Kulkalega tribe of natives.

These blacks belonged to the Kulkalega or Kulkalaig tribe, as was ascertained by Giaom, who was well-known to some of them, and understood enough of their language to keep up a conversation.  Nearly the whole tribe, she was informed, are now upon Sue Island, although their headquarters are, as mentioned before, at Mount Ernest.  The men in the canoe differed in no material respect from the natives of the Prince of Wales Islands on one hand, and those of Darnley Island on the other.  Many had the characteristic faint oval scar on one shoulder, some wore the hair in moderately long pipe-like ringlets, while others had it cut close.  All were perfectly naked, and the only ornaments worn were the large round pearl-shell on the breast.  The canoe was rather singular in form, with greater beam than I had ever seen in one, nor did the sides tumble home as usual; the bow was sharp, but the stern square, as if effected by cutting a very large canoe in halves, and filling up the open end.  We saw several bamboo bows and bundles of arrows, stowed away under the platform; these the natives would not part with, but a large quantity of very fine tortoise-shell was obtained, chiefly in exchange for leaf tobacco, which they know by the name of sugub.

When the tide slackened we got underweigh, and the natives returned to their island.  Sue, although the largest of the Three Sisters, is not more than the third of a mile in length.  Like all the islands of the eastern side of Torres Strait, with the exception of the Darnley and Murray Islands, this is of the coral sand formation, low and thickly wooded.  Some coconut-trees grow at the west end of the island, where there is a native village which we approached close enough to have a good view of it with the spy-glass.  It consisted of several long huts, thatched with grass, which apparently are not much used during the daytime, as we saw no one entering or coming out of them.  Many of the people, both men and women, ran down to the beach, waving green branches to induce us to land; others were sitting down under temporary sheds made by stretching large mats—­the sails of their canoes—­over a framework of sticks.  The inside of one large enclosure was concealed by a fence six feet high, and an adjacent shed, under which some cooking was going on, was completely covered with some recent shells of turtle, apparently about thirty in number.  Three very large canoes were hauled up on the beach, protected from the sun by matting, and two smaller ones were kept afloat.  There appeared to be about 60 people upon the island, from which, and other circumstances, I do not suppose the Kulkalega tribe to consist of more than 100 souls.  The women whom we saw wore loose petticoats of leaves reaching to below the knees.

The ship worked up through the channel between Bet and Sue Islands, and anchored for the night off the eastern extreme of the reef running out from the former.  Four large canoes coming from the northward passed over the reef at high-water, going towards Sue Island.