Native Hospitalit/j. — Recapitidation. 79 



last, after a scramble of several hours, highly interesting, but 

 exceedingly fatiguing, we reached a cleared spot on the sea- 

 beach, but without being able to discern tlie remotest trace 

 of any human habitations. On the contrary, it seemed to 

 admit of no doubt tliat this path, as also some spots that had 

 been cleared, were nothing but the preparations for an in- 

 tended settlement, which can only be successfully carried out 

 here where the cocoa-palm and screw-pine have first struck 

 root. Some of the sailors, who accompanied us as porters 

 and escort, went forward as far as the extreme point of the 

 bay, but there also they found no trace of any human abode. 

 After a brief rest we returned by the same track, to the spot 

 at which we had disembarked, where we were joined by some 

 of the officers, who, more fortunate than ourselves, had en- 

 countered some of the natives, and had even seen them in 

 their dwellings. They spoke of the interiors of the huts they 

 visited as being quite as wretched as those on the other is- 

 lands, only the inhabitants did not seem so shy or timorous. 

 Far from this, they had regaled our lucky companions with 

 palm-wine, and had accompanied them till they fell in with 

 us. With this visit ended the thirty-second day of our stay 

 in the Nicobar Archipelago, only one half of that period hav- 

 ing been spent on land, the rest having been occupied in 

 beating about against unfavourable winds. 



Before, however, we take our departure from this most 

 interesting group of islands, en route for the Sunda Islands 

 and China, we shall be excused for briefly recapitulating tlie 



