2J4 A FEW PARTICULARS RESPECTING 
taste appeared to me not inferior to those of the same kind 
I had eaten here. There is no timber of a large description,, 
the billy part of the country is covered with a high grass 
which the natives are in the habit of partially burning every 
year. 
The Danes are, I believe, the only Europeans who have 
made an attempt to colonize those islands. In about the 
middle of the last century they settled at Camarta, but the 
little colony was soon swept away by the fever. It is said 
that many Danish Missionaries died in that island, their 
tombs are still to be seen, of course in a very decayed state. 
When I went to that place I was so weak and exhausted, 
that, to my regret, I cou'd not go near them. The mission¬ 
ary efforts appear to have been entirely unsuccessful, although 
they laboured during a period of nearly 30 years. I have 
found among the inhabitants of that Island no vestige at all 
of Christianity. The only thing which is likely to perpetuate 
the remembrance of the Danish settlement, is the great 
number of wild cows which have multiplied from the stock 
brought over by the Danes. 
In time of war the Nicobar islands have often afforded 
a shelter to vessels, sometimes they went there to get water ; 
Admiral Suffren when cruising in the Indian seas touched 
there several times. During the late war the French priva¬ 
teers anchored several times in the harbour of Nancowry,— 
up lo this day the natives have retained many French words, 
mostly those coarse expressions which are chiefly used by 
sailors. I must say that they appear very quick in picking up 
a little of the languages used by the navigators who visit 
their islands ; they understand besides Malay and a little of 
Portuguese, English, Hindustanee and Burmese. 
The only iron weapons they use are those they receive 
from foreigners in exchange for their cocoanuts, such as 
knives of different sizes and spears. Some of them possess 
muskets, but use them very little. They are much afraid of 
that weapon ; a single man by pointing at them a musket 
would probably make them run away like a flock of sheep. 
Their favorite weapon, which is peculiar to them, is a sort of 
javaiin which they throw to a great distance of 50 yards, 
they often poison the point of the weapon, and the poison 
they use is a most subtle one. 
from what I have seen of this people, I do not believe 
they are naturally cruel and fond of spilling the blood of 
their fellow creatures. They have an aversion for such a deed, 
yet cupidity or the desire of procuring things they are fond 
