Visits of Early Navigators. 3 



round the body and then left to hang loosely, which gave 

 rise to such a report. With the arrival in Indian waters of 

 Dampier, that daring but most trustworthy of navigators, 

 the information respecting these islands first becomes more 

 definite. He landed in the north-western Bay of the largest 

 of these, to which he assigned the latitude 7^ 30' N., and gave 

 a most extensive narrative of his adventurous career from the 

 moment he abandoned the corsair-craft he had brought from 

 Europe to seek for assistance on the Nicobars, to the period 

 when, after braving a tremendous storm in a canoe, along 

 with seven of his companions in misfortune he landed half 

 dead on the northernmost point of Sumatra about 1706. 



In 1708, Captain Owen, another English shipmaster, 

 paid an involuntary visit to this Archipelago, his ship having 

 been stranded on the uninhabited island of Tillangschong, 

 whence he escaped with his crew to the islands Ning and 

 Som-i, only four miles to the westward, apparently what is 

 now known as Nangkauri. For the first time history now 

 records an outrage of which the natives were guilty towards 

 the strangers. 



It would appear that the captain, after having experienced 

 an exceedingly friendly reception, laid down his knife, upon 

 which one of the islanders, very possibly out of cm-iosity, 

 laid hold of it, pushed the owner aside, and ultimately 

 possessed himself of the knife. On the following day, as 

 Owen was taking his mid-day meal under a tree, he was set 

 upon and killed by several of the natives, who shot him 



B 2 



