The only person who has hitherto given any account of this country or its inhabitants is Dampier, and though he is, in general, a writer of credit, yet in many particulars he is mistaken.  The people whom he saw were indeed inhabitants of a part of the coast very distant from that which we visited; but we also saw inhabitants upon parts of the coast very distant from each other, and there being a perfect uniformity in person and customs among them all, it is reasonable to conclude, that distance in another direction has not considerably broken it.

The number of inhabitants in this country appears to be very small in proportion to its extent.  We never saw so many as thirty of them together but once, and that was at Botany Bay, when men, women, and children, assembled upon a rock to see the ship pass by:  When they manifestly formed a resolution to engage us, they never could muster above fourteen or fifteen fighting men; and we never saw a number of their sheds or houses together that could accommodate a larger party.  It is true, indeed, that we saw only the sea-coast on the eastern side; and that, between this and the western shore, there is an immense tract of country wholly unexplored:  But there is great reason to believe that this immense tract is either wholly desolate, or at least still more thinly inhabited than the parts we visited.  It is impossible that the inland country should subsist inhabitants at all seasons without cultivation; it is extremely improbable that the inhabitants of the coast should be totally ignorant of arts of cultivation, which were practised inland; and it is equally improbable that, if they knew such arts, there should be no traces of them among them.  It is certain that we did not see one foot of ground in a state of cultivation in the whole country; and therefore it may well be concluded that where the sea does not contribute to feed the inhabitants, the country is not inhabited.

The only tribe with which we had any intercourse, we found where the ship was careened; it consisted of one-and-twenty persons; twelve men, seven women, one boy, and one girl:  The women we never saw but at a distance; for when the men came over the river they were always left behind.  The men here, and in other places, were of a middle size, and in general well-made, clean-limbed, and remarkably vigorous, active, and nimble:  Their countenances were not altogether without expression, and their voices were remarkably soft and effeminate.

Their skins were so uniformly covered with dirt, that it was very difficult to ascertain their true colour:  We made several attempts, by wetting our fingers and rubbing it, to remove the incrustations, but with very little effect.  With the dirt they appear nearly as black as a negro; and according to our best discoveries, the skin itself is of the colour of wood-soot, or what is commonly called a chocolate-colour.  Their features are far from being disagreeable, their