paste, made of the mellori, serves them for bread, and they always finish their repasts with copious potations of soura." "The Nicobareans," continues our author, are hospitable and honest, and are remarkable for a strict observance of truth, and for a most punctual adherence to their engagements. Such crimes as robbery and murder are unknown in these islands; but the people do not want spirit to revenge their injuries, and will fight resolutely if attacked or unjustly dealt with. Their only vice seems to be inebriety; but even in their cups they are commonly jovial and good humoured. Sometimes, however, it happens at their feasts, that the men of different villages fall out, and then the quarrel is sure to become general. In these cases they terminate their differences in a pitched battle, where the only weapons used are long sticks, of a hard and knotty wood; with these they drub one another most heartily, until, no longer able to withstand each other's fury, they mutually put an end to the combat." These islanders are so sensible of the scanty population of their country, that they endeavour to increase it by inviting, and even seducing some Malabars, or Bengalese, to remain amongst them, and of these there are in almost every village some to be found, who may be easily distinguished from the natives by their figure, features, and complexion. They are usually encouraged to stay by grants of land, with plantations of arecas and cocoa trees; and, after a certain number of years, they are permitted to make choice of a female companion. They entertain a very high opinion of such as are able to read and write; and firmly believe that all Europeans, by this sole qualification, are able to controul the winds, direct the appearance of the planets, and perform all the supposed wonders of divination. The different changes of the moon are productive of great festivity among the Nicobareans, for on these occasions their huts are fancifully decorated with branches of palm and festoons of plantain leaves; and the day is entirely devoted to singing, dancing, and drinking. The idea of years, months, and days, is totally unknown to them, as they reckon by moons only, of which they number fourteen, that is seven to each monsoon. At the fair season, or the commencement of the north-east monsoon, they sail in large canoes to the Carnicobars, called by them Champaloon. The object of this little voyage is trade; and for fowls, hogs, areca, and cocoa, the produce of their own island, they receive in exchange, canoes, spears, ambergrise, tortoiseshell, &c. Few diseases are known among them, except an edematous swelling of the legs, known in the west of India, by the name of the Cochin leg, from the place where it generally prevails. This endemial disease seems to result chiefly from illchosen and badly-prepared diet, or bad choice of habitations, and an extremely indolent life. The small pox visits them occasionally, but not of the confluent kind; and they are sometimes attacked by fevers and cholics. When a person falls sick, he is immeditely removed to the house of a priest, or conjuror, who invariably orders the patient to be laid in a supine posture for some time, and friction with some oily substance is to be repeatedly applied to the upper part of his body: the use of internal remedies seems to be either unknown or utterly disregarded. Their superstition in many particulars is very remarkable, one instance of which we shall lay before our readers.-Some of the natives having begun to fabricate earthen pots, died soon afterward; and the cause being attributed to this new employment, it has never been resumed; for they prefer going fifteen or twenty leagues to purchase such articles, rather than expose themselves to an undertaking which they firmly believe to be attended with the most fatal consequences. In the year 1756, the Danish East India company erected on one of the Nicobar islands a house to serve as a factory, but on their failure in 1758 it was evacuated. On the re-establishment of the company in 1768 another house was built on Chowry island, which was in 1773 in like manner ordered to be evacuated, as useles to the interests of the founders: three or four European missionaries remained behind in hope of making some proselytes, and have continued there ever since, but without effecting the conversion of a single person: they collect, however, cocoa-nut oil, shells, and other natural curiosities, which they send annually to their brethren at Tranquebar. HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE EUROPEAN TRADE WITH INDIA, FROM THE TWELFTH THE mutual antipathy subsisting between Christians and Mahometans, long retarded commerce between them; but at length the caliphs, perceiving the great advantages of such a traffic, were induced to allow it, while the avidity with which Christian states purchased the Indian products and manufactures, prompted them to carry it on. Scarcely had this traffic commenced, when it was in imminent danger of being totally annihilated by the crusades; but commerce proved a greater object than religion with some of the enthusiastic adventurers; and they, instead of checking its progress, proved the means of promoting it to a very considerable degree. "Various circumstances," says Dr. Robertson, "concurred toward this. Great armies, conducted by the most illustrious nobles of Europe, and composed of the most enterprising spirits, marched toward Palestine, through countries far advanced beyond those which they had left, in every species of improvement. They beheld the dawn of prosperity in the Italian republics, which had begun to vie with each other in the arts of industry, and in their efforts to engross the lucrative commerce of the East. They next admired the more advanced state of opulence and splendor in Constantinople, raised to a pre-eminence above all cities then known, by its extensive trade, particularly that which is carried on with India and the countries beyond it. They afterwards served in those provinces of Asia, through which the commodities of the East were usually conveyed, and became masters of several cities which had been staples of that trade. They established the kingdom of Jerusalem, which subsisted near two hundred years; and they took possession of the throne of the Greek empire, and governed it above half a century. Amidst such a variety of events and operations, the ideas of the fierce warriors of Europe gradually opened and improved: they became acquainted with the policy and the arts of the people whom they subdued; they observed the sources of their wealth, and prudently availed themselves of all this knowledge. Antioch and Tyre, when conquered by the crusaders, were Alourishing cities, inhabited by opulent merchants, who supplied all the nations trading in the Mediterranean with the productions of the East; and, as far as can be gathered from incidental occurrences mentioned by the historiaus of the holy war, there is reason to believe, that, both in Constantinople while subject to the Franks, and in the ports of Syria acquired by the Christians, the long-established trade with the East continued to be protected and encouraged."--Our learned author proceeds to show the manner in which the commerce of the italian states was promoted by the crusaders, until, having entirely engrossed the East India trade, they exerted themselves so vigorously to and new markets for their commodities, that they extended a taste for them to many parts of Europe where they had formerly been but little known. The rivalship of the Italian states terminated, at last, in a treaty with the sultan of Egypt, in 1425, by which Alexandria and some other Egyptian ports were opened to the Florentines as well as the Venetians; and, soon after |