Page:New history of Botanybay (sic) and Port Jackson.pdf/15

 The lively young lady, the second day, stood up in her canoe, and gave a song, which was far from being unpleasant. The men very readily assisted the English in making a fire, and behaved in the most friendly manner. It was now first observed by the Governor, that many of the women had lost two joints from the little finger of the left hand; as these appeared to be all married women, he, at first, conjectured, that privation to be a part of the marriage-ceremony; but we afterwards found young girls, of five or six years of age, wanting, these two joints, and several married women, whose fingers were all perfect. Paterson, in his Travels through Africa says, he met with a tribe of Hottentots, all of whom wanted a joint of the little finger; the reason they gave was, that it was a cure for a certain disease, to which they were subject when young.

HEN the plan of the Settlement was first projected, it was apprehended that the stores sent from England, together with the produce of the country, would be sufficient for the Support of the people, till they should receive a further supply; but the eatable vegetable productions being so scarce, the animal productions not abounding in that degree as was imagined, and the fisheries proving unsuccessful, they were, in consequence, reduced to an allowance of two ounces of meat a day; and fresh provisions became scarcer than in