After peace had been re-established on shore, the conk shell was sounded, which is the signal whereby they assemble considerable numbers; and in a very short time, they appeared coming from all parts of the wood round the bay, and were met by those who had been the means of bringing about a reconciliation, with a song of friendship, in which the whole joined, and which was really harmonious and very pleasing:  the canoes crowded the bay from different parts of the island, and were as familiar as ever, except that they would not now venture on board, which many had done before this quarrel:  every boat brought a green bough, that was conspicuously held up; they also brought many things to barter, and were pleased with such trifles as we had to give them in 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.