]D4 
MELVILrXE ISLAND. 
sueceedj and we lay off on our oara for some time withoot 
making any movement. Soon afterwards the natives, 
finding that we had no intention of following tbem, left 
their canoesj and performed a dance in the water, which 
very conspicuously displayed their great muscular power; 
the dance consisted chiefly of the performers leaping two 
or three times successively out of the sea, and then vio- 
lently moving their legs, so as to agitate the wnter into a 
foam for some distance around them, all the time shout- 
ing loudly and laughing immoderately ; then they would 
run through the water for eight or ten yards, and perform 
again ; and this was repeated over and over again as long 
as the dance lasted. 
" We were all thoroughly disgusted with them, and felt a 
degree of distrust that could not be conquered. The men 
were more muscular and better formed than any we 
had before seen ; they were daubed over, with a yellow 
pigment, which was the colour of the neighbouring cliff ; 
their hair was long and curly, and appeared to be clotted 
with a whitish paint. During the time of our parleyj the 
natives had their spears close at hand, for those who were 
in the water had them floating near them, and those who 
were on the beach had them either buried in the sand, or 
carried them between their toes, in order to deceive us, 
and appear unarmed ; and in this they succeeded, until one 
of them was detected, when we were pulling towards the 
woman, by his stooping down, and picking up his spear."* 
The interview ended, however, without a mpture, 
which, if the reader has already perused Mr. Modera^s 
• Kins, " Survey," &e., voL i, p. 110. 
