decrease in their numbers considerably; but we have no reason to
suppose that they retire back into the interior parts of the
country; for in all the excursions which have been made inland,
very few have been seen. 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. We have seen them roast and chew the
fern-root. There is a small fruit here, about the size of a
cherry; it is yellow when half grown, and almost black when ripe;
it grows on a tree, which is not tall, but very full and bushy at
the top; of this fruit we have often seen them eat: it has a good
deal the taste of a fig, and the pulp, or inside, very much
resembles that fruit in appearance: but the sea is their
principal resource, and shell, and other fish, are their chief
support.

They frequently attended our boats when hauling the seine, and
were very thankful to the officer for any fish he might give
them, as in cold weather the harbour is but thinly stocked;
indeed, when we arrived here it was full of fish, and we caught
as many as we could use, but in the winter they seem to quit our
neighbourhood. I had reason to think, that the people who
inhabited Port Jackson when we first entered it were gone farther
to the northward, and that it is their constant custom, as the
cold weather approaches, to seek a warmer climate, by following
the sun; and in this practice they have another very powerful
incitement, as well as the comfortable warmth of the sun, which
is, that the fish incline to the northward, as the cold weather
comes on: this conjecture seems, in some degree, to account for
Captain Cook's having seen so few natives while he lay in