NEW HOLLAND

NEW HOLLAND, the largest island in the world, reaching from 10 to 44 deg. S. lat. and between 110 and 154 of E. long. east from London. It received its name from having been chiefly explored by Dutch navigators. The land first discovered in those parts was called Eendracht (Concord) Land, from the name of the ship on board which the discovery was made, in 1616; 24 deg. and 25 deg. south. In 1618, another part of this coast, nearly in 15 deg. south, was discovered by Zeachen, who gave it the name of Arnhem and Diemen; though a different part from what afterwards received the name of Diemen's Land from Tasman, which is the southern extremity, in latitude 43 deg. In 1619, Jan Van Edels gave his name to a southern part of New-Holland. Another part, situated between 30 and 33 deg. received the name of Leuwen. Peter Van Nuitz gave his name, in 1627, to a coast which communicates to Leuwen's Land towards the westward; and a part of the western coast, near the tropic of Capricorn, bore the name of De Wits. In 1628, Peter Carpenter, a Dutchman, discovered the great gulph of Carpentaria, between 10 and 20 deg. south. In 1687, Dampier, an Englishman, sailed from Timor, and coasted the western parts of New-Holland. In 1699, he left England, with a design to explore this country, as the Dutch suppressed whatever discoveries had been made by them. He sailed along the western coast of it, from 28 to 15 deg. He saw the land of Eendracht and of De Wit. He then returned to Timor: from whence he went out again, examined the isles of Papua, coasted New-Guinea, discovered the passage that bears his name; called a great island which forms this passage, or strait, on the east side, New-Britain; and sailed back to Timor along New-Guinea. This is the same Dampier who, between 1683 and 1891, sailed round the world by changing his ships. This immense island, which many late writers have styled a continent from its extent, which is more than equal to the habitable parts of the continent of Europe, has been explored on the eastern coast with great perseverance and peril by captain Cook, in the Endeavour bark, 1770, to which he gave the name of New South-Wales. Captain Furneaux, in the Adventure, attempted to discover the connection which Van Diemen's land bears to New-Holland; but the tempestuous weather which he had to conflict with baffled

all his attempts, and he was forced (not possessing the same ardour as his leader) to leave that point in the same indeterminate state as Tasman had before transmitted it. As this coast was explored to a very great extent, without much time being spent on any part of the country, or any friendly intercourse being established with the inhabitants, we shall follow the ship in its progress along the eastern coast, after describing the country and its inhabitants as fully as the lights which are thrown upon them will enable us.

This country is not mountainous; but chiefly consists of valleys and plains, rather barren than fruitful. The face of the country is much the best to the southward, the trees being taller, and the herbage richer; but no underwood was seen any where. The whole eastern coast is well watered by brooks and springs, but there are no great rivers. There are but two sorts of timber-trees, the gum-tree, and a kind of pine. Here is the palm-tree of three sorts. Though this country affords very few esculent plants, yet it abounds with such as gratify the curiosity of the naturalist. Here is an animal resembling a polecat, which the natives call quoll; the back is brown, spotted with white, and the belly unmixed white. Here are many kinds of bats; also gulls, flags, so-called geese or gannets of two sorts, boobies, noddies, curlews, ducks, pelicans of an enormous size, among the water-fowl; crows, parrots, paroquets, cockatoos, and other birds of the same kind, of exquisite beauty, pigeons, droves, quails, bulards, herons, cranes, hawks, and eagles, among the land-birds. Here are serpents, some of which are venomous, others harmless; scorpions, centipedes, and lizards. The most remarkable insect found in this country is the ant, of which there are several sorts. One is green, and builds its nest upon trees: These wonderful insects form their nests by bending down several leaves, each of which is as broad as a man's hands, and gluing the points of them together, so as to form a purse. The viscous used for this purpose is an animal-juice which nature has enabled them to elaborate. Thousands of these busy insects were seen uniting all their strength to hold the leaves in this position, while other busy multitudes were employed within, in applying the gluten that was to prevent their returning back. "To satisfy ourselves, (says captain Cook), that the leaves were bent and held down by the effort of these diminutive artificers, we disturbed them in their work; and as soon as they were driven from their station, the leaves on which they were employed sprung up with a force much greater than we could have thought them able to conquer by any combination of their strength. But tho' we gratified our curiosity at their expense, the injury did not go unrevenge; for thousands immediately threw themselves upon us, and gave us intolerable pain with their stings, especially those which took possession of our necks and our hair, from whence they were not easily driven. The sting was scarcely less painful than that of a bee; but except it was repeated, the pain did not last more than a minute." Another kind burrows in the root of a plant which grows on the bark of trees, in the manner of millet. This root is commonly as big as a large turnip; when cut, it appears intersected by innumerable winding passages.

Holland. ges, all filled with these animals; but notwithstanding, the vegetation of the plant suffers no injury. The insects are very small, not more than half as big as the common red ant in England. Their stings give no pain; but, by running about on the hands, and such parts of the body where they light, produce a titillation more intolerable than pain, if not excruciating. There is still another sort, possessing no power of tormenting; they resemble the white ants of the East-Indies. These construct nests on the branches of trees, three or four times as big as a man's head: the materials of these houses seem to be formed of small parts of vegetables kneaded together with a glutinous matter, with which nature has probably furnished them. Upon breaking the outside crust of this dwelling, innumerable cells, swarming with inhabitants, appear in a great variety of winding directions, all communicating with each other, and with several apertures that lead to other nests upon the same tree. They have also another house built upon the ground, generally at the root of a tree: it is formed like an irregularly sided cone; and sometimes is more than six feet high, and nearly as much in diameter. The outside of these is of well-tempered clay, about two inches thick; and within are the cells, which have no opening outward. Between these two dwellings, one of which is their summer and the other their winter residence, there is a communication by a large avenue, or covered way, leading to the ground, and by a subterranean passage. The structures on the ground are proof against any wet that can fall, which those on the trees are not, from the nature and thinness of their crust or wall.—The fish here are of kinds unknown to Europe, except the mullet, and some of the shell-fish. Upon the shoals and reef are great quantities of the finest green turtle in the world, and oysters of various kinds, particularly the rock-oyster and the pearl-oyster. In the rivers and salt creeks are aligators.

This extensive country appears to be very thinly inhabited: the natives never appeared in larger companies than thirty together. The inland parts are most probably quite uninhabited, as no part of the coast which was visited had any appearance of cultivation, and the miserable natives drew their subsistence from the sea. The only tribe with which any intercourse was established, consisted of twenty-one persons; twelve men, seven women, a boy and a girl. The women were never seen but at a distance; for when the men crossed the river to the ship, they left them behind. The men are of a middle size, and in general well made, clean-limbed, and remarkably vigorous, active, and nimble: their countenances were not altogether without expression, and their voices are remarkably soft and effeminate. They encrust their bodies with dirt, which makes them appear as black as negroes; their hair, which naturally grows long and black, they crop short; their beards grow bushy and thick, but they keep them short by singeing them. Neither sex have any sense of indecency in discovering their whole body. Here they perforate the cartilage that divides the nostrils from each other, through which they thrust a bone, which is as thick as a man's finger, and between five and six inches long; it reaches quite across the face, and so effectually stops

up both the nostrils, that they are forced to keep their mouths wide open for breath, and snuffle so when they attempt to speak, that they are scarcely intelligible even to each other. Besides this nose-jewel, they have necklaces made of shells, very neatly cut and strung together; bracelets of small cord, wound two or three times round the upper part of their arm, and a string of plaited human hair, about as thick as a thread of yarn, tied round the waist. Besides these, some of them had gorgets of shells hanging round the neck, so as to reach across the breast. They paint their bodies both white and red, and draw a circle of white round each eye. They have holes in their ears, but were not seen to wear any thing in them. They were so attached to their own ornaments, that they preferred them to any beads and ribbons that were offered them, though more showy, and regularly made. They received the things that were given them, but were insensible to all the signs which were made them that something was expected in return. Many of the trinkets that had been given them were afterwards found thrown negligently away in the woods, like the playthings of children, which please only while they are new. The bodies of many were marked with large scars, which appeared to be the remains of wounds that they had inflicted on themselves with some blunt instrument, and which they signified by signs to have been memorials of grief for the dead. There was no appearance of a town or village in the whole country. Their houses are formed without art or industry; some of them were just high enough for a man to stand upright in, but not large enough for him to extend his whole length in any direction: they are built with pliable rods, about as thick as a man's finger, in the form of an oven, by sticking the two ends into the ground, and covering them with palm-leaves and broad pieces of bark: the door is nothing but a large hole at one end. Under these houses or sheds they sleep, coiled up with their heels to their heads; in which position one shed will hold three or four persons: towards the northward, as the climate becomes hotter, these sheds were constructed much lighter: one side was entirely open, and none of them were more than four feet deep. These hovels were set up occasionally by a wandering lord, in any place that would furnish them for a time with subsistence, and left behind them when they removed to another spot. When they mean to continue only a night or two at one place, they sleep without any shelter except the bushes and grass, the latter of which is near two feet high. They have a vessel to hold the water they fetch from springs, made of bark, only by tying up the two ends with a withy, which not being cut off, serves for a handle. They have a small bag, about the size of a moderate cabbage-net, which the men carry upon their back by a string which passes over their heads. It generally contains a lump or two of paint and resin, some fish-hooks and lines, a shell or two, out of which their hooks are made, a few points of darts, and their usual ornaments; which is an inventory of the whole worldly treasure of the richest man among them. Their fish-hooks are very neatly made, and some of them are extremely small. For striking turtle, they have a peg of wood, which is about a foot long, and very well bearded;

Holland. bearded; this fits into a socket at the end of a staff of light wood, about as thick as a man's wrist, and about seven or eight feet long. To the staff is tied one end of a loose line, about three or four fathoms long, the other end of which is fastened to the peg. To strike the turtle, the peg is fixed into the socket; and when it has entered his body, and is retained there by the barb, the staff flies off, and serves for a float to trace their victim in the water. It assists also to tire him, till they can overtake him with their canoes, and haul him ashore. One of these pegs was found buried in the body of a turtle, which had healed up over it. Their lines are made of the fibres of a vegetable, and are from the thickness of a half-inch rope to the fineness of a hair. They are unacquainted with the use of nets in fishing; and can only catch fish by striking them, or with a hook and line, or groping for them in the hollows of the rocks and shoals, which are dry at half-ebb. They bake their provisions by the help of hot stones, like the inhabitants of the South-sea islands. They produce fire with great facility, and spread it in a wonderful manner. To produce it, they take two pieces of dry, soft wood; one is a stick about eight or nine inches long, the other piece is flat. The stick they shape into an obtuse point at one end; and pressing it upon the other, turn it nimbly, by holding it between both their hands, as we do a chocolate-mill; often shifting their hands up, and then moving them down upon it, to increase the pressure as much as possible. By this method they get fire in less than two minutes, and from the smallest spark they increase it with great speed and dexterity. "We have often seen (says captain Cook) one of them run along the shore, to all appearance with nothing in his hand, who stooping down for a moment, at the distance of every fifty or an hundred yards, left fire behind him, as we could see, first by the smoke, and then by the flame along the drift of wood and other litter which was scattered along the place. We had the curiosity to examine one of these planters of fire when he set off, and we saw him wrap up a small spark in dry grass, which, when he had run a little way, having been fanned by the air that his motion produced, began to blaze; he then laid it down in a place convenient for his purpose, inclosing a spark of it in another quantity of grass, and so continued his course." Their weapons are spears or lances; some have four prongs pointed with bone, and barbed. To the northward, the lance has but one point; the shaft is made of cane, very straight and light, and from eight to fourteen feet long, consisting of several joints, where the pieces are let into each other and bound together. The points of these darts are either of hard heavy wood, or bones of fish: those points that are of wood, are also sometimes armed with sharp pieces of broken shells, which were stuck in, and at the junctures covered with resin. The lances which are thus barbed, are indeed dreadful weapons, as they cannot be drawn out of a wound without tearing away the flesh, or leaving the sharp ragged splinters of the bone or shell which forms the barb behind them in the wound. The canoes to the northward are not made of bark, but of the trunk of a tree, hollowed probably by fire: none of these boats will carry more than four people. The only tools seen

among them were, an adze wretchedly made of stone, some small pieces of the same substance in form of a wedge, a wooden mallet, and some shells and fragments of coral. It is difficult to account for the small number of the human species which are found dispersed over this country; whether they are thinned by civil broils, excited by the horrid appetite for devouring each other that prevails in New Zealand, or that their population is prevented by any other causes, cannot be ascertained. Their total ignorance of every method to procure the comforts of life, both from the cultivation of the ground, and furnishing materials for clothing and fishing, place them among the lowest of the human species.