ately fled, notwithſtanding all the ſigns of amity which they made them, leaving their crabs and ſhell-fiſh broiling upon coals. Near this place they ſaw other fires and huts.
It appears that this ſpot is much frequented, as fourteen fire-places were diſcovered.
One of theſe ſavages, who was very tall and muſcular, having left behind him a ſmall baſket filled with pieces of flint, was bold enough to come quite near to Cretin in order to fetch it, with a look of aſſurance with which his bodily ſtrength ſeemed to inſpire him. Some of the ſavages were ſtark naked; the reſt had the ſkin of a kangarou wrapped about their ſhoulders. They were of a blackiſh colour, with long beards and curled hair.
The utenſils which they left behind them conſiſted of about thirty baſkets made of ruſhes, ſome of which were filled with ſhell-fiſh and lobſters, others with pieces of flint and fragments of the bark of a tree as ſoft as the beſt tinder. Theſe ſavages, undoubtedly, procure themſelves fire by ſtriking two pieces of flint together, in which they differ from the other inhabitants of the South Sea iſlands, and even from thoſe of the more eaſterly part of New Holland; whence there is ground to believe that they are deſcended from a different origin.
