Page 232 |
Joseph Banks's Descriptions of Places |
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New Zealand (continued) easily turnd up, and the narrowness of the tool the blade of which is not more than 3 inches broad makes it meet with the less resistance. Tillage, weaving and the rest of the arts of peace are best known and most practisd in the North Eastern parts; indeed in the Southern there is little to be seen of any of them. But War seems to be equaly known to all tho most practisd in the South West parts. The mind of man, ever ingenious in inventing instruments of destruction, has not been Idle here. Their weapons tho few are well calculated for bloody fights and the destruction of numbers, defensive weapons they have none and no Missive ones except stones and darts which are cheifly usd in defending their forts, so that if two bodies should meet either in boats, or upon the plain ground, they must fight hand to hand and the slaughter be consequently immense. Their Weapons are Spears made of hard wood and pointed at both ends, sometimes headed with human bones; of these some are 14 or 15 feet long; they are graspd by the middle so that the end which hangs behind, serving as a balance to keep steady that which is before, makes it much more dificult to parry a push from one of
© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol. 2) 202, February 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-232.html |