yields good timber; Sterculia campanulata and Terminalia procera, which grow to immense sizes. The Nicobar and many other palms occur in numbers, and a wild species of cinnamon is common, as also is Amomum fenzlii, the leaves of which are used for cigarette wrappings, and the fruit much eaten by the natives.

But little fruit is grown about the villages: limes, guavas, and soursops are commonest. In the way of supplies, coconuts, pigs, and a few fowls might be obtained from the natives, and beef by shooting the wild cattle. Water in the harbour is very bad, and scarce.*

By a comparison of the census returns (1886 and 1901), the population would seem to have been stationary for many years: it now consists of 224 individuals.

The central group of islands was once notorious for the frequent disasters occurring to vessels calling there. It was for long thought that the numerous total losses that occurred in the Bengal Sea were due to storms and cyclones; but at length the discovery was made, that, from the beginning of the century until the British occupation, the vicinity of Nankauri Harbour was the habitat of a band of pirates, who cut off and murdered the crews of many vessels calling to trade and supply themselves with water or provisions. The headquarters of the band appear to have been in Expedition Harbour, and from there, whenever a vessel anchored at the islands, they sallied out, and either getting on board under the guise of peaceful natives, took the crews by surprise with a sudden attack, or else cut up landing-parties, and then captured the weakened vessel.

In this way, always by treachery and never in open warfare, they succeeded in capturing ship after ship.

There is some ground for belief that, for a time, the piratical goings-on were carried out under the leadership of an Englishman

* Mr E. H. Man writes, however:-"Water is plentiful in the numerous masonry wells and reservoir in the old Government station which is in the harbour. We used to boil and filter it by way of precaution, and then it was quite safe."

named William Worthington. The dates given in the various accounts of him are contradictory; but it appears that, about 1808, Worthington deserted at Nankauri from the frigate Bucephalus, and that for some years subsequently the pirates were directed by a man who gave that name as his.

In 1814, the Ceres was boarded by an Englishman, who stated that he had been left behind by a man-of-war. After inspecting the vessel, he left, and next day, as the anchor was being hove up, he arrived at the head of about thirty canoes, and made a futile attack on the ship.

A short time after, the brig Hope was cut off. An Englishman, who had previously stated he was Worthington, deserter from the Bucephalus, murdered the captain and mate, and the natives despatched the crew, with the exception of two or three, who escaped in a boat and in some way arrived at Rangoon.

At length Worthington was either expelled from the harbour, or left with some home-going Bompokans; but be that as it may, a man of that name lived for some years on Teressa and Bompoka, where several captains met with, or received letters from, him. Their opinions of his character differed. He was last seen in December 1820, when he reported that a ship from Bengal had been cut off and massacred at Nankauri, with several others previously, by natives led by Kafirs. He stated that after he deserted at Nankauri, he was unable to leave until he had paid a ransom to the natives. His death took place the same year, and the natives with whom he lived afterwards gave him the best of characters: that "John," as they called him, had long dwelt quietly and amicably amongst them. His seems to have thus been a case of "devil turned monk," and his career amongst the natives akin to the records of the better-known "beachcombers" of the early days in the Pacific.*

In a paper contributed to the Journal of the Indian Archipelago, 1847, the missionary, Chopard, says that silver had a peculiar attraction for the natives, and was the chief article which induced them to butcher, by treachery always, crews of vessels calling at * Vide Asiatic Journal, vols. xiii., xv., xvi.

the harbour. He knew a Kamortan, thirty-five years of age, who recollected eight vessels which had been cut off there in that

manner.

In 1833, a Cholia vessel was cut off in the false harbour of Nankauri (Expedition Harbour) and everyone murdered. In 1844, Captain Ignatius Ventura, from Moulmein, commanding the Mary, anchored on the north side of Teressa at two o'clock, and an hour later he and his crew were murdered. In the same year, Captain Law met the same fate on Kamorta. In 1845, a vessel, having taken in part of her cargo at Kachal, sailed to the false harbour at Nankauri to complete, and all hands were murdered.*

"While I was at Kar Nicobar," Captain Gardner writes in 1857,† "two vessels were cut off at Nankauri, the crews massacred, and the ships plundered and scuttled." In 1840, the Pilot, South Sea whaler, was cut off there, and the captain, mates, and twentyfive men murdered; the third mate, surgeon, and seven men escaped to sea in a boat. In 1844, the cutter Emilia visited Nankauri, and her captain was murdered within an hour of landing, but the boat escaped.

Piracy in the Nicobars came to an end with the occupation of Nankauri Harbour by the Indian Government in 1869; but two years previous to that it had been necessary to send there a a British punitive expedition, on account of the atrocities committed by the natives. A notification of the event was made by Captain N. B. Bedingfield, who commanded the expedition, in the first of the Port Registers entrusted to the Nankauri natives.

"TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.

"WHEREAS the natives of these islands have been guilty of several acts of piracy; the crews of no less than four vessels. * Père Barbe, Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, vol. xv.

+ Singapore Review, vol. ii.

"Some Malays, who were at the Nicobars at the time, afterwards stated that the Pilot was attacked because the crew had tried to get hold of the native women; but those of the landing-party who escaped in the whaleboat, although attacked on shore simultaneously with the ship, tell a very different story." -Vide Asiatic Journal, 1841.