Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/245

 AND EXPLORATION. 141 '' Whether they live in the woods by choice, or are driven 1788 from the society of those who. inhabit the sea-coast, or ^p^l whether they travel to a distant part of the country, I can form no judgment at present," Evidently he was still much more of a sailor than a bushman, and the idea of such savages Their food living wholly in the bush all the year round seemed out of the question to him. It had not yet occurred to him that the bush maintained its tribes as well as the sea-coast, and that wherever the explorer might go in the interior he would be sure to meet with the natives. The only point on which he was quite clear was, that '^ when they go inland they cer- tainly do not carry any fish to support them.''* The most helpful discovery inland made by Phillip during his first year of office was that of some good farming land ^*™*"fif near the head of the harbour, where he found ^^ a tract of Parramatta. country running to the westward for many miles which appears to be in general rich, good land.'' The necessity for cultivating land largely in order to support his people that cannot be had, it seems hardly possible that, with their spears, the only missile weapon yet observed among them, they should be able to procure any kind of animal food." — Phillip s Voyage, p. 102. '* The sea-coast, we have every reason at present to believe, is the only part of this country which is inhabited by the human race ; the land seems to afford them but a very scanty subsistence. "—Hunter, p. 65. On the other hand, Vancouver, not finding any fish-bones or oyster-shells about the native camps at King George's Sound, concluded that the coast natives went inland for food. — Voyage, October, 1791. The difficulty suggested bv such casual observations as Vancouver's about the oysters is explamed bv the following passage from Eyre*s Journals, re- ferring to the oyster-beds he met with at Streaky Bay : — ** Many drays mi^ht easily be loaded, one after the other, from these oyster-beds. The natives of the district do not appear to eat them, for I never could find a single shell at any of their encampments. It is difficult to account for the taste or prejudice of the native which guides him in his selection or rejection of particular kinds of food. What is eaten readily by the natives in one part of Australia is left untouched by them in another ; thus the oyster is eaten at Sydney, and I believe at King George's Sound, but not at Streaky Bay. The unio or fresh-water muscle is eaten in ffreat numbers by all the natives of New South Wales and South Australia, out Captain Grey found that a Perth native, who accompanied him on one of his expeditions, would not touch this kind of food even when almost starving. Snakes are eaten bv some tribes, but not by others ; and so with many other kinds of food which they make use of." — Journals, vol. i, p. 195. tions sufficient occasionally to tempt the wandering savage into its recesses. Digitized by Google
 * " On the coast fish makes a considerable part of their food, but when
 * No part of the country is so utterly worthless as not to have attrac-