260 DAMPIER'S SOJOURN IN GREAT NICOBAR 



cocks and hens like ours. The men employ themselves in fish- 

 ing, but I did not see much fish that they got ; every house 

 hath at least two or three canoes belonging to it, which they 

 draw up ashore. 



" The canoes that they go fishing in are sharp at both ends, 

 and both the sides and the bottom are very thin and smooth. 

 They are shaped somewhat like the praus at Guam, with one 

 side flattish and the other with a pretty big belly ; and they 

 have small slight outlayers* on one side. Being thus thin and 

 light, they are better managed with oars than with sails : yet 

 they sail well enough, and are steered with a paddle. There 

 commonly go twenty or thirty men in one of these canoes ; 

 and seldom fewer than nine or ten. Their oars are short, 

 and they do not paddle, but row with them as we do. f The 

 benches they sit on when they row'are made of split bamboos 

 laid across, and so near together that they look like a deck. 

 The bamboos lie movable : so that when any go in to row 

 they take up a bamboo in the place where they would sit, and 

 lay it by to make room for their legs. The canoes of those of 

 the rest of these islands were like those of Nicobar, and probably 

 they were alike in other things ; for we saw no difference at 

 all in the natives of them who came hither while we were 

 here. 



" But, to proceed with our affairs : it was, as I said before, 

 the 5th day of May, about ten in the morning, when we anchored 

 at this island. Captain Read immediately ordered his men to 

 heel the ship, in order to clean her, which was done this day and 

 the next. All the water-vessels were filled ; they intended to go 

 to sea at night, for the winds being yet at N.N.E., the captain 

 was in hopes to get over to Cape Comorin before the wind 

 shifted. Otherwise it would have been somewhat difficult for 

 him to get thither, because the westerly monsoon was not at 

 hand. 



" I thought now was my time to make my escape, by getting 



* Outriggers. 



t Nowadays they invariably paddle, and have no oars. 



