Quotation from: The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765

Written by: J.E. Heeres

The sea abounds in fish in these parts; they are mainly of three kinds,
but very different in shape and taste from those caught on other coasts.
All the islands about here are low-lying atolls or coral-islets and
rocks, except two or three large islands, in one of which, a long time
before we came here, they had found two pits filled with water, but
during the time we were here, the water in these pits became very
brackish or salt, so as to be unfit for human consumption. In the other
island, near which the Yacht lay at anchor, after burning away the
brushwood or thicket, we also came upon two pits filled with water, which
were discovered quite by accident...since they had only a small hole at
top, that would admit a man's arm, but below we found a large cistern or
water-tank under the earth; after which with mattocks and sledge-hammers
we widened the hole so as to be able to take out the water conveniently.
Besides, we found in these islands large numbers of a species of cats,
which are very strange creatures; they are about the size of a hare,
their head resembling the head of a civet-cat; the forepaws are very
short, about the length of a finger, on which the animal has five small
nails or fingers, resembling those of a monkey's forepaw. Its two
hind-legs, on the contrary, are upwards of half an ell in length, and it
walks on these only, on the flat of the heavy part of the leg, so that it
does not run fast. Its tail is very long, like that of a long-tailed
monkey; if it eats, it sits on its hind-legs, and clutches its food with
its forepaws, just like a squirrel or monkey. Their manner of generation
or procreation is exceedingly strange and highly worth observing. Below
the belly the female carries a pouch, into which you may put your hand;
inside this pouch are her nipples, and we have found that the young ones
grow up in this pouch with the nipples in their mouths. We have seen some
young ones lying there, which were only the size of a bean, though at the
same time perfectly proportioned, so that it seems certain that they grow
there out of the nipples of the mammae, from which they draw their food,
until they are grown up and are able to walk. Still, they keep creeping
into the pouch even when they have become very large, and the dam runs
off with them, when they are hunted.