most absolute necessity should ever make me fire upon them.'
La Pérouse had been obliged to fire on them at Botany Bay; and this, coupled with the bad behaviour of some of the transport seamen and convicts, caused the natives to avoid the settlers at Port Jackson for a time. Phillip himself, while at Botany Bay, had very quickly made friends with them by going among them alone and unarmed, and no disputes occurred with them during his stay there. They were all naked, but quickly ornamented themselves with the beads and pieces of red baize given to them. When Phillip's boat party entered Port Jackson, many armed blacks met them upon landing, and were 'very vociferous.' One of them, who appeared to be the master of the family, was induced by the Governor to accompany him to where the marines were boiling some meat, and examine what was in the pot. 'He exprest his admiration,' says Phillip, 'in a manner that made me believe he intended to profit from what he saw. … I believe they know no other way of dressing their food but by broiling, and they are seldom seen without a fire, or a piece of wood on fire, which they carry with them from place to place, and in their canoes, so that I apprehend they find some difficulty in procuring fire by any other means with which they are acquainted.[1] The boats, in passing near a point of
- ↑ Phillip was wrong in this conclusion. The Australian blacks are adepts in producing fire by the friction of two sticks.
