The delay however was not lost, inasmuch as it gave an opportunity of finding new rates for the watches, as well as of obtaining a set of lunar observations for the longitude. On the 13th Mr. Bedwell went to Sims' Island for turtle but no recent tracks were observed, excepting the remains of one that had a week before furnished a repast to the natives. Near to this place were found disinterred some of the bones of a human body that had been buried in a grave close by, not longer than two or three months since. The footsteps of the followers of the body to the grave were still visible in the sand, but other steps appeared to have been more recently impressed; which must have been those of the natives, who had dug the body up either from a motive of curiosity or revenge. I cannot account for the absence of many of the bones of the skeleton unless the natives are cannibals, of which we have hitherto neither had proofs nor entertained the least suspicion; dogs or birds may certainly have carried them off, or the natives themselves may have removed them as trophies or as evidences of their discovery to their companions on the main. From the quantity of bamboo which was found scattered about the spot there was every reason to conclude it was the grave of a Malay; and according to the time of the Malay fleet's passing these islands last year, they would at this time have quitted it about three months, which will nearly agree with the appearance of the bones and the grave. On returning on board our party brought a great quantity of the bulbous roots of a crinum which grows abundantly among the rocks on Sims' Island. August 17.