NATIVES OP THE ISLAND. 133 



marines ; while Mr. Melville the artist, and myself, 

 accompanied him in the other,* The island is sur- 

 rounded by a reef, which was now getting dry with 

 the falling tide, and as soon as we got upon its edge, 

 we were surrounded by about one hundred of the 

 people, among whom were some women and chil- 

 dren. They were all shouting and jabbering, 

 holding up plates of tortoiseshell, bows and arrows, 

 and cocoa-nuts, for barter, and clamorous for 

 " toorree" (iron) and knives. For the latter they 

 used the word "knipa," evidently got from passing 

 vessels. We got a few cocoa-nuts and a very 

 powerful bow, made of bamboo, six feet long, with a 

 thin band of bamboo for the string, and a bundle of 

 arrows, each four feet long, made of a reed, with a 

 hard- wood piece inserted for the point. The men 

 were tall, well made, stout and muscular, with fuller 

 and more powerful limbs than the Australians. 

 Their colour was a dark brown, approaching to 

 black, the hair frizzled, but often dressed in 

 short, close, pipe-like ringlets, something like 

 a thrum mop, and looking frequently like wigs ;f 

 none of them had lost a front tooth, neither were 

 they cicatrized or tatoocd, except a faint oval scar 

 on the shoulder. The men were naked, but the 



* In our subsequent voyage, we found these precautions su- 

 perfluous, and established very friendly relations with these 

 people. 



f We afterwards found, to our great astonishment, that sumeof 

 these really were wigs, and excellently made. 



