Volume I Part 16 (2/2)

We procured various sorts of necklaces--strings of sh.e.l.ls, black seeds, and dogs' teeth. As the canine teeth alone are used in making one of the last description, the number of dogs required to complete a single necklace must be considerable. A round thin, concave piece of sh.e.l.l (Melo ethiopica) with a central black portion, is often worn suspended by a string round the neck, and similar ornaments, but much smaller, are attached to the hips and elbows. The long nose-stick of sh.e.l.l is only occasionally worn, although everyone, of either s.e.x, has the septum of the nose pierced for its reception--an operation most likely performed during infancy, as I once saw that it had been done to a child about a year old.

Nearly all the men carried in their hair a comb projecting in front or on one side. This article is usually made of wood, but occasionally of tortoise-sh.e.l.l, a foot in length, thin, flat, and narrow, with about six very long, slightly diverging, needle-shaped teeth, but it admits of much variety of size and shape, and frequently has various ornaments attached to it. The spatula used by betel chewers to introduce the lime to the mouth, although often made of tortoise-sh.e.l.l and resembling that figured above, is more commonly made of coconut-wood, with a ma.s.sive handle, deeply divided by a slit, and when struck upon the knee it is made to produce a loud clicking noise like that of castanets.

CHAPTER 1.6.

Leave Coral Haven.

Brierly Island.

Communication with the Natives.

Description of their Huts.

Bartering for Yams and Cocoa-nuts.

Suspicious conduct of the Natives.

They attack the Surveying Boats.

Calvados Group.

Further communication with the Inhabitants.

Stay at Duchateau Islands.

Their Productions.

Proceedings there.

Duperre Islands.

Unable to find Anchorage.

Pa.s.s out to Sea, and proceed to the Westward.

Western termination of the Louisiade Archipelago.

Reach the Coast of New Guinea.

July 2nd.

The Bramble having returned from an exploration to the westward with the report that there was a pa.s.sage out of Coral Haven in that direction, the s.h.i.+p left her anchorage off the watering-place this morning, with boats ahead and on each side of her, repeating the soundings by signal; she ran along the land to the westward seven or eight miles, pa.s.sed between Pig and South-east Islands, rounded the north-west end of the latter, stood between it and Joannet Island to the West-South-West for about five miles, and anch.o.r.ed early in the forenoon in 15 fathoms, water, under a small detached reef and dry sandbank. Several very fine red snappers were caught with hook and line soon after anchoring, and smaller fish of many kinds were caught in abundance--they were mostly species of Pentapus, Diacope, and Mesoprion.

BRIERLY ISLAND AND NATIVES.

While pa.s.sing a small island--afterwards named in honour of Mr.

Brierly--distant from our anchorage about two miles North-west by West, several women and dogs were seen on sh.o.r.e, and soon afterwards two canoes, which had followed us from the anchorage, were seen to put in there. In the afternoon two boats were sent to this island, to communicate with the natives, and search for an anchorage near it.

COMMUNICATION WITH THEM.

We landed upon a sandy beach, after wading over the fringing reef, and were met by some natives who had come round a neighbouring point from the windward or inhabited side. Although at first cautious of approach, yet in the course of a few minutes they came freely about us to the number of twenty, each carrying two or three spears--not the beautifully polished and well-balanced ones we had seen elsewhere, but merely slender, rudely-fas.h.i.+oned sticks sharpened at each end. About twelve women, dressed in the usual petticoat of gra.s.s-like stuff, followed at a distance, and kept close to the point for some time; but at length the natural curiosity of the s.e.x (I suppose) overcame their fear, and although repeatedly ordered back by the men, they drew up closer and closer to have a peep at the strangers. Two of the youngest and most attractive of these ladies advanced to within twenty yards, and received with much apparent delight, and a great deal of capering and dancing about on the sand, some strips of a gaudy handkerchief conveyed to them by a lad decorated with streamers of panda.n.u.s leaf at the elbows and wrists--evidently the Adonis of the party. Some of the men had formerly been off to the s.h.i.+p, and one or two carried axes of the usual form, but headed with pieces of our iron hoop, neatly ground to a fine edge. A few coconuts were given us for a knife or two, and we saw their mode of climbing for them, which one man did with the agility of a monkey, ascending first by a few notches, made years ago, afterwards by clasping the trunk with his arms, arching his body with the feet against the tree, and then walking up precisely in the mode of the Torres Strait Islanders.

Like these last people too, they open the nut with a sharp stick, and use a sh.e.l.l (a piece of mother-of-pearl oyster) for sc.r.a.ping out the pulp.

After a stay of half an hour we returned to the boat leaving the natives in good humour. Our search for a safe anchorage for the s.h.i.+p was unsuccessful, so we returned on board.

July 3rd.

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