WESTERN HINDOOSTAN. 149 



A Captain Coffin, engaged in the fouthern or Guinea whale 

 fifhery, found in a female fpermaceti whale, three hundred 

 and fixty ounces of ambergrife. This is faid not to be unufual, 

 but then it always is in fickly emaciated fiflies. Thefe inftances 

 do not prove that it was the produ6lion of the fpermaceti 

 whale, the food of which is /quids, or the fepia : many of the 

 horny beaks were found adhering to the ambergrife, or im*- 

 merfed in that foft fubftance. It appears to me, that the 

 whales fometimes fwallow it, that it difagrees with them, and 

 a6ls as a fort of poifon, bringing on a decay, and death; and 

 that the parts of the fepia found lodged in it, are the undilTolved 

 remains lodged in the ambergrife. Mr. Coffin fold his prize at 

 nineteen fhiliings and nine pence per- ounce. This is related in 

 Phil. Tranf. Ixxxi. p. 43. 



Midway between thefe ifles and thofe of the Ma/dives, is Isle or r.lAir- 

 the ifle of Malique, a fmall, low, and folitary fpot, furrounded 

 with breakers, feated in Lat. 8° 20' north. It is inhabited, and 

 dependent on a Rajah on the Malabar coafl. A large ihallop 

 of twenty-two oars came off to a French India fliip in 177O': 

 among the people were three who appeared of rank, and who 

 very politely offered their fervices to the European officer. 



The Maldive iflands are to the fouth of the laft. They Maldive. 

 extend from north to fouth, inclining a little to the fouth-ealf, 

 from Lat. 7° 25' to a little more than Lat. 1°. Thefe are the 

 moft lingular and numerous groups of illes in the world : 

 From their numhGr Ptolemy names them Infult^ mccclxxviii. 

 The Nubian Geographer calls thefe ifles Robaibat, 



The. 



