UAXOS CAMPBELL'S ACCOUNT. 
199 
appears from Major CampbelPa valuable description of 
the settlement, which is published in the " Transactions of 
the Royal Geographical Society" for 1834, This gentle- 
man resided at the settlement doring two years in the 
capacity of oommandaiit ; and his description of the 
natives^ whom he evidently i-egarded with feelings of gi-eat 
interest^ is here extracted in full. 
Natives. — " In personal appearance^ the natives of Mel- 
ville Island resemble those of the continent (if I may so 
call it) of New Holland^ and are evidently from the same 
stock I but they are more athletic, active, and enterprising 
than those I saw on the southern coast of Australia, at 
Port Jackson, Newcastle, or Huntcr^s River. They arc 
not generally tall in stature^ nor are they, when numbers 
are seen together, i-emarkable for small men. In groups 
of thirty, I have seen five or six strong powerful men 
of six feet in height, and some as low as five feet four, 
and five. They are well formed about the body and 
thighs I but their legs are small in proportion, and their 
feet very large ; their heads are flat and broa J, with low 
foreheads, and the back of the head projects very much ; 
their hair is strong, like horse-hair, thick, curly, or 
frizzled, and jet-black; their eyebrows and cheek-bones 
are extremely pi-ominent—eyes small, sunk, and very 
bright and keen ; nose flat and short, the upper lip thick 
and projecting; mouth remarkably large, with regular 
fine white teeth ; chin small, and face much contracted at 
bottom. They have the septum of the nose perforated, 
wear long bushy beards, and have their shoulders and 
breasts scarified } the skin is not tatooed as with the New 
