Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0385
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[Page 385]
281
Some account of New Holland
white in stripes some of which were narrow & confind to small parts of their body others were broad & carried with some degree of taste across their bodies round their legs & arms &c; they also lay it on in circles round their eyes & in patches in different parts of their faces the red they usd seemd to be red ocre but what the white was we could not find out it was heavy & close graind almost as white lead & and had a saponaceos feel possibly it might be a kind of Steatites we lamented not being able to procure a bit to examine indeed these people seemd to have no Idea of traffick nor could we teach them; indeed it seemd that we had no one thing on which they set a value equal to induce them to part with the smallest trifle indeed I believe that except one fish which weighd about 1/2 a pound that they brought as a kind of token of peace no one in the ship I beleive procurd from them the smallest article they readily receivd the things we gave them but never would understand our signs when we askd for returns this however must not be forgot that whatever opportunities they had they never once attempted to take any thing in a clandestine manner whatever they wanted