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SURVEY OF THE INTERTROPICAL 
1821. curled, like that of the negroes ; and not long and 
Auir23. lank like the common Indians. The colour of 
their skins, both of their faces and the rest of 
their body, is coal-black, like that of the negroes 
of Guinea^. 
“ They have no sort of clothes, but a piece of 
the rind of a tree tied like a girdle about their 
waists, and a handful of long grass, or three or 
four small green boughs full of leaves, thrust 
under their girdle, to cover their nakedness. 
“ They have no houses, but lie in the open air 
without any covering ; the earth being their bed, 
and the heaven their canopy. Whether they co- 
habit one man to one woman, or promiscuously, 
I know not; but they do live in companies, 
twenty or thirty men, women, and children toge- 
ther. Their only food is a small sort of fish, 
which they get by making wears of stone across 
little coves or branches of the sea; every tide 
bringing in the small fish, and there leaving 
them for a prey to these people, who constantly 
* The natives of Hanover Bay, with whom we communicated, 
were not deprived of their front teeth, and wore their beards 
long- ; they also differed from the above description in having- 
their hair long- and curly. Dampier may have been deceived in 
this respect, and from the use that they make of their hair, by twist- 
ing- it up into a substitute for thread, they had probably cut it off 
close, which would g-ive them the appearance of having- woolly 
hair like the neg-ro. 
