546 ANNUAL. REGISTER. 1815. 
net, which, from the size of the 
meshes, was probably intended to 
catch turtle ; upon another was a 
young shark; and these, with 
their paddles and spears, seemed 
to constitute the whole of their 
earthly riches. 
Two of the three men were ad- 
vanced in years, and from the re- 
semblance of feature were pro- 
bably brothers. With the excep- 
tion of two chiefs at Taheity, these 
were the tallest Indians I had ever 
seen; the two brothers being 
from three to four inches higher 
than my coxswain, who measured 
five feet eleven. They were not 
remarkable for being either stout 
or slender ; though like most of 
the Australians, their legs did not 
bear the European proportion to 
the size of their heads and bodies. 
The third native was not so tall 
as the other two; and. he: was, 
according to our notions, better 
proportioned. Their features did 
not much differ from those. of 
their countrymen on the South 
and East Coasts; but they had 
each of them lost two front teeth 
from the upper jaw. Their hair 
was short, though not curly ; and 
a fillet of net work, which the 
youngest man had wrapped round 
his head, was the sole ornament 
or clothing seen amongst them. 
The two old men appeared, to my 
surprise, to have undergone cir- 
cumcision; but the posture of the 
youngest, who remained sitting 
down, did not allow of observa- 
tion being made upon him. 
After being five minutes with 
them, the old men proposed to go 
to our boat ; and this being agreed 
to, we proceeded together, hand 
in hand. But they stopped half 
way, and retreating a little, the 
eldest made a short harangue,’ 
which concluded with the word 
jahree ! pronounced with empha- 
sis; they then returned to the 
rafts, and dragged them towards 
their three companions who were 
sitting on the furthest rocks. 
These I judged to be women, and 
that the proposal of the men to go 
to our boat was a feint to get us 
further from them; it did not 
seem, however, that the women 
were so much afraid of us, as the 
men appeared to be on their ac- 
count ; for although we walked 
back, past the rafts, much nearer 
than before, they remained very 
quietly picking oysters. It was 
not my desire to annoy these poor 
people ; and therefore, leaving 
them to their own way, we took 
an opposite direction to examine 
the island. 
This low piece of land is be 
tween one and two miles long, 
and from its form received the 
name of Horse-shoe Island ; there 
is very little svil mixed with the 
sand on its surface, and except 
the mangrove trees upon the 
shore, it bears nothing larger 
than bushes. We did not find 
any huts; but the dried. grass 
spread round two or three neigh- 
bouring fire places, marked the 
last residence of the Indians. 
Near it were lying several large 
spiral shells, probably the vessels 
in which they had brought water 
from the main land; for none 
was found on the island, nor was 
there any appearance that it could 
be procured. Shells and bones of 
turtle, some of them fresh, were 
- plentifully scattered around ; upon 
the beach also there were turtle 
tracks, and several of these ani- 
mals were seen in the water du- 
