mode of dressing the
hair; it is usually shaved off the temples and occasionally a little way
up the forehead, then combed out at length, and tied midway with a
string, leaving one part straight, and the remainder frizzled out into a
mop projecting horizontally backwards. Some also had a long pigtail
hanging down behind, in one case decorated with a bunch of dogs' teeth at
the end. Across the forehead they wore fillets of small shells strung
together over a broad white band of some leafy substance. The septum of
the nose was perforated, and some wore a long straight nose-stick of bone
with black bands. All our visitors had their teeth darkened with the
practice of betel chewing--we saw them use the leaf of the betel pepper,
the green areca nut, and lime, the last carried in a small calabash with
a spatula.

LEAVE NEW GUINEA.

We had been becalmed all the morning, but before noon the seabreeze set
in from the South-South-East, and we got underweigh, ran past South-west
Cape, and anchored in 22 fathoms mud, off a large island afterwards named
in honour of Lieutenant Yule.

September 27th.

This has proved a very uneasy anchorage under the combined influence of a
strong breeze from the south-east and a heavy sea. At one P.M. we got
underweigh in company with the Bramble, and left the coast of New Guinea,
running to the westward for Cape York, in order to meet the vessel with
our supplies from Sydney.

Next evening Bramble Cay was seen on our weather beam; being so low and
so small an object, we had nearly missed it. We hauled upon a wind
immediately but could not fetch its lee, so anchored two and a half miles
North-west by West from it. Great numbers of boobies and noddies came
about us, but our distance from the shore was too great and our stay too
short to send on shore for birds' eggs.

September 29th.

With a strong south-easterly breeze we passed to the westward of Campbell
and Stephens Islands, the Bramble leading, and anchored in the evening
near Marsden Island. On Campbell Island, numbers of the natives came down
to the edge of the reef, waving to us as we passed by, and inviting us to
land. There were many coconut-trees, and we saw a village on the
north-west side of the island, beautifully situated on the shady skirts
of the wood. The huts resemble those of Darnley Island, being shaped like
a haycock or beehive, with a projecting central pole ornamented with a
large shell or two attached to it. Most of