Hmgal to Ike Mnlmj ] ORIENTAL COMMERCE. 



321 



Provisions. — Port Cornwallis abounds in a great variety of fish- 

 mullets, soles, pomfrets, rock fish, skait, gurnets, sable, cockup, seer fish, 

 snappers, &c. likewise prawns, shrimps, and cray-fish. 



LITTLE ANDAMAN is about 30 miles to the S. of the former; 

 2S miles long, and 17 broad, but does not afford any harbour, though tole- 

 rable anchorage may be had near its coast ; it is therefore never frequented. 



The wild appearance of these islands, and the well-known disposition 

 of the natives, have deterred navigators from visiting them ; and they 

 have justly dreaded a shipwreck on them, more than foundering on the 

 ocean : for though it is known that many vessels have been wrecked upon 

 their coasts, an instance does not occur of any of the crews being saved, 

 or a single person returning to give an account of such a disaster. 



NICOBAR ISLANDS. — Tins cluster of islands extends N. N. W. to 

 S. S. E. near GO leagues, and contains seven principal islands, with eleven or 

 twelve smaller ones. The northernmost bears from the Little Andaman 

 S. 27° E. 29 leagues, and is called 



CAR NI COH All. — It is about six miles long, and five broad, its centre 

 in lat. 9 3 10' N. long. 92° 50' E M very low and level, and appears at a dis- 

 tance as if entirely covered with trees ; the island has good soundings every 

 where, free from danger. It is very populous, and the inhabitants are a 

 quiet, honest, and inoffensive people ; their houses are generally built upon 

 the beach, in villages of 15 or 20 each, and each house contains a family of 

 20 persons or upwards. These habitations are raised upon wooden pillars, 

 about 10 feet from the ground : they arc round, and having no windows, 

 look like beehives covered with thatch : the entry is by a trap-door below, 

 where the family mount by a ladder, which is drawn up at night. The 

 timber on the island is of many sorts, in great plenty, and some of it remark- 

 ably large, affording excellent materials for building or repairing ships. 



Trade. — The coco-nuts produced on these islands are reckoned the 

 finest in this part of India. Most of the country ships bound to Pegu 

 from either of the coasts of India, stop here, in order to procure a cargo 

 of coco-nuts, in exchange for which they take the following articles, vix. 



Cloth of different colours, hatchets, and hanger blades, which they 

 use to cut the nuts down with : tobacco and arrack are acceptable, but 

 expected as presents. The natives have no money of their own, nor 

 allow any value to those of other countries, further than as ornaments ; 

 however, they are good judges of gold and silver, and it is no easy 

 matter to impose baser metals on them as such. They purchase a much 

 larger quantity of cloth than is consumed upon their own island, which 



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