n
who lived by hunting; certainly, no persons can better deserve
the appellation of climbers, if we may judge from what was seen
of Go-me-bee-re, who, for a biscuit, in a very few minutes cut
his notches in the bark of a tree and mounted it with surprising
agility, though an old man. These notches are cut in the bark
little more than an inch deep, which receives the ball of the
great toe; the first and second notches are cut from the ground;
the rest they cut as they ascend, and at such a distance from
each other, that when both their feet are in the notches, the
right foot is raised nearly as high as the middle of the left
thigh: when they are going to raise themselves a step, their
hatchet is held in the mouth, in order to have the use of both
their hands; and, when cutting the notch, the weight of the body
rests on the ball of the great toe: the fingers of the left hand
are also fixed in a notch cut on the side of the tree for that
purpose, if it is too large to admit their clasping it
sufficiently with the left arm to keep the body close to the
tree.

In this manner do these people climb trees, whose
circumference is ten or fifteen feet, or upwards, after an
opossum or a squirrel, though they rise to the height of sixty or
eighty feet before there is a single branch.

Governor Phillip had occasionally seen a few of the natives
climb the trees at Sydney and Rose-Hill, but this old man greatly
surpassed them. In the evening, the four natives and the child
took their places at the fire, and a scene ensued which shows
that these people are not a little superstitious.

Colebe had been wounded below the left breast with a fiz-gig,
and though it must have been done many years back, or the wound
must have been slight, as it was difficult to discover any scar,
yet it was supposed he felt some pain, though it probably might
be occasioned by the straps of his knapsack; however, the
youngest of the two strangers was applied to for relief.

He began the ceremony by taking a mouthful of water, which he
squirted on the part affected, and then applying his mouth, he
began to suck as long as he could without taking breath; this
seemed to make him sick, and when he rose up, (for his patient
was sitting on the ground) he walked about for a few minutes, and
then began to suck again, till it was again necessary for him to
take breath: this was repeated three times, and he seemed, by
drawing in his stomach, to feel the pain he ha