enerally, as well as that of the women, free from this dirt; and then
he owned himself satisfied that it was naturally _woolly_. Perhaps we
may suppose it possible, that he himself had been deceived when he was
in Endeavour River, from this very circumstance, as he expressly says,
that "they saw none that was not matted and filthy."--D.]

[Footnote 131: And yet Dampier's New Hollanders, on the western coast,
bear a striking resemblance to Captain Cook's at Van Diemen's Land, in
many remarkable instances:--

1st, As to their becoming familiar with the strangers.

2dly, As to their persons; being straight-bodied and thin, their skin
black, and black, short, curled hair, like the negroes of Guinea, with
wide mouths.

3dly, As to their wretched condition, having no houses, no garment, no
canoes, no instrument to catch large fish; feeding on broiled muscles,
cockles, and periwinkles; having no fruits of the earth; their weapons a
straight pole, sharpened and hardened at the end, &c. &c.

The chief peculiarities of Dampier's _miserable wretches_ are, 1st,
Their eye-lids being always half closed, to keep the flies out, which
were excessively troublesome there; and, 2dly, Their wanting the two
fore-teeth of the upper jaw, and their having no beards. See Dampier's
Voyages, vol. i. p. 464, &c. There seems to be no reason for supposing
that Dampier was mistaken in the above account of what he saw.--D.]

Some of our present group wore, loose, round their necks, three or four
folds of small cord, made of the fur of some animal; and others of them
had a narrow slip of the kangooroo skin tied round their ankles. I gave
to each of them a string of beads and a medal, which I thought they
received with some satisfaction. They seemed to set no value on iron, or
on iron tools. They were even ignorant of the use of fish-hooks, if we
might judge from their manner of looking at some of ours which we shewed
to them.

We cannot, however, suppose it to be possible that a people who inhabit
a sea-coast, and who seem to derive no part of their sustenance from the
productions of the ground, should not be acquainted with some mode of
catching fish, though we did not happen to see any of them thus
employed, nor observe any canoe, or vessel, in which they could go upon
the water. Though they absolutely rejected the sort of fish that we
offered to them, it was evident that shell-fish, at least, made a part
of their food, from the many heaps of