They also upon such occasions painted their faces red; some had marks upon their arms and shoulders, occasioned by scarifying those parts in long stripes, and letting the sore rise above the surface of the skin; they frequently wore a bone or reed thrust through the septum of the nose, and, like the natives of Lord Howe's Groupe, had also holes cut through the wings of the nose, into which were fixed short pieces of hollow reed, as ladies wear wires to keep the ears open when newly bored; into these hollows or rings they occasionally stuck long pieces of reed, which are no doubt considered by them as ornamental. The men in general were well looking people, but such of their women as I saw were very ordinary. The weapons used by the people of this island were lances of different kinds, some were made of a kind of ebony, or hard wood, about ten feet long, frequently ornamented with feathers of different colours at the upper end; others were made of bamboo, pointed with hard wood; the lance is thrown by hand, but they had not the use of the throwing stick, like the natives of New South Wales: they also, in their quarrels, used the sling for throwing stones, which appears to be made of some tough dried leaf, several times doubled; the strings were manufactured from some soft, silky, and fibrous plant; they throw a round hard pebble, of which they generally carried a small nett full about them; the stones were about the size of a small fowl's egg, and flew with much force, and great exactness from the sling: they had also a long unhandy kind of club. They used, in fishing, a fishing spear, small seine netts, and hooks and lines; their hooks were of tortoise-shell, from which circumstance there can be no doubt but they have either turtle in their neighbourhood, or the tortoise upon the island. They had a kind of musical instrument, with which they sometimes, in their canoes alongside, endeavoured to amuse us; it was composed of a number of hollow reeds of different lengths, fastened together, but they did not seem to be very expert in proportioning their lengths, or tuning them to harmony: sound, not concord, seemed to be all they expected from it; they blew into the mouth of the different reeds by drawing the instrument across their lips, and in that manner they produced sounds: their vocal music was far more harmonious, although there was not much variety in it. Those who were considered as people of distinction were always to be found in a better sort of boat than common; and I observed, that when any canoe came near the ship with people of distinction on board, the higher ranks were always to be known by a man sitting in the middle of the boat, who held a wooden instrument in his hand, resembling in shape a common paddle, but handsomely carved and painted, with its handle finished something like the hilt of a sword.