King George's Islands to Saypan, Tinian and Aguigan
Index
Search
Contact us
and cheerfulness in their 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. 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 that 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 shark’s 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.
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
 |
Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Volume I of the London 1773 Edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, page 113, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv01/149.html