Bennelong Point, where the Sydney Opera House stands, is named after this man:
His head was disfigured by several scars; a
spear had passed through his arm, and another through his leg; half of one
of his thumbs was carried away; and the mark of a wound appeared on the
back of his hand. The cause and attendant circumstances of all these
disasters, except one, he related to us. “But the wound on the back of your
hand, Baneelon! how did you get that?”
He laughed, and owned that it was
received in carrying off a lady of another tribe by force. “I was dragging
her away: she cried aloud, and stuck her teeth in me.” — “And what did
you do then?” “I knocked her down, and beat her till she was insensible,
and covered with blood. — Then” ---- Whenever he recounted his battles, “poized his lance, and shewed how
fields were won, the most violent exclamations of rage and vengeance
against his competitors in arms, those of the tribe called Cam-ee-ra-gal in
particular, would burst from him.” And he never failed at such times to
solicit the governor to accompany him, with a body of soldiers, in order
that he might exterminate this hated name.
http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/ozlit/pdf/p00044.pdfTechnological sophistication at work:
Though they boil water in small quantities, in oyster shells, for particular purposes, they never
conceived it possible, until shewn by us, to dress meat by this method; having no
vessel capable of containing a fish or a bird, which would stand fire — Two of them
once stole twelve pounds of rice, and carried it off. They knew how we cooked it; and
by way of putting it in practice, they spread the rice on the ground, before a fire, and
as it grew hot continued to throw water on it. Their ingenuity was however very ill
rewarded; for the rice became so mingled with the dirt and sand on which it was laid,
that even they could not eat it; and the whole was spoiled.
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Bruce Pascoe has committed no offence (Read 61239 times)
