Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

628 BURIAL — FISH — FLINDERS, March inches in height : and the women are wretched objects. Some of the men had pieces of bone stuck through the cartilage of the nose, which, I heard, was to prevent their being killed by another tribe, who were seeking to revenge the death of one of their own party. I was told also, that when any death occurs in one tribe, the first individual of another that is encountered is sacrificed by the bereaved party, if strong enough ; but I sus- pect my informant confused revenge for manslaughter with the strange story — that for every death in one tribe, however caused, a life must be taken from another. Should it be true, however, the scarcity of aboriginal population would have an explanation in addition to those which various writers have given. These natives bury their dead in a short grave ; the body being laid on its side, with the knees drawn up to the chin. During our stay at this place we caught plenty of fish, of twenty different kinds, with a seine ; yet with such an abundant supply close at hand, the settlers were living princi- pally on salt provisions. Before quitting King George Sound I must add my slight testimony to the skill and accuracy with which Flinders laid down and described those parts of New Holland and Van Die- men"'s Land that I have seen. His accounts also of wind, weather, climate, currents, and tides, are excellent ; and there are other points of information in his large work, useful to many, but especially to seamen, which would be well worth separating from the technicalities among which they are almost lost in the present cumbersome volumes. March 13th. We sailed, and advanced towards Cape Leu- win, but it was the 18th before our little ship was sufficiently far westward of that promontory to steer for my next object, the Keeling Islands. From the 27th to the 30th we had a severe gale of wind, when near the situation of those remote isles, and on the 31st were in much doubt whether they lay eastward or to the west of us. There was most reason to induce me to steer eastward — indeed I was about to give orders to that effect just as the sun was setting, (no land being seen from the mast-