150 GREAT NICOBAR— WEST COAST 



climbing a palm and refreshing ourselves with stolen coconuts, 

 we set out on the return walk, in order to avoid being over- 

 taken by darkness." 



''March 21. — A light breeze set in shortly after 8 A.M., and 

 we weighed anchor. It soon freshened somewhat, and we 

 worked down the coast, tacking on and off. First we passed 

 the point forming the north extremity of Casuarina Bay, 

 distinguished by a single palm tree which rises high above the 

 jungle, and next came abreast of Kopenheat, marked by a grove 

 of palms and a hut, finally bringing up at 1.15 P.M. in 9 fathoms, 

 at a spot well protected by a reef from the S.W. swell, with a 

 conspicuous round house bearing E. This anchorage was a 

 little bay formed by the shore running roughly N. and W., and 

 we were in an indentation of the reef, which, when the latter 

 dries at low tide, is about 300 yards wide. 



"The village here is called Pulo Nyur {^Malay^QozoVivX 

 Island), seven houses in all, and lies in the shade of palm trees 

 broken into groups by intervening stretches of jungle. 



" Going ashore in the afternoon we met in the largest house 

 several men and boys from Pulo Babi, the next village southward. 

 Of the other buildings, four or five are uninhabited and falling to 

 pieces. There was only one regular inhabitant in the place — a 

 man whose father, brother, and wife had all died six months 

 previously, and who, unless he could get another wife shortly, 

 intended to leave the spot, which will probably soon be deserted, 

 for his female acquaintances — not unnaturally — objected to such 

 a lonely life. 



" A year ago a man was killed by the Shom Pen on the 

 outskirts of the village, and at the same time the man we saw 

 at Pulo Kunyi barely escaped with his life. 



" Several paths lead towards the interior, but the village has 

 no (friendly) relations with the aborigines. 



" Behind, and to one side, lay a large stretch of grass-covered 

 swamp, on which a herd of monkeys was playing until we 

 appeared, while numbers of herons, big and little, were perched 

 in the surrounding trees. The morass was composed of a sort of 



