The present picture follows the direction of Caldwalls' engraving. Hodges other drawings and Caldwalls' First state engraving show the subject naked (as he was) and holding a bow and arrows. The cloak appears to have been introduced by Hodges in the lost drawing to cover up a defect, as Forster later lamented that this latter 'had made it necessary to infringe the costume, and to throw a drapery over the shoulder, though these people have no kind of clothing.' (G. Forster, op. cit., II, pp. 209-10), or may simply have been favoured by the engraver, or was based on a misunderstanding in Caldwall's reading of the text. Cook's description of this subject had been edited (see below*) by the Rev. Canon Douglas: 'in general, they are the most ugly, ill-proportioned people I ever saw, and in every respect different from any we had met with in this sea. Theyare a very dark-coloured and rather diminuitive race; with long heads, flat faces, and monkey countenances. Their hair mostly black or brown, is short and curly ... Their beards are very strong, crisp, and bushy, and generally black and short ... The men go quite naked, except a piece of cloth or leaf used as a wrapper [*] ... The bridge of the nose is pierced, in which they wear a piece of white stone ...' (Cook (1777), II, pp. 34-5)

* Cook landed on Malekula in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) on 22 July, 1774