d.
These roots they scorch over the fire, and then beat with a stick, till
the bark and dry outside fall off; what remains is a soft substance,
somewhat clammy and sweet, not unpleasing to the taste, but mixed with
three or four times its quantity of strings and fibres, which are very
disagreeable; these were swallowed by some, but spit out by the far
greater number, who had baskets under them to receive the rejected part
of what had been chewed, which had an appearance very like that of
tobacco in the same state. In other seasons they have certainly plenty
of excellent vegetables; but no tame animals were seen among them except
dogs, which were very small and ugly. Mr Banks saw some of their
plantations, where the ground was as well broken down and tilled as even
in the gardens of the most curious people among us: In these spots were
sweet potatoes, coccos or eddas, which are well known and much esteemed
both in the East and West Indies, and some gourds: The sweet potatoes
were planted in small hills, some ranged in rows, and others in
quincunx, all laid by a line with the greatest regularity: The coccos
were planted upon flat land, but none of them yet appeared above ground;
and the gourds were set in small hollows, or dishes, much as in England.
These plantations were of different extent, from one or two acres to
ten: Taken together, there appeared to be from 150 to 200 acres in
cultivation in the whole bay, though we never saw an hundred people.
Each district was fenced in, generally with reeds, which were placed so
close together that there was scarcely room for a mouse to creep
between.

The women were plain, and made themselves more so by painting their
faces with red ochre and oil, which being generally fresh and wet upon
their cheeks and foreheads, was easily transferred to the noses of those
who thought fit to salute them; and that they were not wholly averse to
such familiarity, the noses of several of our people strongly testified:
They were, however, as great coquets as any of the most fashionable
ladies in Europe, and the young ones as skittish as an unbroken filly:
Each of them wore a petticoat, under which there was a girdle, made of
the blades of grass highly perfumed, and to the girdle was fastened a
small bunch of the leaves of some fragrant plant, which served their
modesty as its innermost veil.[55] The faces of the men were not so
generally painted, yet we saw one whose whole body, and even his
ga