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[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

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