194 DIRECTION ISLAND. [1846. 



return from this service that these islands were discovered 

 by him. In 1823, Alexander Hare, an Englishman, 

 whose pursuits bear a very doubtful character, took pos- 

 session of the southern Keeling Island, bringing with 

 him an establishment of Malays, including a seraglio. In 

 1826 Mr. J. C. Ross, formerly master of a merchant ship, 

 settled on one of the eastern group, and finding Hare's 

 Malays in the condition of slaves, countenanced their 

 desertion of his interests ; their complaint against Hare 

 being that they were deprived of their women, whom 

 Hare secluded on a separate island, to which they were 

 denied access. Hare then resigned to Ross, and quitted 

 the islands. Since that period affairs appear to have 

 gone on smoothly, the Malays catching fish, turtle, and 

 rearing pigs and poultry for the consumption of those 

 vessels which may touch at these islands. I certainly 

 expected to find the residence of Capt. Ross, after a lapse 

 of twenty years, in a decent condition. It presented, 

 however, little more than such a house as would rapidly 

 be raised from the timber saved from a wrecked vessel, 

 and gloomy beyond conception, being completely over- 

 shadowed by cocoa-nut trees, and, as a natural result, 

 swarming with mosquitoes. The Malay village was infi- 

 nitely more inviting. Here we noticed a very rude mill, 

 in which they were grinding the cocoa-nuts for oil, and 

 in every direction groups of turtle lately captured. Some 

 of these were purchased, but the price, considering the 

 profusion, was rather high. As the Malays did not ven- 

 ture off to the ship to sell their commodities, I suspect 

 that the general produce passes through the hands of 

 Ross's family. The western tongue of Direction Island 



