State Library of NSW
[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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