d a variety of fish; and in such abundance, that
it was rare not to give a meal to all the ship's company from one or two
hauls of the seine. Turtle abound amongst the islands; but it seemed to
be a fatality that we could neither peg any from the boat, nor yet catch
them on shore.

Indians were repeatedly seen upon both Bentinck's and Sweers' Islands;
but they always avoided us, and sometimes disappeared in a manner which
seemed extraordinary. It is probable that they hid themselves in caves
dug in the ground; for we discovered in one instance a large hole,
containing two apartments (so to call them), in each of which a man might
lie down. Fire places under the shade of the trees, with dried grass
spread around, were often met with; and these I apprehend to be their
fine-weather, and the caves their foul-weather residences. The fern or
some similar root, appears to form a part of their subsistence; for there
were some places in the sand and in the dry swamps, where the ground had
been so dug up with pointed sticks that it resembled the work of a herd
of swine.

Whether these people reside constantly upon the islands, or come over at
certain seasons from the main, was uncertain; canoes, they seemed to have
none, but to make their voyages upon rafts similar to those seen at
Horse-shoe Island, and of which some were found on the shore in other
places. I had been taught by the Dutch accounts to expect that the
inhabitants of Carpentaria were ferocious, and armed with bows and arrows
as well as spears. I found them to be timid; and so desirous to avoid
intercourse with strangers, that it was by surprise alone that our sole
interview, that at Horse-shoe Island, was brought about; and certainly
there was then nothing ferocious in their conduct. Of bows and arrows not
the least indication was perceived, either at these islands or at Coen
River; and the spears were too heavy and clumsily made, to be dangerous
as offensive weapons: in the defensive, they might have some importance.

It is worthy of remark, that the three natives seen at Horse-shoe Island
had lost the two upper front teeth; and Dampier, in speaking of the
inhabitants of the Northwest Coast, says, "the two front teeth of the
upper jaw are wanting in all of them, men and women, old and young."
Nothing of the kind was observed in the natives of the islands in Torres'
Strait, nor at Keppel, Hervey's, or Glass-house Bays, on the East Coast;
yet at Port Jackson, furth