were passed with them in a peaceful and very friendly manner, but though in all this time they discovered no uneasiness, they seemed best pleased when their visitors were preparing to depart.  This has always been the case, since it has been known among them that our people intend to remain on the coast.  Many of the women were employed at this time in fishing, a service which is not uncommonly performed by them, the men being chiefly occupied in making canoes, spears, fish-gigs, and the other articles that constitute their small stock of necessary implements.  Two women were here observed to be scarred on the shoulders like the men; this was the first instance in which they had been seen so marked.

The sailors who waited on the beach to take care of the boat saw about two hundred men assembled in two parties, who after some time drew themselves up on opposite sides, and from each party men advanced singly and threw their spears, guarding themselves at the same time with their shields.  This seemed at first to be merely a kind of exercise, for the women belonging to both parties remained together on the beach; afterwards it had a more serious aspect, and the women are said to have run up and down in great agitation uttering violent shrieks.  But it was not perceived that any men were killed.

As it had been supposed that many of the natives had left this part of the coast, on account of the great scarcity of fish, the different coves of the harbour were examined in one day.  At this time, not more than sixty-seven canoes were counted, and about one hundred and thirty of the people were seen.  But it was the season in which they make their new canoes, and large parties were known to be in the woods for that purpose.

A few days after this examination, Governor Phillip himself went again to explore the coast between Port Jackson and Botany Bay.  In this journey few of the natives were seen, but new proofs were observed of their having been distressed for food.  In the preceding summer they would not eat either the shark or the sting-ray, but now even coarser meat was acceptable, and indeed any thing that could afford the smallest nourishment.  A young whale had just been driven upon the coast, which they were busily employed in carrying away.  All that were seen at this time had large pieces of it, which appeared to have been laid upon the fire only long enough to scorch the outside.  In this state they always eat their fish, never broiling it for more than a few minutes; they broil also the fern root, and another root, of which the plant is not yet known; and they usually eat together in families.  Among the fruits used by them is a kind of wild fig; and they eat also the kernels of that fruit which resembles a pine-apple.  The latter, when eaten by some of the French seamen, occasioned violent retchings; possibly the natives may remove the noxious qualities, by some process like those employed upon the cassada.  The winter months, in which fish is very scarce upon the coast, are June, July, August, and part of September.  From the beaten paths that are seen between Port Jackson and Broken Bay, and in other parts, it is thought that the natives frequently change their situation, but it has not been perceived that they make any regular migrations to the northward in the winter months, or to the south in summer.