Altogether we saw about forty natives of whom ten were boys: they were in most respects similar to their neighbours, having the same long curly hair and slight figure; they did not appear to be a navigating tribe, for we saw no canoes, nor did we observe any trees in the woods with the bark stripped, of which material they are usually made; and, from the timid manner they approached the water, it is more than probable that they are not much accustomed even to swimming. Captain Flinders is mistaken in stating that the natives of this place do not use the throwing-stick; but it is probable they did not produce those instruments to him, for fear of being deprived of them, for it required much persuasion on our part to prevail upon them to let us have any; they were much more ingeniously formed than others that we had previously seen, and different also, in having a small sharp-edged shell, or piece of quartz, fixed in a gummy knob at the handle, for the purpose of scraping the points of the spears: the shaft is broad, smooth and flat. Some of these throwing-sticks, or mearas, were three inches broad and two feet six inches long. See Woodcut 3.
WOODCUT 3: WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS OF THE NATIVES OF KING GEORGE THE THIRD'S SOUND: MEARA OR THROWING-STICK.
The spears are very slender, and are made from a species of leptospermum that grows abundantly in swampy places; they are from nine to ten feet long and barbed with a piece of hard wood, fastened on by a ligature of bark gummed over; we saw none that were not barbed, or had not a hole at the end to receive the hooked point of the meara. Woodcut 4 shows the method by which this weapon is propelled.
WOODCUT 4: WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS OF THE NATIVES OF KING GEORGE THE THIRD'S SOUND: METHOD OF PROPULSION OF SPEAR BY A MEARA OR THROWING-STICK.
The hammer, or kaoit, appears to be used only for the purpose of breaking open shellfish, and killing seals and other animals by striking them on the head; for it has no sharpened edge to be used as a chopping or cutting instrument; the handle is from twelve to fifteen inches long, having one end scraped to a sharp point, and on each side at the other end two pieces of hard stone fixed and cemented by a mass of gum, which, when dry, is almost as hard as the stone itself; the hammer is about one pound weight. See Woodcut 5.