Bing-Hong invited us to pay him a visit on board his vessel, which had already been lying for several months at anchor in Nangkauri harbour, taking in a cargo of ripe cocoa-nuts, of which a Picul, or 133 1⁄3 pounds, is worth in the Pulo Penang market 5 1⁄2 American dollars (£1 3s. sterling). This hospitable Chinese informed us it was at the period of our visit the least unhealthy season in Nangkauri harbour: that as soon as the S.W. monsoon sets in, all foreign ships hurry away, through dread of the illnesses that follow in its track. However, feverish attacks are of daily occurrence throughout the
year. Of the thirteen men who formed the crew of the barque, ten were laid up with fever. The disorderly habits of life, however, of foreign visitors are much more to blame for these frequent attacks of disease than the unhealthiness of the climate. Constantly they are guilty of excesses in diet and general negligence of health, bathing during the utmost heat of the day without any covering to the head, exposing themselves to the burning rays of the noonday sun, drinking for the most part nothing but the fluid contents of the unripe cocoa-nut, eating quantities of juicy fruits, the constant use of which acts injuriously on the systems of strangers, and sleeping on the damp soil under the open air, exposed to all the noxious influences of the atmosphere of a tropical forest without the slightest shelter. Bing-Hong showed us the dried edible nests of the Hirundo esculenta (in Malay Salang, in Nicobar Hegái), and presented us with a small packet of about thirty nests. When properly dried, seventy-two of these tiny nests weigh one catty, or 1 1⁄4 lb., and they are sold at two rupees (4s.) for three of the inferior sort. The best quality is far more expensive. We caused some of these Chinese dainties to be prepared exactly as prescribed by Bing-Hong, that is to say, they were boiled for one hour in hot water, but we found the gelatinous mass quite tasteless, and, in fact, resembling dissolved gum. The swallow which constructs these edible nests does not however seem to be a regular visitant of the Nicobar Islands, and the profits on this article of commerce, which is of such importance in Java and
the rest of the Sunda Islands, are here scarcely worth naming.
It has been long disputed whence this industrious little warbler obtains the material for his nest, and it was in all probability the circumstance that it was generally believed to consist of particles of sea-weed, fish-roe, and marine animalculæ of the medusa class, which secured for these nests such a celebrity among Chinese gourmands. A German naturalist, Professor Troschel of Bonn, affirms however, on the strength of an analysis of these nests, that the notion hitherto prevalent as to the component parts of these nests is entirely erroneous, as they consist of nothing else than a thick, glutinous slime, secreted from the salivary glands, which, at the period when the Indian swallow builds its nest, swell out into large whitish masses. This slime, which is susceptible of being drawn out in long filaments from the bill of the animal, is quite analogous to gum Arabic. Whenever the bird is desirous of constructing its nest, it causes this salivary substance, which at that period is copiously secreted, to adhere to the crags, till its elegant nest is finished.
One of the days during which the frigate lay in Nangkauri harbour, the geologist of the Expedition made an excursion in a native canoe along the coasts of Kamorta and Tringkut, as these islands at the points where the shores are precipitous furnish the only possible geognostic facilities, the forest or the thick covering of vegetation in the interior of the island quite concealing the geological conformation. Our Chinese
friend Bing-Hong aforesaid accompanied him in the capacity of interpreter. When the geologist had got some distance from the frigate, he found that the natives had not abandoned their villages, and to this one alone of our fellow-travellers, manned and rowed along by natives, did some of the women become visible. They were as tall as the men, and quite as loathsome in appearance, the mouth similarly disfigured by betel-chewing, but the hair cut short. Around the body they wore a petticoat of red or blue cloth, reaching from the loins to the knee.
Another excursion was made to Ulàla Cove, distant about four nautical miles from our anchorage on the W. side of the island of Kamorta, on which occasion our Venetian gondola, specially constructed for similar expeditions, was pressed into the service. The entrance to the cove is about 3⁄4 of a mile in breadth, after which it expands in an easterly direction with varying width, at the same time sending off arms in every direction. The vegetation is exceedingly luxuriant and plentiful, and along the swampy shore consists mainly of mangrove bushes, which at most points make it almost impracticable to disembark, and impart to the entire bay a dreary, desolate appearance. At the few villages scattered along the shore, most of the natives had taken to flight. On this occasion, however, it was not child-like terror that had driven them away, but an evil conscience, for among the other inhabitants this bay enjoys the sad reputation of having on various occasions massacred the crews of small vessels,
after having plundered them of everything. So strong is this feeling that the natives of the rest of the Nicobar group, according to their own report, refuse to have anything to do with this ferocious set, and could not by any means be induced to accompany us in their canoes as far as Ulàla Cove.
The frigate lay five days in Nangkauri harbour, until the soundings and general survey of this large bay with its numerous branches had been completed, when, on the morning of the 11th March, she sailed, with a fresh breeze from N.W., through the western entrance, which is scarcely a hundred fathoms wide, by fourteen in depth, and is marked by two rocky pinnacles. Directly opposite lies the island of Katchal, thickly wooded to the water-edge, and stretching out long and low, without any marked elevation above sea-level. We now sailed in between these islands of Katchal and Kamorta in a northerly direction towards the islands of Teressa and Bampoka. On the W. side of Kamorta a number of villages were visible; on the N.W. we perceived at several spots natural meadows, while hereabouts the land gradually culminated into the highest point of the island,—a conical hill, rising not very far from the shore, almost entirely without trees, except where near the summit a number of bushes and shrubs nestled in a sort of hollow. Three days were now lost in unsuccessful attempts to make head-way against wind and tide, so that for four mortal days we were tossed about in full view of Bampoka, Teressa, and Chowra, never indeed above twenty miles distant, yet utterly unable to
make any one of them. As the time at our disposal for visiting these was exhausted in consequence of this unexpected difficulty, we were, very much to our regret, compelled to forego the satisfaction of setting foot on either of these islands, which, especially Chowra, would have presented a rare opportunity of examining the effect upon tropical races of men of an excess of population. That rather barren island possesses, it seems, more inhabitants than it has the means of subsisting, and appears to be the only spot of the entire Nicobar group where the natives follow industrial avocations. All manner of pottery ware comes from Chowra, so that it would almost seem as though the lamentable spectacle of a superabundant population had given the natives the first impulse towards active industry.