wounded, made shift to crawl off, but his companion was carried away by these barbarians, and his fate doubtful, until a soldier, a few days afterwards, picked up his jacket and hat in a native’s hut, the latter pierced through by a spear.  We have found that these spears are not made invariably alike, some of them being barbed like a fish gig, and others simply pointed.  In repairing them they are no less dexterous than in throwing them.  A broken one being given by a gentleman to an Indian, he instantly snatched up an oyster-shell, and converted it with his teeth into a tool with which he presently fashioned the spear, and rendered it fit for use:  in performing this operation, the sole of his foot served him as a work-board.  Nor are their weapons of offence confined to the spear only, for they have besides long wooden swords, shaped like a sabre, capable of inflicting a mortal wound, and clubs of an immense size.  Small targets, made of the bark of trees, are likewise now and then to be seen among them.

From circumstances which have been observed, we have sometimes been inclined to believe these people at war with each other.  They have more than once been seen assembled, as if bent on an expedition.  An officer one day met fourteen of them marching along in a regular Indian file through the woods, each man armed with a spear in his right hand, and a large stone in his left:  at their head appeared a chief, who was distinguished by being painted.  Though in the proportion of five to one of our people they passed peaceably on.

That their skill in throwing the spear sometimes enables them to kill the kangaroo we have no right to doubt, as a long splinter of this weapon was taken out of the thigh of one of these animals, over which the flesh had completely closed; but we have never discovered that they have any method of ensnaring them, or that they know any other beasts but the kangaroo and dog.  Whatever animal is shewn them, a dog excepted, they call kangaroo:  a strong presumption that the wild animals of the country are very few.

Soon after our arrival at Port Jackson, I was walking out near a place where I observed a party of Indians, busily employed in looking at some sheep in an inclosure, and repeatedly crying out, ‘kangaroo, kangaroo!’ As this seemed to afford them pleasure, I was willing to increase it by pointing out the horses and cows, which were at no great distance.  But unluckily, at the moment, some female convicts, employed near the place, made their appearance, and all my endeavours to divert their attention from the ladies became fruitless.  They attempted not, however, to offer them the least degree of violence or injury, but stood at the distance of several paces, expressing very significantly the manner they were attracted.