LANCASTER'S ACCOUNT 211 



Lancaster's own account of the " Islands of Nicobar " is more 

 interesting, and is based on his experiences there in 1602. Of 

 either Pulo Milo or Kondul he writes : — 



" Here we had fresh water and some coconuts, other refresh- 

 ing had we none. Yet the people came aboard our ships in long 

 canoes which would hold twenty men in one of them, and brought 

 gums to sell instead of amber, and therewithal deceived divers of 

 our men : for these people of the east are wholly given to deceit 

 They brought us hens and coconuts to sell, but held them very 

 dear, so that we bought few of them. We stayed here ten 

 days. . . . 



" We were forced to go to the island of Sombrero (the 

 Portuguese name for Chaura) some 10 or 12 leagues to the 

 northward of Little Nicobar. Here we lost an anchor, for the 

 ground is foul and groweth full of counterfeit coral and some 

 rocks, which cut our cable asunder. 



" The people of these islands go naked, having only the privities 

 bound up in a piece of linen cloth, which cometh about their 

 middles like a girdle and so between their twist. They are all 

 of a tawny colour, and anoint their faces with divers colours : 

 they are well limbed, but very fearful : for none of them would 

 come aboard our ships, or enter our boats. 



" The General reported that he had seen some of their priests 

 all apparelled, but close to their bodies, as if they had been 

 sewed in it ; and upon their heads a pair of horns turning 

 backwards {td-chokld), with their faces painted green, black, and 

 yellow, and their horns also painted the same colour. And 

 behind them, upon their buttocks, a tail hanging down very 

 much like in the manner as in some painted clothes we paint 

 the devil in our country. He demanding wherefore they went 

 in that attire, answer was made him, that in such form the 

 devil appeared to them in their sacrifices, and therefore the 

 priests, his servants, were so apparelled. In this island grow 

 trees which for their tallness, greatness, and straightness will 

 serve the biggest ships in all our fleet for a mainmast, and 

 the island is full of these trees." This description of the island 

 cannot be said to be applicable at the present day. 



" Here likewise we found upon the sand by the seaside a 

 small twig ( Virgiilaria mirabilis ?) growing up to a grand tree, 



