Joseph Banks - Endeavour Journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 - No. 0472
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[Page 472]
Manners & Customs of the South Sea Isles
distemper arrivd at to any hight & some who went from us for their cure returnd in a short time perfectly recover'd. When first we discoverd this distemper among these people we were much alarmd fearing that we ourselves had notwithstanding our many precautions brought it among them but upon strict inquiry we found that one of our people had been infected within 5 days after our arrival & when we a little better understood the Language the natives explaind the matter fully to us
That they have skillfull Chirurgeons among them we easily gatherd from the dreadfull scars of wounds which we frequently saw that had been cur'd some of which were far greater than any I have seen any where else & these were made by stones which these people know how to throw with slings with great dexterity & force one man I particularly recolect whose face was almost intirely destroyd his nose one cheek & one eye being beat in & all the bones there flatted down so that the hollow would receive a mans fist yet this dreadfull wound was heald clean without any ulcer remaining. Tupia who has had several wound