SKETCHES AT THE NICOBARS. 
269 
Captain H. (i this gentleman’s name is Ptolemy King ol 
Egypt*’ After this I shook off Pompey, as he smelt abomina¬ 
bly of musty todd y, and as we left him I heard him ask me “ I 
say, you no got eutlish (cutlass) no got musket, make sell ?” 
As John Bull did not care for dancing he agreed to escort us 
back, receiving from the Patriarch and Elders a large piece 
of raw pork. We arrived at about 10 x. m. at our tents, 
where we had a good breakfast waiting for us. I was tho¬ 
roughly starved out of Kameeoos, or I should have been glad 
to have remained there some time longer. 
We subsequently visited Nancowry harbour, where from 
vessels having been cut off we were much more or our guard 
Still I observed on shore, and went about the country a good 
deal, but always armed. Captain H. did l believe but little 
trade here, the natives being suspicious and shy. The har¬ 
bour is a very noble one, and being open to the East and West 
is accessible in both monsoons Having seen in Horsburgh 
that the women on Bompoho were fairer and more beautiful 
than on the other islands, t determined to go there, and as I 
landed my heart palpitated as I thought of the beauty I was 
to encounter, but I never was more deceived in my life. They 
were, without exception, the ugliest specimens of the sex I hud 
seen. 1 saw no young damsels,-all those whom I met were 
engaged in the domestic occupation of nursing, and dangling 
small specimens of humanity of some two feet in length, but 
their close cropped hair, their mouths filled with tobacco, 
their huge breasts flapping about like leather bellows, their 
dirt, filth and imcouthness of dress, filled my mind with dis« 
gust, and made me reflect that Captain Horsburgh might be a 
very excellent hydrographer but no judge of women. I felt 
heart sick and worse than all sold. In the afternoon, notwith¬ 
standing, I had the madness to walk along the beach under a 
sultry sun, and the cons quence was fever of a very bad des¬ 
cription. We last of all went to Luxur in the island of Ter- 
ressa. Hiked the people here much, they were eager for 
trade, but without that disgusting importunity so perceptible 
in the Car Nicobareans. It was at this village that I met with 
a man named Gold Mohur, whom I took to amazingly. He 
had sent his stick on board to notify to us he was coming. 
This stick, like the knife and tobacco box of the first Go¬ 
vernor in New York, was his emblem of authority. He was 
a jovial little fellow,—in the middle of trade, he would fall 
to singing “ We’re the lads for mirth and glee” or Put on 
your night caps, keep yourselves warm, jolly companne En¬ 
glishman,” This he would repeat ten or a dozen times* 
