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[Page 380]

276
Some account of New Holland

the arts of cultivation  the wild produce of the Land alone seems scarce able to support them at all seasons  at least I do not remember to have read of any inland nation who did not cultivate the ground more or less  even the North Americans who were so well versd in hunting sowd their Maize. but should a people live inland who supported themselves by cultivation these inhabitants of the sea coast must certainly have learn'd to imitate them in some degree at least  otherwise their reason must be supposd to hold a rank little above superior to that of monkies

Whatever may be the reason of this want of People is dificult to guess unless perhaps the Barreness of the Soil & scarcity of fresh water  but why mankind should not increase here as fast as in other places unless their small tribes have frequent wars in which many are destroyd  they were indeed generaly furnishd with plenty of weapons whose points of the stings of Sting-Rays seemd intended against nothing but their own species  from whence such an inference might easily
 

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