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or the stalk of a plant something resembling a Bullrush ( ) which was very streight and light: the point again was made of very heavy and hard wood, the whole arfully balancd for throwing tho very clumsily made in two, three or four joints, at each of which the parts were let into each other and besides being tied round the Joint was smeard over very thick with their Resin which made it larger and more clumsey than any other part. The points were of several sorts: those which we concluded to be intended against men were indeed most cruel weapons: they were all single pointed either with the stings of sting-rays, a large one of which servd for the point, and three or 4 smaller tied the contrary way made barbs: or simply of wood made very sharp and smeard thick over with resin into which was stuck many broken bits of sharp shells, so that if such a weapon pierced a man it was many to one that it could not be drawn out without leaving several of those unwelcome guests in his flesh, certain to make the wound ten times more dificult to cure than it otherwise would be.
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from State Library of NSW Transcription of Banks's Journal page (vol. 2) *297, February 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-banks_remarks-301.html