356 Notice of the Nicobar Islands. [No. 173. 



which no one could answer, except a person who had seen them both. 

 Some persons have been brought from the Andamans to Penang, and no 

 doubt has ever been entertained, but they are unquestionably of African 

 extraction. I had occasion to see at Nancowry a man from Mozam- 

 bique, who had seen several times persons from the Andamans, and who 

 assured me that they were people belonging to the same race as 

 himself. It is not to be supposed that the above mentioned person 

 could have confounded two races so distinct as are the Africans and the 

 Papa wans. The hair of the last mentioned race grows in small tufts, 

 each having a spiral twist. The forehead rises higher ; the nose is more 

 projecting from the face ; the upper lip is longer ; the lower projects 

 forward from the lower jaw to such an extent, that the chin forms as it 

 were no part of the face. This description given by Sir Everard Home, 

 forms a striking mark of the dissimilarity between the two races. 



* The Little Nicobar has a beautiful anchorage ; the Steamer Ganges 

 anchored opposite to a sandy beach, close to Pulo Beloo, at a short dis- 

 tance from the sea-shore. There is between the hills a beautiful valley, 

 irrigated by a small river running from the south to the north ; at the 

 mouth of that river is a cave, in which numbers of the Collocalia fuel- 

 phaga build their nests : the bottom of the cave is filled several feet 

 deep with guano. Coal has been found towards the northern point of 

 the island ; but it appears that the product would not pay the expenses 

 of working it. The hills, which cover the interior of the island, may be 

 estimated from one thousand to twelve hundred feet high. The sea- 

 slugs called trepan, which is such a delicacy for the Chinese, abound 

 in the harbour. 



The beauty of the harbour, the safety of the anchorage, and the 

 fertility of the soil, induced the Danish Government to choose this 

 island for their head-quarters. The Steamer Ganges, which was 

 bought for the use of the new colony, went in December last to 

 Penang, in order to procure coolies ; of the forty Chinamen taken on 

 board, a part of them were unfortunately opium smokers ; the conse- 

 quence was, that when the supply of that drug which they had brought 

 from Penang, was exhausted, being unable to procure any at Nicobar, 

 they had no strength to go on with their work : after lingering for 

 sometime, they fell victims to the deadly effect of that most pernicious 

 habit. The remainder of the Chinamen have been employed in clearing 



