the boat to get near them; but
we landed at a little distance, and walked after three men who were
dragging six small rafts toward the extreme northern rocks, where three
other natives were sitting.

These men not choosing to abandon their rafts, an interview was
unavoidable, and they came on shore with their spears to wait our
approach. One of us advanced towards them, unarmed; and signs being made
to lay down their spears, which were understood to mean that they should
sit down, they complied; and by degrees, a friendly intercourse was
established. They accepted some red worsted caps and fillets, as also a
hatchet and an adze, the use of which being explained, was immediately
comprehended. In return, they gave us two very rude spears, and a
_womerah_, or throwing stick, of nearly the same form as those used by
the natives of Port Jackson.

The rafts consisted of several straight branches of mangrove, very much
dried, and lashed together in two places with the largest ends one way,
so as to form a broad part, and the smaller ends closing to a point. Near
the broad end was a bunch of grass, where the man sits to paddle; but the
raft, with his weight alone, must swim very deep; and indeed I should
scarcely have supposed it could float a man at all. Upon one of the rafts
was a short net, which, from the size of the meshes, was probably
intended to catch turtle; upon another was a young shark; and these, with
their paddles and spears, seemed to constitute the whole of their earthly
riches.

Two of the three men were advanced in years, and from the resemblance of
feature were probably brothers. With the exception of two chiefs at
Taheity, these were the tallest Indians I had ever seen; the two brothers
being from three to four inches higher than my coxswain, who measured
five feet eleven. They were not remarkable for being either stout or
slender; though like most of the Australians, their legs did not bear the
European proportion to the size of their heads and bodies. The third
native was not so tall as the other two; and he was, according to our
notions, better proportioned. Their features did not much differ from
those of their countrymen on the South and East Coasts; but they had each
of them lost two front teeth from the upper jaw. Their hair was short,
though not curly; and a fillet of net work, which the youngest man had
wrapped round his head, was the sole ornament or clothing seen amongst
them. The two old men a