Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0387

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Transcription

[Page 387]

283
Some account of New Holland

heald shewd 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 them the Signs they made use of were the marks of their Lamentations for the deceasd  in honour to whose memory, or to shew the excess of their greif they had in this manner wept blood for in blood
[Margin note]  Food
For Food they seem to depend very much tho not intirely upon the Sea  Fish of all kinds  Turtle & even crabs they strike with their Lances very dextrously  these are generaly bearded with broad beards & their points smeard over with a kind of hard resin which makes them peirce a hard body far easier than they would do without it  in the sourthern parts these fish spears had 4 prongs & besides the resin were pointed with the sharp bone of a fish  
[Margin note]  Weapon
to the Northward again their spears had only one point  yet both I beleive struck fish with equal dexterity  for the Northern ones I can witness who several times saw them through a glass throw their Spear from 10 to 20 yards & generaly succeed  to the Southward again the plenty of

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