On inquiring, the native told me that in a fight with other black-fellows a spear had struck his leg and penetrated the bone below the knee.

Finding it was serious, he had recourse to the following crude and barbarous operation, which it appears is not uncommon among these people in their native state.

He made a fire, and dug a hole in the earth only sufficiently large to admit his leg, and deep enough to allow the wounded part to be on a level with the surface of the ground.
He then surrounded the limb with the live coals or charcoal, which was replenished until the leg was literally burnt off.

The cauterization thus applied completely checked the hemorrhage, and he was able in a day or two to hobble down to the Sound, with the aid of a long stout stick, although he was more than a week on the road." But he was a fastidious native.

He soon discarded the wooden leg made for him by the doctor, because "it had no feeling in it." It must have had as much as the one he burnt off, I should think.
So much for the Aboriginals.