State Library of NSW
[Page 206]
202. Some account of New Zealand
easily turnd up & the narrowness of the tool the blade of which is not more than 3 inches broad makes it meet with the less resistance.
Tillage weaving & the rest of the arts of peace are best known & most practisd to in the North Eastern parts indeed in the Southern there is little to be seen of any of them [Margin note] War But War seems to be equaly known to all tho rather most practisd in the South West parts the mind of man ever ingenious in inventing instruments of destruction has not been Idle here their weapons tho few are well calculated for bloody fights & the destruction of numbers, defensive weapons they have none & no Missive ones except stones & darts which are cheifly usd in defending their forts, so that if two bodies should meet either in boats, or upon the plain ground, they must fight hand to hand & the slaughter be consequently immence. their Weapons are Spears made of hard wood & pointed at both ends sometimes headed with human bones of these some are 14 or 15 feet long they are graspd by the middle so that the end which hangs behind serving as a balance to keep steady that which is before makes it much more dificult to parry a push from one of
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