DAMPIER^S SOJOURN IN GREAT NICOBAR 257 



where we lay, and I saw a great deal of such ambergris that 

 one of his men bought there ; but it was not good, having no 

 smell at all. Yet I saw some there very good and 

 fragrant. 



" At that island * where Captain Weldon was there were two 

 friars, sent thither to convert the Indians. One of them came 

 away with Captain Weldon ; the other remained there still. 

 He that came away with Captain Weldon gave a very good 

 character to the inhabitants of that island, viz., that they were 

 very honest, civil, harmless people ; that they were not addicted 

 to quarrelling, theft, or murder ; that they did marry, or 

 at least live as man and wife, one man with one woman, 

 never changing till death made the separation ; that they 

 were punctual and honest in performing their bargains ; and 

 that they were inclined to receive the Christian religion. 

 This relation I had afterwards from the mouth of a priest at 

 Tonquin who told me that he received this information by a 

 letter from the friar that Captain Weldon brought away from 

 thence." f 



But, to proceed : — " The 5th day of May we ran down on the 

 west side of the island Nicobar properly so-called, and anchored 

 at the N.W. end of it, in a small bay, in 8 fathoms water, not 

 half a mile from the shore. The body of this island is in 7° 30' 

 N. lat.J It is about 12 leagues long, and 3 or 4 broad. The 

 south end of it is pretty high, with steep cliffs against the sea ; 

 the rest of the island is low, flat, and even. § The mould of it 

 is black and deep, and it is very well watered with small running 

 streams. It produceth abundance of tall trees, fit for any uses ; 

 for the whole bulk of it seems to be but one entire grove. But 

 that which adds most to its beauty off at sea, are the many spots 



* Nankauri (?) 



t Dalrymple, in his Oriental Repertory^ states, that Captain Weldon 

 surveyed the Nicobars in 1687, and sent the survey, together with a history 

 of the islands, by a Spanish priest to the East India Company. It does not 

 appear to have been ever printed. 



X The parallel of 7° N. lat. bisects the island. 



§ In this sentence of his description, Dampier's observations are incorrect. 



R 



