countenances that is
very striking. They have long black hair, which some of them wore tied
up behind in a great bunch, others in three knots: Some of them had long
beards, some only whiskers, and some nothing more than a small tuft at
the point of the chin. They were all of them stark naked, except their
ornaments, which consisted of shells, very prettily disposed and strung
together, and were worn round their necks, wrists, and waists: All their
ears were bored, but they had no ornaments in them when we saw them:
Such ornaments as they wear, when they wear any, are probably very
heavy, for their ears hang down almost to their shoulders, and some of
them were quite split through.[41] One of these men, who appeared to be
a person of some consequence, had a string of human teeth about his
waist, which was probably a trophy of his military prowess, for he would
not part with it in exchange for any thing I could offer him. Some of
them were unarmed, but others had one of the most dangerous weapons I
had ever seen: It was a kind of spear, very broad at the end, and stuck
full of sharks' teeth, which are as sharp as a lancet, at the sides, for
about three feet of its length. We shewed them some cocoa-nuts, and made
signs that we wanted more; but instead of giving any intimation that
they could supply us, they endeavoured to take away those we had.

[Footnote 40: "These have some resemblance to the proas used by the
Indians of the Ladrone Islands, they having what is termed an outrigger,
that is, a frame laid out to the windward, to balance this little
vessel, and prevent its oversetting, which would otherwise infallibly
happen, from its small breadth in proportion to its length."]

[Footnote 41: "Though we saw upwards of a hundred of them in their
proas, there was but one woman among them, and of her they seemed to
take great notice; she was distinguished by wearing something about her
waist."]

I sent out the boats to sound soon after we brought-to off the island,
and when they came back, they reported that there was ground at the
depth of thirty fathom, within two cables' length of the shore; but as
the bottom was coral rock, and the soundings much too near the breakers
for a ship to lie in safety, I was obliged again to make sail without
procuring any refreshments for the sick. This island, to which my
officers gave the name of Byron's Island, lies in latitude 1 deg.18'S.,
longitude 173 deg.46'E., the variation of the