Gum. They
throw the Darts with only one hand, in the doing of which they make use
of a piece of wood about 3 feet long, made thin like the blade of a
Cutlass, with a little hook at one End to take hold of the End of the
dart, and at the other end is fix'd a thin piece of bone about 3 or 4
Inches long; the use of this is, I believe, to keep the dart steady, and
to make it quit the hand in a proper direction. By the helps of these
throwing sticks, as we call them, they will hit a mark at the Distance of
40 or 50 yards, with almost, if not as much, Certainty as we can do with
a Musquet, and much more so than with a ball.* (* The invention of these
throwing sticks, and of the Boomerang, is sufficient to prove the
intelligence of the Australian aborigines.) These throwing sticks we at
first took for wooden swords, and perhaps on some occasions they may use
them as such; that is, when all their darts are expended. Be this as it
may, they never Travel without both them and their Darts, not for fear of
Enemies, but for killing of Game, etc., as I shall show hereafter. There
defensive weapons are Targets, made of wood; but these we never saw used
but once in Botany Bay.

I do not look upon them to be a warlike people; on the contrary, I think
them a Timerous and inoffensive race, no ways inclined to Cruelty, as
appear'd from their behaviour to one of our people in Endeavour River,
which I have before mentioned, neither are they very numerous. They live
in small parties along by the Sea Coast, the banks of Lakes, Rivers,
Creeks, etc. They seem to have no fixed habitation, but move about from
place to place like wild beasts in search of Food, and, I believe, depend
wholy upon the Success of the present day for their Subsistance. They
have wooden fish Gigs, with 2, 3, or 4 prongs, each very ingeniously
made, with which they strike fish. We have also seen them strike both
fish and birds with their Darts. With these they likewise kill other
Animals; they have also wooden Harpoons for striking Turtle, but of these
I believe they get but few, except at the seasons they come ashore to
lay. In short, these people live wholy by fishing and hunting, but mostly
by the former, for we never saw one Inch of Cultivated land in the whole
Country. They know, however, the use of Taara, and sometimes eat them; we
do not know that they Eat anything raw, but roast or broil all they eat
on slow small fires. Their Houses are mean, small Hovels, not much