n return.

They are, I believe, the only people in those seas, who do not
set a value upon iron work, in preference to any other thing;
beads or looking-glasses they were not much pleased with, but
rags of white linen, strips of scarlet cloth, or any thing of gay
colours, they were very anxious to have: nails they would not
accept at all.

The natives of the Duke of York's Island are a stout, robust,
well made people, of a light copper colour; I saw none who could
be called black; they go entirely naked; the hair is woolly, but
it is so managed by some sort of grease or ointment, and a white
or red powder with which they dress it, that it hangs on some
like so many candle wicks, or rather like the thrums of a new mop
reversed, or turned upside down; they are generally as fully
powdered as a beau dressed for an assembly; some have their hair
of a yellow, sun burnt colour, others quite red, as if powdered
wholly with the true marechall; none are seen with the hair of
its natural colour.

This yellow or red appearance, I believe, may be occasioned by
this universal method of powdering, for the powder seems to be
made from burnt shells, or coral, and is really a kind of lime;
they generally carry a small goard or box filled with it about
them, and when they are hostilely disposed, they frequently take
a quantity of this powder into the hollow of the hand, from
which, with a strong blast from the mouth, they blew it before
them; and at a small distance it has exactly the appearance of
firing gunpowder, and no doubt is meant as a token of defiance.
This practice is certainly used by the people of New Guinea, for
Captain Cook takes notice of it when his boat landed on that
coast near Cape Walsh, and says, that he supposes those people
have some method of producing fire in that sudden manner.

He also observes, that they had a bamboo or hollow cane from
which fire and smoke was observed to issue; but I am disposed to
think, that the conjecture of having seen fire could only have
been occasioned by the appearance of smoke, which we naturally
suppose to have proceeded from fire, for it is probable that fire
and smoke being projected suddenly from any confined engine,
would occasion some degree of explosion, although it is also
probable that the gentlemen in the Endeavour's boat might not
have been near enough to have heard it: however, after all, there
is much reason to believe, that what Captain Cook saw upon that
coast