Besides
More Than A Dozen Convicts Who Have Unaccountably Disappeared, We Know That
Two, Who Were Employed As Rush Cutters Up The Harbour, Were
(From What Cause We Are Yet Ignorant) Most Dreadfully Mangled And Butchered
By The Natives.
A spear had passed entirely through the thickest part
of the body of one of them, though a very robust man, and the skull
of the other was beaten in.
Their tools were taken away, but some provisions
which they had with them at the time of the murder, and their cloaths,
were left untouched. In addition to this misfortune, two more convicts,
who were peaceably engaged in picking of greens, on a spot very remote
from that where their comrades suffered, were unawares attacked by a party
of Indians, and before they could effect their escape, one of them was pierced
by a spear in the hip, after which they knocked him down, and plundered
his cloaths. The poor wretch, though dreadfully wounded, made shift
to crawl off, but his companion was carried away by these barbarians,
and his fate doubtful, until a soldier, a few days afterwards, picked up
his jacket and hat in a native's hut, the latter pierced through by a spear.
We have found that these spears are not made invariably alike, some of them
being barbed like a fish gig, and others simply pointed. In repairing them
they are no less dexterous than in throwing them. A broken one being given
by a gentleman to an Indian, he instantly snatched up an oyster-shell,
and converted it with his teeth into a tool with which he presently fashioned
the spear, and rendered it fit for use: in performing this operation,
the sole of his foot served him as a work-board. Nor are their weapons
of offence confined to the spear only, for they have besides long wooden
swords, shaped like a sabre, capable of inflicting a mortal wound, and clubs
of an immense size. Small targets, made of the bark of trees, are likewise
now and then to be seen among them.
From circumstances which have been observed, we have sometimes been inclined
to believe these people at war with each other. They have more than once
been seen assembled, as if bent on an expedition. An officer one day met
fourteen of them marching along in a regular Indian file through the woods,
each man armed with a spear in his right hand, and a large stone in his left:
at their head appeared a chief, who was distinguished by being painted.
Though in the proportion of five to one of our people they passed peaceably on.
That their skill in throwing the spear sometimes enables them to kill
the kangaroo we have no right to doubt, as a long splinter of this weapon
was taken out of the thigh of one of these animals, over which the flesh
had completely closed; but we have never discovered that they have any method
of ensnaring them, or that they know any other beasts but the kangaroo and dog.
Whatever animal is shewn them, a dog excepted, they call kangaroo:
a strong presumption that the wild animals of the country are very few.
Soon after our arrival at Port Jackson, I was walking out near a place
where I observed a party of Indians, busily employed in looking at some sheep
in an inclosure, and repeatedly crying out, 'kangaroo, kangaroo!' As this
seemed to afford them pleasure, I was willing to increase it by pointing out
the horses and cows, which were at no great distance. But unluckily,
at the moment, some female convicts, employed near the place, made their
appearance, and all my endeavours to divert their attention from the ladies
became fruitless. They attempted not, however, to offer them the least degree
of violence or injury, but stood at the distance of several paces,
expressing very significantly the manner they were attracted.
It would be trespassing on the reader's indulgence were I to impose on him
an account of any civil regulations, or ordinances, which may possibly exist
among this people. I declare to him, that I know not of any, and that
excepting a little tributary respect which the younger part appear to pay
those more advanced in years, I never could observe any degrees of
subordination among them. To their religious rites and opinions I am equally
a stranger. Had an opportunity offered of seeing the ceremonies observed
at disposing of the dead, perhaps, some insight might have been gained;
but all that we at present know with certainty is, that they burn the corpse,
and afterwards heap up the earth around it, somewhat in the manner of
the small tumuli, found in many counties of England.
I have already hinted, that the country is more populous than it was
generally believed to be in Europe at the time of our sailing. But this remark
is not meant to be extended to the interior parts of the continent,
which there is every reason to conclude from our researches, as well as from
the manner of living practised by the natives, to be uninhabited. It appears
as if some of the Indian families confine their society and connections
within their own pale: but that this cannot always be the case we know;
for on the north-west arm of Botany Bay stands a village, which contains
more than a dozen houses, and perhaps five times that number of people;
being the most considerable establishment that we are acquainted with
in the country. As a striking proof, besides, of the numerousness
of the natives, I beg leave to state, that Governor Phillip, when on
an excursion between the head of this harbour and that of Botany Bay,
once fell in with a party which consisted of more than three hundred persons,
two hundred and twelve of whom were men: this happened only on the day
following the murder of the two convict rush cutters, before noticed,
and his Excellency was at the very time in search of the murderers, on whom,
could they have been found, he intended to inflict a memorable and exemplary
punishment.
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