The only article of dress on this singular being was a filthy, ragged waist-cloth, apparently covered with vermin, from the belt of which was suspended a long knife; her gray elf-locks scattered by the wind--her eyes running with rheum--her face and hands covered with dirt--her body loathsome with leprous spots; contrasted with her dark Malay skin, gave her a truly hideous appearance; added to this, a solitary long black tooth projected over her under lip, and her trembling and attenuated frame displayed the influence of that baneful narcotic, opium, to which she was addicted. Wretchedness could not portray a more faithful picture: imagination had nothing to conceive. We gladly left this loathsome habitation, upon a ramble about the coral reefs for shells, and shortly embarked for the ship, rejoiced at being removed from a horrid object, which long after haunted my imagination by night and day. I have since learned that she is a fiend in human shape, living by means the most diabolical. [Sidenote: BENCOOLEN--NUTMEGS.] The next morning we landed at Bencoolen, and found in waiting a neat carriage, in which we were conveyed into a handsome park, and subsequently to the government-house. Here we were received, at the lower end of a long staircase, by the resident, and ushered up stairs into the great hall, through two lines of soldiers, as fierce in appearance as were ever exhibited on a stage: they consisted of Malays, Sumatrans, and Javanese, from Neas and Borneo, and from the bay of Bengal, turbaned, whiskered and mustachoed, and in some cases furnished with long beards, armed with swords, the cris or crooked dagger, pistols and muskets.