[Anon.], ‘On the Products of Industry of Aboriginal Races at the Great Exhibition’, Colonial Intelligencer and Aborigines’ Friend (1850–2)

The blow-pipe of the Indians of South America, for instance, is a proof of their admirable dexterity, both in the manufacture and the use. The most practised European workman would be puzzled, without the assistance of suitable machinery, to form a tube of one-third of an inch bore, from end to end of a piece of wood of from eight to ten feet in length, so absolutely true and accurate, that, on looking down it, not the slightest irregularity is to be perceived; and by means of which they seldom fail to strike the smallest bird at a distance of thirty or forty yards. The most complete collection was undoubtedly that from the west coast of Africa, for the exhibition of which the people are mainly indebted to the instrumentality of Dr. M’William, well known as a medical practitioner connected with the African Squadron.