The dawn was breaking.

The island soon showed itself through the dissipating fogs, first the shore, then the summits.
The natives were there, more numerous than on the day before--five or six hundred perhaps--some of them, profiting by the low water, had come on to the coral, at less than two cable-lengths from the Nautilus.

I distinguished them easily; they were true Papuans, with athletic figures, men of good race, large high foreheads, large, but not broad and flat, and white teeth.

Their woolly hair, with a reddish tinge, showed off on their black shining bodies like those of the Nubians.
From the lobes of their ears, cut and distended, hung chaplets of bones.

Most of these savages were naked.