"Here likewise we found upon the sand by the seaside a small twig (_Virgularia mirabilis?_) growing up to a grand tree, and offering to pluck the same, it shrunk down into the ground, and sinketh unless you hold very hard. And being plucked up, a great worm is at the root of it: and look how the tree groweth in greatness the worm diminisheth. Now as soon as the worm is wholly turned into the tree it rooteth in the ground, and so groweth to be great. This transformation is one of the strangest wonders I saw in all my travels. For the tree being plucked up little, the leaves stripped off, and the pill by that time it was dry, turned into an hard stone, much like to white coral; so that the worm was twice transformed with different natures: of these we gathered and brought home many."[120] Towards the middle of the century, Koeping, a Swede, touched at one of the islands in a Dutch vessel and thought he perceived men with tails, "like those of cats, which they move in the same manner," but he was deceived by the peculiar clothing. He further credits the Nicobarese with cannibalism, for a boat's crew of five men that went ashore never returned, but next day their bones were found strewn over the beach![121] Next, Dampier was put ashore by the privateer he piloted on the N. W. coast of Great Nicobar, and after a short sojourn left with his companions in a native canoe, and succeeded in reaching Sumatra. The first recorded murder of a European by the natives seems to be that of Captain Owen, who was wrecked on Tilanchong, and from thence taken to Nankauri, where he was put to death on account of his ill-judged behaviour towards the inhabitants. This incident is related by Hamilton in his account of his own experiences in the East Indies from 1688 to 1723,[122] where he gives a little information about the Nicobars. The first attempt at a settlement on the islands was made by Jesuits on Kar Nicobar in 1711, but they succumbed to the climate, and the effects of such results as they had attained to soon disappeared. Hitherto no efforts had been made to convert the natives, although missionaries of the same denomination were well acquainted with the group. In 1756 Tanck took possession of the Archipelago in the name of Denmark, and under the designation of "Frederiks Oerne," and founded a colony on the north coast of Great Nicobar, which in 1760 was transferred to Kamorta, and there came to an end owing to the unhealthy climate. In 1766 fourteen Moravians were installed on Nankauri, with a view to extending the influence of the Danish East India Company, but in a dozen years nearly every member of the settlement was dead. They are said to have made no conversions.