Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0403
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[Page 403]
299.
Some account of New Holland
Clubs &c. according to the direction in which they happned to see them. Defensive weapons we saw only in Sting-Rays bay & there only a single instance a man who attempted to oppose our Landing came down to the Beach with a sheild of an oblong shape about 3 feet long & 1 1/2 broad made of the bark of a tree this he left behind when he ran away & we found upon taking it up that it plainly had been piercd through with a single pointed lance near the center that such sheilds were frequently usd in that neighbourhood we had however sufficient proof often seeing upon trees the places from whence they had been cut & sometimes the sheilds themselves cut out but not yet taken off from the tree. the edges of the bark only being a little raisd with wedges by which shews that these people certainly know how much thicker & stronger bark becomes by being sufferd to remain upon the tree some time after it is cut round
That they are a very pusilanimous people we had reason to suppose from every part of their conduct in every place where we were except Sting Rays bay & there only the instance