268 THE CRUISE OF THE ' OUBAQOA.' 



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

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

 natives of both sexes, about 150 of whom were gathered 

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

 savages, armed with spears and tomahawks, picturesquely 

 grouped in the most charming confusion, busy in exchanging 

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

 Europe ! The things most in request by the natives were 

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

 curious thino-s — among- others, a skull taken from the canoe 

 shed, Avhere it was hung up, and which as usual Avanted its 

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

 thus they style the dwellers inland to distinguish them from 

 those of the coast, who are callecl fishermen. The fishermen 

 and the bushmen are continually at war with each otlier ; 

 one party commits an aggression on the other, and then 

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

 legitimate and first proprietor of my skull came to grief. 

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

 Hebrides skull, but it has a crack in it. The coujy de grace 

 is given with a club or tomahawk, but it is a spear wound 

 in general that is the act precedent which leads the Avay 

 to it. 



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

 ashore, Mi\ Millman, the paymaster, and myself, 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 



