But, to proceed:--"The 5th day of May we ran down on the west side of the island Nicobar properly so-called, and anchored at the N.W. end of it, in a small bay, in 8 fathoms water, not half a mile from the shore. The body of this island is in 7° 30' N. lat.[187] It is about 12 leagues long, and 3 or 4 broad. The south end of it is pretty high, with steep cliffs against the sea; the rest of the island is low, flat, and even.[188] The mould of it is black and deep, and it is very well watered with small running streams. It produceth abundance of tall trees, fit for any uses; for the whole bulk of it seems to be but one entire grove. But that which adds most to its beauty off at sea, are the many spots of coconut trees which grow round it in every small bay. The bays are half a mile or a mile long, more or less, and these bays are intercepted or divided from each other with as many little rocky points of woodland. "As the coconut trees do thus grow in groves, fronting to the sea, in the bays, so there is another sort of fruit-tree in the bays, bordering on the back side of the coco trees, farther from the sea. It is called by the natives a melory tree.[189] This tree is as big as our large apple trees, and as high. It hath a blackish[190] rind and a pretty broad leaf. The fruit is as big as the bread-fruit[191] at Guam, or a large penny loaf. It is shaped like a pear, and hath a pretty tough smooth rind of a light-green colour. The inside of the fruit is in substance much like an apple, but full of small strings as big as brown thread. I did never see of these trees anywhere but here. "The natives of this island are tall, well-limbed men; pretty long visaged, with black eyes; their noses middle-proportioned, and the whole symmetry of their faces agreeing very well. Their hair is black and lank, and their skins of a dark copper colour. The women have no hair on their eyebrows. I do believe it is plucked up by the roots, for the men had hair growing on their eyebrows as other people. "The men go all naked; only a long, narrow piece of cloth or sash, which, going round their waists, and thence down between their thighs, is brought up behind and tucked-in at that part which goes about the waist. The women have a kind of a short petticoat, reaching from their waists to their knees. "Their language was different from any that I ever heard before; yet they had some few Malayan words, and some of them had a word or two of Portuguese, which, probably, they might learn aboard of their ships passing by this place; for when these men see a sail, they do presently go aboard of them in their canoes. I did not perceive any form of religion that they had; they had neither temple or idol, nor any manner of outward veneration to any deity, that I did see.