Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0383
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 383]
279
Some account of New Holland.
[Margin note] Dampier La:183
seen by Dampier supposing him not to be mistaken as for colour they would undoubtedly be calld blacks by any one not usd to consider attentively the colours of different Nations, myself should never have thought of such distinctions had I not seen the effect of Sun & wind upon the natives of the South sea Islands, where many of the Better sort of people who keep themselves close at home are nearly as white as Europeans, while the poorer sort obligd in their business of fishing &c. to expose their naked bodies to all the inclemencies of the Climate have some among them but little lighter than the New Hollanders.
[Margin note] Bourgainville 2 species
They were all to a man lean, & clean limnd & seemd to be very light & active, their countenances were not without some expression tho I cannot charge them with much their voices in general shrill & effeminate
Of Cloths they had not the least part but naked as ever our general father was before his fall they seemd no more conscious of their nakedness than if they had not been the children of Parents who eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge whether this want of what most nations look upon as absolutely necessary proceeds from idleness or want of invention is difficult to say in the article of ornaments however useless as they are neither has