268 THE GBUTSE OF THE 'CUBAQOA: 



bones of divers sorts. The ' Curo^oa's ' boat was waiting 

 for me, and I found several of our officers bartering with 

 natives of both sexes, about 150 of wliom were gatliered 

 under a tree. What a curious picture was tliis crowd of 

 savages, armed with spears and tomahawks, picturesquely 

 grouped in the most cliarming confusion, busy in exchanging 

 their weapons, ornaments, and produce, for the gewgaws of 

 Europe ! Tlie things most in request b}^ tlie natives were 

 tobacco, pipes, and fish-hooks. I myself procured several 

 cm'ious things — among otliers, a skull taken from the canoe 

 shed, where it was hung up, and which as usual wanted its 

 teeth and lower jaw. It was the skull of a bu.shman ; it is 

 thus they style the dwellers inland to distinguish them from 

 those of the coast, who are called fishermen. Tlie fishermen 

 and the bushmen are continually at war wit li each otiier ; 

 one party commits an aggression on the other, and tlien 

 retaliation follows. It was in one of these fights that the 

 legitimate and first pi'oprietor of my skull came to grief. 

 This skull has not a piece knocked out, as in my New 

 Hebrides skull, but it lias a crack in it. The coup de grace 

 is given with a club or tomahawk, 1)ut it is a spear wound 

 in general that is the act precedent which leads the way 

 to it. 



On September 1, at daybreak, the boat again took us 

 ashore, Mi-. Millman, the paymaster, and my.self, also 

 Brazier, the shell collector, whom the sailors jocularly nick- 

 named Jack Shells. Two natives followed us, quite of their 

 own accord, and rendered us some services. We went.up 



