946 VOYAGE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF SOUTHERN LANDS.
nutriment. M. Collins * defcribes the horrid pafte prepared by the natives, by grind-ing thefe infects and thin larvse, and mixing them with the roots of fern; a Ihockinglyrepulfive pra£lice which the moll hideous famine could alone originate, and of whicha parallel, I think, can in no country be found.
Afluredly, fimilar aliments are little fuited to engender bodily ftrength ; and in thisparticular we fhall feek in vain for human beings more deficient.
With refpect to exercife : in lieu of moderate and conftant exertion, the favage ofthefe parts, impelled by the imperious cravings of hunger to feek for aliment, for daystogether undertakes tedious and fatiguing excurfions, his long courfes knowing noother intermiffion than what are exacted by fatigue and exbauftion. Should he chanceto find abundant means of fatiating his hunger, a ftranger to other confiderations thanglutting his voracity, he never abandons his prey, but abides on the fpot where it wasfound till necefiity compels him again to renew his laborious chace. Now, whatcan be more deftructive to the expanfion of ftrength, and the harmony of the func-tions of the body, than thefe alternations of exceffive fatigue and abfolute reft, ofdiftrefling want and gluttonous excelfes ? In this fecond part of the mode of fubfift-ence purfued by the people of New Holland and Diemen’s Land, we fee anothergeneral caufe of weaknefs, extremely powerful in itfelf, and which is of conftantrecurrence at every ftage of life of thefe unfortunate men.
May not the caufe laft alluded to, joined to the fcarcity, the occafional abfolute wantof aliment, and the bad quality of that they frequently ufe for deadening the pangs ofhunger, have either originated, or much encreafed that flendernefs and exceffiveemaciation of the extreme limbs of thofe men? Yet, remarkable as it certainly is inthis people, this charafteriftic does not appear to {hew itfelf in them in an equally fur-prizing degree as with the wretched Pefcherais, of the Terra de Fuego. “ TheirIhoulders,” fays Forfter, “ and breaft are broad and brawny *, the reft of their bodyis fo {lender that, on feparately obferving the different parts, we could fcarcely perfuadeourfelves they belonged to the fame individual f.”
Doubtlefs the conjecture is far from improbable, which afcribes a vicious conformationfo general and fo evident to a radical defect in the organization common to thefe people,a people which in fo many other inftances materially differ from the reft of the humanrace; ftill, if regard be had to the circumftance of individuals occafionally being foundamong them, the proportions of whom are much more regular than in the majority ;if alfo one computes on the natural tendency of famine, and exceffive fatigue, andfaulty nourilhment, to impair the form of, and deftccate and wither the human frame,(phenomena obfervable, according to M. Volney, among feveral Arabs of the defert,)perhaps one may not be far from truth in attributing the defective conformation of thepeople in queftion principally to the conftant ftate of wretchednefs and want in whichthey live. This is the opinion of moft of the intelligent Englifhmen at Port Jackfon ;it is that alfo of M. Collins, and certainly one to which it is difficult to refufe affent.
Allowing then the weaknefs of this race of men to devolve effentially from want, thebad quality of their food, and exceffive fatigue, thefe caufes in their turn are afluredlythe confequence of the wild life of thefe favages.
Let us now look to the probable, nay, certain refults of a departure from this wildlife, an abandonment of their ferocious and vagabond habits. Let us fuppofe thefepeople collected together in more numerous focieties, refident in villages, and peace,with general confent, fucceeding to thofe eternal and fanguinary wars which deftroy fo
t Cook’s fecond voyage.
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much