NICOBARISLANDS. 21 



fided there fome time. He reprefents the natives as honeft, 

 civil, and harmlefs, hufband of one wife, and, according to the 

 E)}gl[//j rule, till death doth them part. They are neither ad- 

 dicted to quarrel, theft, or murder ; in tlieir perfons they are 

 tall and well-limbed, their vifages long, nofes well proportioned, 

 and their whole features agreeable, their hair lank and black, 

 their ik.ins a deep copper; the men go naked, excepting the 

 wrapper which palTes round their waifl-, and from thence under 

 the thighs, and brought fo as to tuck before. The women wear 

 a fliort petticoat not reaching lower than the knee. 



These people have neither an apparent government or reli- 

 gion ; each man is patriarchal, the ruler of his own family. 

 Their property confifts in the plantations of coco palms, which Coco Trees. 

 are along the fhores ; the country inland feemed not cleared, 

 and impervious by any paths. 



They have another tree of ufe, which they call the Melory ; Melory. 

 it grows wild : Dampier, who was very obfervant, fays he 

 never faw any in other parts of his travels ; he adds, it grows 

 to the lize of our larger apple trees ; that the fruit is as 

 big as a penny loaf, of the fliape of a pear, with a fmooth 

 greenifli rind; the infide is like that of an apple, but full 

 of fmall firings; it is their chief food; they either eat it 

 boiled, or fcrape the pulp clear from the firings, and make it 

 into a cake as large as a Dutch cheefe, which will keep fix or 

 feven days, and has a good tafte; they have a few fmall hogs, 

 and fome poultry. 



The principal employ of the natives is filliing : their ca- 

 noes are fharp at each end; flat on one fide, and convex on 



the 



