Reproduction of the original: A Voyage To Terra Australis by Matthew Flinders

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1773 edition. Excerpt: ...having no walls, receive the gale from whatever point it blows. I shall now give a particular description of a house of a middling size, from which, as the structure is univcrsally the same, a perfect idea may be formed both of those that are bigger, and those that are less. The ground which it covers is an oblong square, four and twenty feet long, and eleven wide; over this a roof is raised, upon three rows of pillars or posts, parallel to each other, one on each side, and the other in the middle. This roof consists of two flat sides inclining to each other, and termi ' and his wife fleep in them alone. nating-in a ridge, exactly..like the roofs of our thatched houses in England. The utmost height within is about nine feet, and the eaves on each fide reach to within about three feet and an half of theground: below this, and through the Whole height at' each end, itfis' open, no part of it being inclosed with a wall. _ The roof is thatched with palm-leaves, and the floor is covered, some inches deep, with soft hay; over this are laid mats, so that'the whole is one Cushion, upon which they sit in the day, and sleep in the night. In some houses, however, there is one stool, which is wholly appropriated to the master of' the family; besides this, they' have no furniture, except a few little blocks of wood, the upper side of which s-iszhollowed into a curve, and which serve them for pill_ows. The house is indeed principally used as a dormitory; for, except it rains, they eat in the open air, under the shade of the next? tree, The clothes that they wear in the day, serve them-for coveringzin the night; the floor isthe common bed of the whole household, and is not divided by any partition. The master of the house and his wife fleep in the...