James Cook - A Journal of the proceedings of His Majesty's Bark Endeavour on a voyage round the world, by Lieutenant James Cook, Commander, commencing the 25th of May 1768 - 23 Oct. 1770: No. 322

                          New Wales or East Coast of New Holland

in the same manner. The Men wear a bone about 3 or 4 Inches long & a fingers thick, run thro' the Bridge of their Nose, they likewise have holes in their Ears for Ear Rings but we never saw them wear any, neither are all the other Ornaments wore in Common, for we had seen as many without as with them, some of these we saw on Possession Island wore breast plates which we supposed were made of Mother of Pearl Shells  _______  Many of them paint their Bodies & faces with a Sort of White paste or Pigment, this they apply different ways each according to his fancy.  Their offensive weapons are Darts some are only pointed at one end others are barb'd some with wood others with the Stings of rays & some with Sharks Teeth etc., these last are stuck fast with Gum. They throw the Darts with only one hand in the doing of which they make use of a peice of wood about 3 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 & at the other end is fix'd a thin peice of bone about 3 or 4 Inches long, the use of this is I believe, to keep the dart steady & to make it quit the hand in a proper direction. By the helps of these throwing sticks as we call them, they will hit a mark at the Distance of 40 or 50 yards with almost if not as much Certainty as we can do with a Musquet, & much more so than with a ball. These throwing sticks we at first took for wooden swords, & perhaps on some occasions they may use them as such, that is when all their darts are expended, be that as it may, they never travel without both them & their Darts, not for fear of enemies but for killing of Game etc. as I shall shew hereafter. There defensive weapons are Targets made of Wood but these we never saw used but once in Botany Bay. I do not look upon them to be a warlike people, on the contrary I think them a Timerous & iniffensive race no ways inclined to Cruelty as appear'd from their behaviour to one of our people in Endeavour River which I have before mentioned, neither are they very numerous. They live in small parties along by the Sea Coast, the banks of Lakes, Rivers, Creeks etc. They seem to have no fixed habitation but move about from place to place like wild Beasts in search of Food, & I believe depend wholy upon the Success of the present day for their Subsistance. They have wooden fish Gigs with 2:3 or 4 prongs each very ingeniously made with which they strike fish. We have also seen them strike both fish & birds with their darts, with these they likewise kill other Animals, they have also wooden Harpoons for striking Turtle, but of these I believe they get but few except at the Seasons they come ashore to lay. In short these people live wholy by fishing & hunting, but mostly by the former, for we never saw one Inch of Cul-
tivated