as he neared the schooner, took from his pocket an old silk cravat and arranged it round his neck.

After a few coconuts or oranges had been handed up, the old man would come below and shake hands all round. "I want smoke cigar, I want drink rum," was followed by a prompt refusal of anything smaller than a tumbler. Then would come the invariable preamble: "You my friend, I your friend; we give presents and make return," with reference to the coconuts; followed by demands for medicine, turpentine, camphor, quinine, scent, and Eno; and as all his wants could not be satisfied, he professed he could not understand why on earth we had come without these things. When we came again we were to bring all of them, and we should then be great friends. He desired that we would convey the following to every one at home-foreigners he did not like:-"You go tell all men-Come here, come here, come here. I Friend of England, I good man. You bring much medicine, you give me-we be great friends, I make return. I plenty good man; I speak true, I no lie!"

He carried a large number of chits from officers of ships that had called here during many years past, and was very anxious that we should add to the number.*

(a) "The bearer of this, Friend of England, is a very worthy young man. He supplied me with a great quantity of nuts last voyage, and he can be trusted to any amount under 6000 pairs.

10th March 1853,

Off Lapáti Village, Car Nicobar.

(Sd.) R. MIDDLETON, Commander. Barque Colonel Brown."

(b) "This is to certify that I have traded with Friend of England, a native of this island, in coconuts, fruits, etc. Since I have found him to be trusty, honest to his agreements, therefore, I feel pleasure in saying that you can trust him with the truth before heaven.

North-West Bay, Island of Car Nicobar,

March 3rd, 1857.

Barque Rochester of London. (Sd.) W. J. GREEN, Master of the above-named ship.”

(c) "On our visit to the north side of Car Nicobar, I found the bearer, Friend of England, an honest, inoffensive man, and very willing to afford all the assistance in his power to us during our stay.

H.M. Steamer Undaunted, (Sd.) W. L. C. BERESFORD, Commander. January 1873."

"FRANK THOMPSON"

57

Poor old "Friend of England"! his lines are no longer cast in pleasant places. His last wife, the widow of a friend, became blind, and he can no longer obtain another on account of his old age; he has become estranged from his son because of his too amorous conduct towards the latter's wife, and has had to pay several fines on account of similar behaviour towards other neighbours.

Our last glimpse of him as he made for the shore, after having been assisted to his canoe, generally caught him in the act of undoing his cherished necktie and restoring it, carefully folded, to his pocket.

One day when we had so far broken through our rule as to give him a bottle of rum and water to take ashore “for medicine after we had gone"-going a couple of hours later into the village, we found "Friend of England" tottering up a path, and tried to take his portrait. But the old scamp, who all his life had lived in the sun, refused on this occasion to come out of the shade, and was so afflicted with involuntary staggers, that the result of several exposures was a very qualified success, and lost much of the impressiveness of the original, through his unwillingness to don his necktie in the customary Byronic style.

One of our guides about the island was "Frank Thompson," one of Mr Solomon's "most promising pupils, and a sincere Christian"—a rather stupid-looking youth, who had spent some years at the Port Blair School. I fear that we regarded him with some contempt, for he seemed to have developed into nothing better than a hanger-on at the Agency, and although he spoke English fairly well, and could doubtless read and write a little, in the jungle he proved to be quite useless. Birds he could scarcely ever see; he did not know the way about, and after a few miles, he was blowing and panting, and groaning inquiries as to how much farther he was to go. Thompson however could beg as well as the rest, nor was he out of his element when the rum and cigars were being passed round.

A very different character was my shikari "Little John," native name unknown. This man was perhaps, on the whole, the best specimen physically of a Nicobarese that we came across. A handsome, rather scornful, face, with aquiline nose, was only spoiled by the occurrence of the Mongolian fold in the inner corner of the eyelids. His curly black hair was worn long, in a thick bushy mass, as far as his shoulders, where it was cut off straight across. Though only 5 feet 6 inches in height, he was splendidly built: was 40 inches round the chest, 131 inches round the biceps, and 15 inches round the calf. The natives admitted that he was about the strongest man in the village of Mūs.*

He was awfully keen on collecting; could creep noiselessly through the jungle, and saw birds that I took long to distinguish, even after he had pointed them out. He was also a good "pot-shot," and nothing delighted him more than to carry the gun, and after having it loaded with cartridge suitable to the occasion, to fire at and bring down the specimen, when he would hand the weapon to me and dash away amongst the undergrowth to retrieve his booty, bringing it back with the greatest care.

He was an unwearying hunter, and would often creep about for ten minutes at a time, under some tree, in order to point out for my approval, and get a clear shot at, some bird whose presence he had discovered in the dense foliage.

He used to accompany us on board the schooner, and after having breakfasted with the crew, would sit in the cabin with a cigar, watching us as we worked at the skins, and improving his little English by constant inquiries: "How you call dis? What you call dat?"

The desire of the Nicobarese to learn words, and acquire the name of anything they do not know, is great, and their powers of memory are astonishing. The exercise of these linguistic abilities is most marked in the headmen, or "captains"

His portrait is, unfortunately, a failure, as he seems to have moved slightly during the time of exposure.