[142]. Voyage autour du Monde, p. 69.
[143]. Voyage à la Nouvelle Guinée p. 181, 182. Tab. 113. 115.
[144]. The sheath-bill. See Pennant’s Genera of Birds, p. 43.
[145]. The most striking difference seems to be with regard to the texture of the hair. The natives whom Captain Cook met with at Endeavour River in 1769, are said, by him, to have naturally long and black hair, though it be universally cropped short. In general it is straight, but sometimes it has a slight curl. We saw none that was not matted and filthy. Their beards were of the same colour with the hair, and bushy and thick. See Vol. II. p. 211. of this Edition of Cook’s Voyages.
It may be necessary to mention here, on the authority of Captain King, that Captain Cook was very unwilling to allow that the hair of the natives now met with in Adventure Bay was woolly, fancying that his people, who first observed this, had been deceived, from its being clotted with grease and red ochre. But Captain King prevailed upon him afterward to examine carefully the hair of the boys, which was generally, 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.
[146]. 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 periwinckles; 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.