their houses – as I believe they never make any stay in them but wandering like the Arabs from place to place set them up whenever they meet with one where sufficient supplies of food are to be met with, and as soon as these are exhausted remove to another leaving the houses behind, which are framed with less art or rather less industry than any habitations of human beings probably the world can show.”
Banks – “At Sting-Rays Bay [Botany Bay], where they were the best, each was capable of containing within it 4 or 5 people but not one of all these could in any direction extend himself his whole length; for height he might just set upright, but if inclined to sleep must coil himself in some crooked position as the dimensions were in no direction long enough to hold him otherwise. They were built in the form of an oven of pliable rods about as thick as a man’s finger, the Ends of which were stuck into the ground and the whole covered with Palm leaves and broad pieces of Bark; the door was a pretty large hole at one end, opposite to which by the ashes there seemed to be a fire kept pretty constantly to the Northward.”
“Again where the warmth of the climate made houses less necessary they were in proportion still more slight; a house there [Endeavour River] was nothing but a hollow shelter about 3 or 4 feet deep built like the former and like them covered with bark; one side of this was entirely open which was always that which was sheltered from the course of the prevailing wind, and opposite to this door was always a heap of ashes, the remains of a fire probably more necessary to defend them from mosquitos than cold. In these it is probable that they only sought to defend their heads and the upper part of their bodies from the Draught of air, trusting their feet to the care of the fire, and so small they were that even in this manner not above 3 or 4 people could possibly crowd into one of them. But small as the trouble of erecting such houses must be they did not always do it; we saw many places in the woods where they had slept with no other shelter than a few bushes and grass a foot or two high to shade them from the wind; this probably is their custom while they travel from place to place and sleep upon the road in situations where they do not mean to make any stay.”
Banks [On Lizard Island] – “ …we saw 7 or 8 frames of their huts …All the houses were built upon the tops of eminences exposed entirely to the SE, contrary to those of the main which are commonly placed under the shelter of some bushes or hill side to break off the wind.”
Banks – “Another reason we have to imagine that such a moderated season exists, and that the winds are then upon the eastern board as we found them, is that whatever Indian houses or sleeping places we saw on these islands were built upon the summit of small hills if there were any, or if not, in places where no bushes or wood could intercept the course of the wind, and their shelter was always turned to the eastward. On the main again, their houses were universally built in valleys, or under the shelter of trees which might defend them from the very winds which in the islands they exposed themselves to.”
Furniture
Banks – “The only furniture belonging to these houses, that we saw at least, was oblong vessels of bark made by the simple contrivance of tying up the two ends of a longish piece with a with which not being cut off serves for a handle, these we imagined served for the purpose of water buckets to fetch water from the springs which may sometimes be distant. We have reason to suppose that when they travel these are carried by the women from place to place; indeed the few opportunities we had of seeing the women they were generally employed in some laborious occupation as fetching wood, gathering shell fish etc.”
Temperament
Parkinson – “…and were very merry and facetious”.
[“Facetious” means “addicted to pleasantries”, waggish (jests and jokes).]
Parkinson – “On our first meeting [Endeavour River] they were so much abashed at first that that they took but little notice of us, or of anything about us they did not seem to be apprehensive of danger. We made them some presents which they accepted, but did not show much fondness for them. They became at length, more free when only three of us were present, and made signs for us to take off some of our garments, which we did accordingly. They viewed them with surprise; but they seemed to have no idea of clothes; nor did they express a desire for any; and a shirt, which we gave them was found afterwards torn into rags.”
Cook – “I do not look upon them to be a warlike people, on the contrary, I think them a timorous and inoffensive race, no ways inclinable to cruelty, as appeared from their behaviour to one of our people in Endeavour River.”
“Yesterday in the am I sent some people into the country to gather greens, one of which straggled from the rest and met with four of the natives by a fire on which they were broiling a fowl and the hind leg of one of the animals [kangaroo], he had the presence of mind not to run from them, being unarmed lest they should pursue him, but went and sit down by them and after he had sit a little while and they had felt his hands and other parts of his body they suffered him to go away without offering the least insult and perceiving that he did not go right for the ship they directed him which way he should go.”
Banks – “One of our people who had been sent out to gather Indian kale straying from his party met with three Indians, two men and a boy, he came upon them as they sat down upon some long grass on a sudden and before he was aware of it. At first he was much afraid and offered them his knife, the only thing he had which he thought might be acceptable to them; they took it and after handing it from one to another returned it to him. They kept him about half an hour behaving most civilly to him, only satisfying their curiosity in examining his body, which done they made him signs that he might go away which he did very well pleased. They had hanging on a tree by them, he said, a quarter of the wild animal and a cockatoo; but how they had been clever enough to take these animals is almost beyond my conception, as both of them are most shy especially the cockatoos.”
Cook – “From what I have said of the natives of New Holland they may appear to some to be the most wretched people upon earth, but in reality they are far more happier than we Europeans; being wholly unacquainted not only with the superfluous but the necessary conveniences so much sort after in Europe, they are happy in not knowing the use of them. They live in a tranquility that is not disturbed by the inequality of condition; the earth and sea of their own accord furnishes them with all things necessary for life, they covet not magnificent houses, household stuffs etc, they live in a warm and fine climate and enjoy a very wholesome air, so that they have very little need of clothing and this they seem to be very sensible of, for many to whom we gave cloth etc to, left it carelessly upon the sea beach and in the woods as a thing they had no manner of use for. In short they seem to set no value upon anything we gave them, nor would they ever part with anything of their own for anyone article we could offer them; this in my opinion argues that they think themselves provided with all the necessaries of life and that they have no superfluities.”
Banks [Endeavour River] – “These people seem to have no idea of traffic nor could we teach them; indeed it seemed that we had no one thing on which they set a value equal to induce them to part with the smallest trifle; except one fish which weighed about half a pound which they brought as a kind of token of peace no one in the ship procured from them the smallest article. They readily received the things we gave them but never would understand our signs when we asked for returns. This however must not be forgot, that whatever opportunities they had they never once attempted to take anything in a clandestine manner; whatever they wanted they openly asked for and in almost all cases bore the refusal if they met with one with much indifference, except turtles.”
Banks – “Thus lived these I had almost said happy people, content with little nay almost nothing, far enough removed from the anxieties attending upon riches, or even the possessions of what we Europeans call common necessities.”
Banks – “…from them appear how small are the real wants of human nature.”
Banks – “That they are a very pusillanimous [faint hearted] people we had reason to suppose from every part of their conduct in every place where we were except Stingrays Bay [Botany Bay] but everywhere else they behaved alike, shunning us and giving up any part of the country which we landed upon at once: and that they used stratagems in war we learnt by the instance in Stingrays Bay where our Surgeon with another man walking in the woods met eight Indians; they stood still but directed another who was up in a tree how and when he should throw a lance at them, which he did and on its not taking effect they all ran away as fast as possible.”
Banks [Endeavour River] – “…we attempted to follow them hoping that they would lead us to their fellows where we might have an opportunity of seeing their women; they however by signs made us understand that they did not desire our company.”
Banks [Endeavour River] – “…today on the other side of the river we accidentally found the greatest part of the clothes which had been given to the Indians left all in a heap together, doubtless as lumber not worth the carriage. Maybe had we looked farther we should have found our other trinkets, for they seemed to set no value upon any thing we had except our turtle, which of all things we were the least able to spare them.”
Cook [Endeavour River] – “..we returned to the ship …and found several of the natives on board; at this time we had 12 turtle upon our decks which they took more notice of than anything else in the ship, as I was told by the officers for their curiosity was satisfied before I got on board and they went away soon after.”
Colour
Banks – “Their colour was nearest to that of chocolate, not that their skins were so dark but the smoke and dirt with which they were all cased over, which I suppose served them instead of cloths, made them of that colour.”
Banks – “What their absolute colour is difficult to say they were so completely covered with dirt, which seemed to have stuck to their hides from the day of their birth without once having attempted to remove it; I tried indeed by spitting upon my finger and rubbing but altered the colour very little, which as nearly as might be resembled that of chocolate.”
Parkinson – “The colour of their skin was like that of wood soot.”
Cook – “…their skin the colour of wood soot or of a dark chocolate.”
Hair
Banks [Endeavour River] – “Their hair was strait in some and curled in others. They always wore it cropped close round their heads. It was of the same consistence with our hair, by no means woolly or curled like that of Negroes.”
Parkinson – “Most of them had cut off the hair of their heads; but some of them wore their hair, which was curled and bushy, and their beards frizzled.”
Banks – “The beards of several were bushy and thick; their hair which as well as their beards was black they wore cropped close round the ears; in some it was lank as a European, in others a little crisped as is common in the South sea Islands but in none of them at all resembling the wool of Negroes.”
Banks – “…their hair was generally matted and filthy enough….In all of them indeed it was very thin and seemed as if seldom disturbed with the combing even of their fingers, much less to have any oil or grease put into it; nor did the custom of oiling their bodies, so common among most uncivilised nations, seem to have the least footing here.”
Cook – “…their hair mostly black, some lank and others curled, they all wear it cropped short, their beards which are generally black, they likewise crop short, or singe off.”
Banks – “That they had no sharp instruments among them we ventured to guess from the circumstances of an old man who came to us one day with a beard rather larger than his fellows; the next day he came again, his beard was then almost cropped close to his chin and upon examination we found the ends of the hairs all burned so that he had certainly singed it off.”
Health
Banks [Endeavour River] – “Dirty as these people are they seem to be entirely free from lice, a circumstance rarely observed among the most cleanly Indians, and which here is the more remarkable as their hair was generally matted and filthy enough.”
Banks – “On their bodies we observed very few marks of cutaneous disorders as scurf, scars of sores &c. Their spare thin bodies indicate a temperance of eating, the consequence either of necessity or inclination, equally productive of health particularly in this respect.”
Eyes and teeth
Banks [Endeavour River] – “Their eyes were in many lively and their teeth even and good; of them they had complete sets, by no means wanting two of their fore teeth as Dampier’s New Hollanders did. They were all clean limbed, active and nimble.”
Parkinson – “They had flattish noses, moderate sized mouths, regular well set teeth, tinged with yellow.”
Banks – “They had also all their front teeth.”
Banks – “They were all to a man lean and clean limbed and seemed to be very light and active; their countenances were not without some expression though I cannot charge them with much…”
Cook – “..their features are far from being disagreeable.”
Scars
Banks [Endeavour River] – “On the fleshy parts of their arms and thighs and some of their sides were large scars in regular lines, which by their breadth and the convexity with which they had healed shewed plainly that they had been made by deep cuts of some blunt instrument, a shell perhaps or the edge of a broken stone. These as far as we could understand by the signs they made use of were the marks of their lamentations for the deceased, in honour to whose memory or to show the excess of their grief they had in this manner wept for in blood.”
Parkinson – “On their breasts and hips were corresponding marks like ridges, or seams, raised above the rest of the flesh, which looked like the cicatrices of ill-healed wounds.”
Cloths
Parkinson – “The natives who were naked…”
Banks – “Cloths they had none, not the least rag, those parts which nature willingly conceals being exposed to view completely uncovered; yet when they stood still they would often or always with their hand or something they held in it hide them in some measure at least, seemingly doing that as if by instinct.”
Banks – “Of clothes they had not the least part but naked as ever our general father was before his fall, they seemed no more conscious of their nakedness than if they had not been the children of parents who ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge.”
Banks [Endeavour River] – “While they staid two more and a young woman made their appearance upon the beach; she was to the utmost that we could see with our glasses as naked as the men.”
Cook [Endeavour River] – “…a woman and a boy … stayed on the point of sand on the other side of the river about 200 yards from us, we could very clearly see with our glasses that the woman was as naked as ever she was born, even those parts which I always before now thought nature would have taught a woman to conceal were uncovered.”
Cook – “They go quite naked both men and women without any manner of clothing whatever, even the women do not so much as cover their privites.”
Body paint
Banks – “They painted themselves with white and red, the first in lines and bars on different parts of their bodies, the other in large patches.”
Banks – “…the red they commonly lay on in broad patches on their shoulders or breasts; the white in stripes some of which were narrow and confined to small parts of their body, others were board and carried with some degree of taste across their bodies, round their legs and arms &c; they also lay it on in circles round their eyes and in patches in different parts of their faces.”
Parkinson – “Most of them… were painted with red and white in various figures. Some of them were painted with red streaks across the body, and others streaked over the face with white, which they called Carbanda.”
Cook – “Many of them paint their bodies and faces with a sort of white paste or pigment, this they apply different ways each according to his fancy.”
Cook – “Some parts of their bodies had been painted with red and one of them had his upper lip and breast painted with streaks of white which he called carbanda.”
Ornaments
Banks – “Their ornaments were few: necklaces prettily enough made of shells, bracelets worn round the upper part of their arms, consisting of strings lapped round with other strings as what we call gimp in England, a string no thicker than a pack thread tied round their bodies which was sometimes made of human hair, a piece of bark tied over their forehead, and the preposterous bone in their noses which I have before mentioned were all that we observed. One had indeed one of his ears bored, the hole being big enough to put a thumb through, but this was peculiar to that one man and him I never saw wear in it any ornament.”
Banks – “ …in the article of ornament…of these the chief and that on which they seem to set the greatest value is a bone about 5 or 6 inches in length and as thick as a man’s finger, which is thrust into a hole bored through that part which divides the nostril so that it sticks across their face, making in the eyes of Europeans a most ludicrous appearance, though no doubt they esteem even this as an addition to their beauty which is purchased with hourly inconvenience; for when the bone was in its place, or as our seamen termed it their spritsail yard was rigged across, it completely stopped up both nostrils so that they spoke in the nose in a manner one should think scarce intelligently.”
Cook [Endeavour River] – “One of these men had a hole through the bridge of his nose in which he stuck a piece of bone as thick as my finger, seeing this we examined all of their noses and found that they had all holes for the same purpose, they had likewise holes in their ears but no ornaments hanging in them, they had bracelets upon their arms made of hair and like hoops of small cord; they sometime must wear a kind of fillet about their heads for one of them had applied some part of an old shirt I had given them to this use.”
Parkinson – “Some of them had a small hair rope about their loins, and one about an arm, made of human hair. They had also a bag that hung by their necks, which they carried shell fish in. Their noses had holes bored in them, through which they drew a piece of white bone about three or five inches long, and two round. One of them had his ears bored in like manner, and pieces of bone hung in them. Some of them had necklaces made of oval pieces of bright shells, which lay imbricated over one another, and linked together by two strings.”
Cook – “…they wear as ornaments, necklaces made of shells, bracelets or hoops about their arms, made mostly of hair twisted and made like a cord hoop, these they wear tight about the upper parts of their arms, and some have girdles made in the same manner. The men wear a bone about 3 or 4 inches long and a finger thick, right through the bridge of the nose, which the seamen called a sprit sail yard; they likewise have holes in their ears for earings but we never saw them wear any, neither are all the other ornaments worn in common for we have seen as many without as with them.”
Banks – “…they all had the septum or inner part of the nose bored through with a large hole, in which one of them had stuck the bone of a bird as thick as a man’s finger and 5 or 6 inches long.”
Cook [Endeavour River] – “Mr Banks, Dr Solander and myself took a turn into the woods on the other side of the water where we met with five of the natives and although we had not seen any of them before they came to us without showing the least signs of fear, two of these wore necklaces made of shells which they seemed to value as they would not part with them.”
Women
Banks [Endeavour River] – “…a young woman made…appearance upon the beach; she was to the utmost that we could see with our glasses as naked as the men.”
Parkinson – “The Women, who did not approach nearer to us than the opposite shore had feathers stuck on the crown of their heads, fastened, as we were informed, to a piece of gum.”
Cook – “Although none of us were ever very near any of their women, one gentleman accepted, yet we are all as well satisfied of this as if we had lived among them [that they go quite naked]. Not with standing we had several interviews with the men while we lay in Endeavour River, yet whether through jealousy or disregard they never brought any of their women along with them to the ship, but always left them on the opposite side of the river, where we had frequent opportunities of viewing them though our glasses.”
Banks – “We have reason to suppose that when they travel these oblong vessels of bark we imagine serve the purpose of water buckets, are carried by the women from place to place; indeed the few opportunities we had of seeing the women they were generally employed in some laborious occupation as fetching wood, gathering shell fish etc.”
Cook [Endeavour Rive] – “In the am we were visited by 10 or 11 of the natives, the most of them came from the other side of the River where we saw six or seven more the most of them women and like the men quite naked.”
Language
Banks – “Their language was totally different from that of the Islanders; it sounded like more like English in its degree of harshness though it could not be called harsh neither. They almost continually made use of the word ‘chircau’ which we conceived to be a term of admiration as they still used it whenever they saw anything new; also ‘cherr, tut tut tut tut tut’, which probably have the same signification.”
Pickersgill – “Their voices were shrill and they were often heard to mention the word ‘charco’.” [In his journal Lieutenant Hicks called Endeavour River Charco Harbour]
Banks – “…their voices in general shrill and effeminate.”
Cook – “…their voices are soft and tuneable and they could easily repeat many words after us, but neither us nor Tupia could understand one word they said.”
Parkinson – “Their language was not harsh as may be seen by the following vocabulary [see MENU for Guugu Yimithirr word lists collected by the Europeans], and they articulated their words very distinctly, though, in speaking, they made a great motion with their lips, and uttered their words vociferously, especially when they meant to show their dissent or misappropriation. When they were pleased, and would manifest approbation, they said ‘hee’, with a long flexion of the voice, in a high and shrill tone. They often said ‘tut, tut’ many times together but we knew not what they meant by it, unless it was intended to express astonishment. At the end of this ‘tut’ they sometimes added ‘urr’ [‘cherr’ – Banks], and often whistled when they were surprised.”
Canoe
Banks [Endeavour River] – “Their canoe was not above 10 feet long and very narrow built, with an outrigger fitted much like those at the Islands only far inferior; they in shallow waters set her on with poles, in deep paddled her with paddles about 4 feet long; she just carried 4 people so that the 6 who visited us today were obliged to make two embarkations.”
Parkinson – “Their canoes were made out of the trunks of trees; had an outrigger; and eight outriggers on which they laid their lances. Their paddles were long in the blade. To throw the water out of their canoes, they used a large shell called the Persian Crown.”
Cook [Before he saw the evidence of people on Lizard Island] – “Although these shoals lay within sight of the coast and abound very much with shell fish and other fish which are to be caught at low water in holes in the rocks, yet the natives never visit them for if they did we must have seen of these large shells [Giant clams – Tridacna gigas] on shore about their fire place, the reason I do suppose is that they have no boats that they dare venture so far out at sea in.”
Cook [Before he saw the evidence of people on Lizard Island] – “…they certainly have no boat fit to do this at sea [harpoon turtle] or that will carry a turtle…”
Cook – “During our whole stay in Endeavour River we saw but one canoe and had great reason to think that the few people that resided about this place had no more; this one served them to cross the river and to go fishing in etc. They attend the shoals and flats one where or another every day at low water to gather shell fish or whatever they can find to eat and have each a little bag to put what they get in: this bag is made of network. Bad and mean as their canoes are they at certain seasons of the year, as far as we know, go in them to the most distant islands, which lay upon the coast, for we never landed upon one but what we saw signs of people having been there before. We were surprised to find houses etc upon Lizard Island which lies five leagues from the nearest part of the main, a distance we before thought they could not have gone in their canoes.”
Banks – “Their canoes were the only things which we saw a manifest difference between the southern and the northern people. To the northwards their canoes though exceedingly bad were far superior to the southwards. They were small but regularly hollowed out of the trunk of a tree and fitted with an outrigger to prevent them from oversetting; in these they had paddles large enough to require both hands to work them. Of this sort we saw only [two – one at Palm Island the other at Endeavour River] and had an opportunity of examining only one of them [at Endeavour River] which might be about ten or eleven feet long but was immensely narrow; the sides of the tree were left in their natural state untouched by tools but at each end they had cut off from the underpart and left part of the underside overhanging; the inside also was not ill hollowed and the sides tolerably thin. What burthen it was capable of carrying we had many times an opportunity to see: three people or at most four were as many as dare venture in it and if any more wanted to come over the river, which in that place was half a mile broad, one of these would carry back the canoe and fetch them.
“This was the only piece of workmanship I saw amongst the New Hollanders that seemed to require tools. How they had hollowed her out or cut the ends I cannot guess but upon the whole the work was not ill done; Indian patience might do a great deal with shells etc without the use of stone axes, which if they had had they would probably have used to form her outside as well as inside. That such a canoe takes them up much time and trouble in the making may be concluded from us seeing so few, and still more from the moral certainty which we have that the tribe which visited us and consisted to our knowledge of twenty-one people and maybe of several more had only one such belonging to them. How tedious must it be for these people to be ferried over a river a mile or two wide by threes and fours at a time: how well therefore worth the pains for them to stock themselves better with boats if they could do it!”
“I am inclined to believe that besides these canoes the northern people know and make use of the bark one of the south, and that from having seen one of the paddles left by them upon a small island where they had been fishing for turtle; it lay upon a heap of turtle shells and bones, trophies of the good living they had had when there, and with it lay a broken staff of a turtle peg and a rotten line, tools which had been worn out I suppose in the service of catching them. We had great reason to believe that at some season of the year the weather is much more moderate than we found it, otherwise the Indians never could have ventured in any canoe that we saw half so far from the mainland as islands were on which we saw evident marks of their having been, such as decayed houses, fires, the before mentioned turtle bones etc. May be at this more moderate time they may make and use such canoes, and when the blustering season comes on may convert the bark from which they were made to the purpose of covering houses making water buckets etc etc well knowing that when the next season returns they will not want a supply of bark to rebuild their vessels.”
Banks – [Endeavour River] “The Captain who was up the river today found the Canoe belonging to our friends the Indians, which it seems they had left tied to some mangroves within a mile of the ship.”
Banks – [On Lizard Island] “Distant as this Isle was from the main, the Indians had been here in their poor embarkations, sure sign that at some part of the year must have very settled fine weather; we saw 7 or 8 frames of their huts and vast piles of shells the fish of which had I suppose been their food.”
Cook [On Lizard Island] – “The inhabitants of the main visit this island at some seasons of the year for we saw the ruins of several of their huts and heaps of shells etc.”
Banks [On Eagle Island] – “The Indians had been here likewise and lived on turtle, as we could plainly see by the heaps of calipashes which were piled up in several parts of the island.”
Cook [On Eagle Island] – “We found that the natives resort to this Island as we saw several turtle shells piled one upon another.”
Cook [On Turtle Group/ Low Islands] – “He [The ship’s Master, Robert Molyneaux] found upon the Islands piles of turtle shells and some fins that were so fresh that both he and the boats crew eat of them, this showed that the natives must have been there lately.”
Spears
Banks – “Their lances were much like those we had seen in Botany Bay only they were all of them single pointed, and some pointed with the stings of sting-rays and bearded with two or three beards of the same, which made them indeed a terrible weapon; the board or stick with which they flung them was also made in a neater manner.”
Parkinson – “They had lances and levers, very neatly made of a reddish wood; and had two pieces of bone, joined together with pitch, that stood out at the end of them. To polish their lances they made use of the ficus riduola, which served the purpose of a rasp.”
Cook – “Their offensive weapons are darts, some are only pointed at one end others are barbed, some with wood others with stings of rays and some with sharks teeth, these last are stuck fast on with gum. They throw the dart with only one hand, in the doing of which they make use of a piece of wood about three feet long, made thin like the blade of a cutlass, with a little hook at one end to take hold of the end of the dart, and at the other end is fixed a thin piece of bone about three or four inches long; the use of this is, I believe, to keep the dart steady and to make it quit the hand in a proper direction; by the help of these throwing sticks as we call them, they will hit a mark at a distance of forty or fifty yards, with almost, if not as much certainty as we can do with a musket, and much more so than with a ball. These throwing sticks perhaps on some occasions they may use as wooden swords, that is when all their darts are expended, be this as it may they never travelled without both them and their darts, not all together for fear of enemies but for killing of game.”
Banks – “The men carry their arms in their hands, three or four lances in one and the machine with which they throw them in the other; these serve them in the double capacity of defending them from their enemies and striking any animal or fish that they may meet with.”
Banks – “Their weapons consisted of one only species, a pike or lance from eight to fourteen feet in length: this they threw short distances with their hands and for longer, forty or more yards, with an instrument made for the purpose. The upper part of these lances were made either of cane or the stalk of a plant something resembling a bulrush which was very straight and light: the point again was made again of very heavy and hard wood, the whole artfully balanced for throwing though very clumsily made in two, three or four joints, at each of which the parts were let into each other and besides being tied round the joint was smeared over very thick with their resin which made it larger and more clumsey than any other part. The points were of several sorts: those which we concluded to be intended against men were indeed most cruel weapons: they were all single pointed either with the stings of stingrays, a large one of which served for the point, and three or four smaller tied the contrary way made barbs: or simply of wood made very sharp and smeared thick over with resin into which was stuck many broken bits of sharp shells, so that if such a weapon pierced a man it was many to one that it could not be drawn out without leaving several of those unwelcome guests in his flesh, certain to make the wound ten times more difficult to cure than it otherwise would be. The others which we supposed to be used merely for striking fish, birds etc had generally single points of wood or if they were barbed it was with only one splinter of wood.”
“The instrument with which they threw them was a plain stick or piece of wood two and a half to three feet in length, at one end of which was a small knob or hook and near the other a kind of cross piece to hinder it from slipping out of their hands. With this contrivance, simple though it is and ill fitted for the purpose, they threw the lances forty or more yards with a swiftness and steadiness truly surprising the knob being hooked into a small dent made in the top of the lance they held it over their shoulder and shaking it an instance as balancing threw it with the greatest ease imaginable. The neatest of these throwing sticks that we saw were made of a hard reddish wood polished and shining; the sides were flat and about two inches in breadth and the handle or part to keep it from dropping out of the hand covered with thin layers of polished bone very white.”
Banks – “The turtle which we killed this morning had an Indian turtle peg in it which seemed to have laid there a long time. It was in the breast across the forefins, having entered at the soft part near the fins but the wound it had made in going in was entirely grown up; the peg itself was about eight inches in length and as thick as a man’s little finger.”
Cook – “…in opening one [turtle] today we found sticking through both shoulder bones a wooden harpoon or turtle peg fifteen inches long bearded at the end such as we have seen among the natives, this proves to a demonstration that they strike turtle, I suppose at the time they come ashore to lay their eggs for they certainly have no boat fit to do this at sea or that will carry a turtle and this harpoon must have been a good while in as the wound was quite healed up.”
Banks – [Endeavour River] “One of them at our desire threw his lance which was about eight feet in length – it flew with a degree of swiftness and steadiness that really surprised me, never being above four feet from the ground and stuck deep in at the distance of fifty paces.”
Hunting
Banks – “Their manner of hunting and taking wild animals we had no opportunity of seeing; we only guess that the notches which they had everywhere cut in the bark of large trees, which certainly served to make climbing more easy to them, might be intended for the ascending these trees in order either to watch for any animal who unwarily passes under them that they might pierce with their darts, or for the taking birds who at night might roost in them. We guessed also that the fires we saw extending over large tracts of country and by which we could constantly trace the passage of the Indians who went from us in Endeavours River up into the country, were intended in some way or other for the taking of the animal called by them Kanguru, which we found to be so much afraid of fire that we could hardly force it with our dogs to go over places newly burnt.”
Banks – “They had hanging on a tree by them… a quarter of the wild animal [kangaroo] and a Cockatoo; but how they had been clever enough to take these animals is almost beyond my conception, as both of them are most shy especially the cockatoos.”
Banks – “Saw one tree and only one notched in the same manner as those in Botany Bay.”
Shields.
Cook – “Their defensive weapons are shields made of wood but these we never saw used but once in Botany Bay.”
Possessions
Banks – “…each has a small bag about the size of a moderate cabbage net, which hangs loose upon his back fastened to a small string which passes over the crown of the head; this seems to contain all their worldly treasures, each man hardly more than might be contained in the crown of a hat – a lump or two of paint, some fish hooks and lines, shells to make them of, points of darts and resin and their usual ornaments were their general contents.”
Banks – “Tools among them we saw almost none, indeed having no arts which require any it is not to be expected that they should have many. A stone made sharp at the edge and a wooden mallet were the only ones we saw that had been formed by art; the use of these we supposed to be in making the notches in the bark of high trees by which they climbed them for purposes unknown to us, and for cutting and perhaps driving wedges to take off the bark which they must have in large pieces for shields and water buckets and also for covering their houses. Besides these they use shells and corals to scrape the point of their darts, and polish them with the leaves of a kind of wild fig tree [Ficus radula/Ficus opposita/Ficus aspera] the leaves were used like emery paper which bites upon wood almost as keenly as our European shave grass used by the joiners.”
Cook – “They have not the least knowledge of Iron or any other Metal that we know of, their working tools must be made of stone, bone and shells, those made of the former are very bad if I may judge from one of their Adzes I have seen.”
Banks – “Their fishhooks are made of shells very neatly and some exceedingly small; their lines are also well twisted, and they have them from the size of a half inch rope to almost the fineness of a hair made of some vegetable.”
Banks – “Of netting they seem to be quite ignorant but make their bags, the only thing of the kind we saw among them, by laying the threads loop within loop something in the way of knitting only very course and open, in the very same manner as I have seen ladies make purses in England.”
Food
Cook – “In short these people live solely by fishing and hunting, but mostly by the former, for we never saw one inch of cultivated land in the whole country.”
Cook – ” …about 9 o’clock in the evening he [Molyneaux, the ship’s Master] landed in a bay about 3 leagues [nine miles] to the northward of this [Nob Point is about nine miles north of Endeavour River] where he disturbed some natives whom he supposed to be at supper; they all fled upon his approach and left some fresh Sea Eggs and a fire ready lighted behind them, but there was neither house nor hut near.”
Cook – “Although these shoals lay within sight of the coast and abound very much with shell fish and other fish which are to be caught at low water in holes in the rocks, yet the natives never visit them for if they did we must have seen of these large shells [Giant clams – Tridacna gigas] on shore about their fire place, the reason I do suppose is that they have no boats that they dare venture so far out at sea in.”
Banks – “For food they seem to depend very much though not entirely upon the sea. Fish of all kinds, turtle and even crabs they strike with their lances very dexterously. These are generally bearded with broad beards and their points smeared over with a kind of hard resin which makes them pierce a hard body far easier than they would do without it. Their spears had only one point yet I believe struck fish with dexterity. I can witness who saw several times them through a glass throw their spear from 10 to 20 yards and generally succeed. For striking of turtle they use a peg of wood well bearded and about a foot long; this fastens into a socket of a staff of light wood as thick as a man’s wrist and 8 or 9 feet long, besides which they are tied together by a loose line 3 or 4 fathoms in length (18 or 24 feet). The use of this must undoubtedly be that when the turtle is struck the staff flies off from the peg and serves for a float to show them where the turtle is as well as assist to tire him till they can with their canoes overtake and haul him in. That they throw this dart with great force we had occasion to observe while we lay in Endeavour river where a turtle which we killed had one of them entirely buried in its body just across its breast; it seems to have entered at a soft place where the fore fins work but not the least outward mark of the wound remained. Beside these things we saw near their fire places plentiful remains of lobsters, shell fish of all kinds.”
Cook – “They have also wooden harpoons for striking turtle, but of these I believe they got but few, except at the season they come ashore to lay.”
Cook – “…in opening one [a turtle] today we found sticking through both shoulder bones a wooden harpoon or turtle peg 15 inches long bearded at the end such as we have seen among the natives, this proves to a demonstration that they strike turtle, I suppose at the time they come ashore to lay their eggs for they certainly have no boat fit to do this at sea or that will carry a turtle, and this harpoon must have been a good while in as the wound was quite healed up.”
Banks – “The turtle that was killed this morning had an Indian peg in it which seemed to have laid there a long time. It was in the breast across the fore fins, having entered the soft part near the fins but the wound it made in going in was entirely grown up; the peg itself was about eight inches in length and as thick as a man’s little finger.”
Banks – “One of our people who had been gathering Kale straying from his party met with three Indians, two men and a boy, he came upon them as they sat down among some long grass on a sudden before he was aware of it. At first he was much afraid and offered them his knife, the only thing he had which he thought might be acceptable to them; they took it and after handing it from one to the another returned it to him. They kept him about half an hour behaving most civilly to him, only satisfying their curiosity in examining his body, which done they made signs that he might go away which he did very well pleased. They had hanging on a tree by them, he said, a quarter of a wild animal and a cocatoo; but how they had been clever enough to take these animals is almost beyond my conception, as both of them are most shy especially the cocatoos.”
Banks – “Of land animals they probably eat every kind that they can kill which probably does not amount to any large number, every species being here shy and cautious in a high degree. The only vegetables we saw them use were yams of two sorts, one long and like a finger, the other round and covered with stringy roots, both sorts very small but sweet. They were so scarce where we were that we never could find the plants that produced them, though we often saw the places where they had been dug by the Indians very newly. It is very probable that the Dry season which was at its height when we were there had destroyed the leaves of the plant so that we had no guides, while the Indians knowing well the stalks might find them easily. Whether they knew or ever made use of the Coccos I cannot tell. [Taro – Colocasia esculenta] The immense sharpness [bitterness] of every part of this vegetable before it is dressed makes it probable that any people who have not learned the uses of it from others may remain for ever ignorant of them.”
Cook – “We found in several places on the sandy beaches and sandhills near the sea purslain and beans which grown on a creeping kind of vine [Purslane – Sesuvium portulacastrum and Sword Bean – Canavalia ensiformis, or Yellow Cow Pea – Vigna luteola], the first we found very good when boiled and the latter not to be despised and were at first very servicable to the sick, but the best greens we found here was the Tarra or Cocco tops called in the West Indias Indian Kale [Taro – Colocasia esculenta], which grow in most boggy places, these eat as well or better than spinach….but having a good way to go for them it took up too much time and too many hands to gather.”
Banks – “Near their fires were great abundance of the shells of a kind of fruit resembling a pineapple very much in appearance, though in taste disagreeable enough.” [Pandanus].
Banks – “Also those of the fruits of a low palm [Cycas media] which they certainly eat, though they are so unwholesome that some of our people who though forewarned depending upon their example eat one or two of were violently affected by them both upwards and downwards, and our hogs whose constitutions we thought might be as strong as those of the Indians literally died after having eat them. It is probable however that these people have some method of preparing them by which their poisonous quality is destroyed…”
Banks – “Their victuals they generally dress by broiling or toasting them upon the coals, so we judged by the remains we saw; they knew however the method of baking or stewing with hot stones and sometimes practised it, as we now and then saw the pits and burned stones which had been made use of for that purpose.”
Cook – “We do not know that they eat anything raw but roast or broil all they eat on slow small fires.”
Banks – “…saw old frames of Indian houses and places where they had dressed shellfish in the same manner as Islanders, but no signs that they had been at the place for six months at least. “
Magra – “…subsisting mostly on fish, which they roast on wooden spits stuck into the earth before a fire.”
Magra – “…they were strangers to bread, and to everything which can be considered as a substitute for it; nor would they eat of it when we gave it to them.”
Banks – “We observed that some, though but few, held constantly in their mouths the leaves of a herb which they chewed as a European chews tobacco. What sort of plant it was we had not an opportunity of learning as we never saw anything but the chaws which they took from their mouths to shew us.”
Banks – “Tupia who was over the water by himself saw three Indians, who gave him a kind of longish roots about as thick as a man’s finger and of very good taste.”
Banks [Excursion up Endeavour River] – “The fire was an old tree of touchwood; their houses were there, and the branches of trees broken down with which the children had been playing not yet withered; their footsteps also upon the sand below the high tide mark proved that they had very lately been there; near their oven, in which had been dressed since morn, were shells of a kind of clam and roots of a wild yam which had been cooked in it.”
Banks [On Lizard Island] – “…we saw 7 or 8 frames of their huts and vast piles of shells the fish of which had I suppose been their food.”
Banks [On Eagle Island] – “The Indians had been here likewise and lived on turtle, as we could plainly see by the heaps of callipaspes which were piled up in several parts of the island.”
Banks [Turtle Group] – “Our Master who had been sent to leeward to examine that passage went ashore upon a low island [Turtle Group/Low Islands] where he slept. Here he saw vast plenty of turtle shells, and so great plenty had the Indians had when there that they had hung up the fins with the meat left on them in trees, where the sun had dried them so well that our seamen eat them heartily.”
Cook [On Turtle Group/ Low Islands] – “He [The ship’s Master, Robert Molyneaux] found upon the Islands piles of turtle shells and some fins that were so fresh that both he and the boats crew eat of them, this showed that the natives must have been there lately.”
Banks – “…The Reef was a plenty of turtle hardily to be credited, every shoal swarmed with them.”
Banks [Excursion up Endeavour River] – ‘The river near us abounded much in fish who at sunset leaped about in the water much as trouts do in Europe.”
Banks [Excursion up Endeavour River] – “In our passage down [the river)] met several flocks of whistling ducks of which we shot some.”
Banks – “Most of those [turtles] we have caught have been green turtles from 200 to 300 lbs weight.”
Cook – “…in several places on the sea beach in and about Endeavour River we found bamboos, coconuts, the seeds of plants, and pumice stones which were not the produce of this country from all our discoveries we have been able to make in it. It is reasonable to suppose that they are the produce of some country lying to the eastward and brought here by the easterly trade winds.” [ Pumice probably from New Hebrides, 1200 miles across the Coral Sea, the other might equally have come from New Caledonia, south of the New Hebrides, and 1000 miles from the Australian coast.]
Burial
Banks – [Turtle Group] “Our Master who had been sent to leeward to examine that passage went ashore upon a low island [Turtle Group] where he slept. He saw… two spots clear of grass which had lately been dug up; they were about seven feet long and shaped like a grave, for which indeed he took them.”
Fire
Parkinson – “…which they procure by twirling a piece of wood in a hole, made in another piece, till it is lit up into a flame.”
Banks – “They get fire very expeditiously with two pieces of stick very readily and nimbly: the one must be round and eight or nine inches long and both it and the other should be dry and soft; the round one they sharpen a little at one end and by pressing it upon the other turn it round with the palms of their hands just as Europeans do a chocolate mill, often shifting their hands up and running them down quick to make the pressure as hard as possible; in this manner they will get fire in less than two minutes and once possessed of the smallest spark increase it in a manner truly wonderful. We often admire to see a man run along shore who seemed to carry no one thing in his hand and yet as he ran along, just stooping down every 50 or 100 yards smoke and fire were seen among the drift wood and dirt at that place almost the instant he had left it. This we afterwards found was done chiefly by the infinite readiness with which every kind of rubbish sticks, withered leaves, or dry grass already almost dried to tinder by the heat of the sun and dryness of the season would take fire; he took for instance when he set off a small bit of fire and wrapping it up in dry grass, this soon blazed, he then laid it down on the most convenient place for his purpose that he could find and taking up a small part of it wrapped that in part of the dry rubbish in which he had laid it, in this manner proceeded as long as he thought proper.”
Banks – “In the morning…fires were made upon the hills and we saw four Indians through our glasses who went away along shore, in going along which they made two more fires for what purpose we could not guess.”
Banks – “No Indians came near us but all the hills about us for many miles were on fire and at night made the most beautiful appearance imaginable.”
Contact with Neighbours
Cook – “…it seems strange that coconuts should not long ago have been planted here; by its not being done it should seem that the natives of this country have no commerce with their neighbours with the New Guineans, New Britons and several other islands that produce coconuts.”