he took them with great compla- fibly troublefome, yet the fatigue of the day procured me very comfort. able flumber. I was waked by the return of the king and his train, fome of whom were Arabs; for I heard one of them fay barwa ràkid, or he is fleeping: there was immediate filence, and I paffed the night with little difturbance, except from the unwelcome fongs of the molquitos. In the morning all was equally filent and folitary; the house appeared to be deferted; and I began to wonder what had become of Tumuni: he came at length with concern on his countenance, and told me, that the bearers had run away in the night;but that the king, who wished to fee me in another of his honfes, would fupply me with bearers, if he could not prevail on me to stay till a boat could be fent for. I went immediately to the king, whom I found fitting on a raifed sofa in a large room, the walls of which were adorned with fentences from the Koran in very legible characters: about fifty of his fubjects were feated on the ground in a femicircle before him; and my interpreter took his place in the midst of them. The good old king laughed heartily, when he heard the adventure of the night, and faid, you will now be my gueft for a week, I hope; but fe"rioufly, if you muit return foon, I "will fend into the country for "fome peafants to carry you." He then apologized for the behaviour of Shaikh Salim, which he had heard from Tumuni, who told me afterwards, that he was much difpleafed with it, and would not fail to exprefs his difpleafure: he concluded with a long harangue on the advantage which the English might derive, from fending a thip every year from Bombay to trade with his fubjects, and on the wonderful cheapnefs of their commodities, efpecially of 7 of their cowries. Ridiculous as this idea might feem, it fhowed an enlargement of mind, a defire of promoting the inte: eft of his people, and a fenfe of the benefits arifing from trade, which could hardly have been expected from a petty African chief, and which, if he had been fovereign of Yemen, might have been expanded into rational projects proportioned to the extent of his dominions. I answered, that I was imperfectly acquainted with the commerce of India; but that I would report the fubftance of his converfà. tion, and would ever bear teftimony to his noble zeal for the good of his country, and to the mildnes with which he governed it. As I had no inclination to pass a fecond night in the ifland, I requested leave to return without waiting for bearers: he feemed very fincere in preffing me to lengthen my vifit, but had too much Arabian politenefs to be importunate. We, therefore, parted; and, at the request of Tumuni, who affured me that little time would be loft in fhowing attention to one of the worthieft men in Hinzuan, I made a vifit to the governor of the town, whofe name was Mutekka; his manners were very pleafing, and he showed me fome letters from the officers of the Brilliant, which appeared to flow warm from the heart, and contained the ftrongeft eloge of his courte fy and liberality. He infifted on filling my bafket with fome of the finest pomegranates I had ever feen; and I left the town, impreffed with a very favourable opinion of the king and his governor. When I re-afcended the hill, at tended by many of the natives, one of them told me in Arabic, that I was going to receive the highest mark of diftinction, that it was in the king's power to how nie; and he had fcarce ended, when I heard the report of a fingle gun: Shaikh Ahmed had faluted me with the whole of his ordnance. I waved my hat, and faid, "Allah acbar:" the people fhouted, and I continued my journey, not without fear of inconvenience from exceffive heat and the fatigue of climbing rocks. The walk, however, was not on the whole unpleafant: I fometimes refted in the valleys and forded all the rivulets, which refreshed me with their coolness, and fupplied me with exquifite water to mix with the juice of my pomegranates, and occafionally with brandy. We were overtaken by fome peafants, who came from the hills by a nearer way, and brought the king's prefent of a cow with her calf, and a fhe-goat with two kids: they had apparently been felected for their beauty, and were brought fafe to Bengal. The profpects, which had fo greatly delighted me the preceding day, had not yet loft their charms, though they wanted the recommendation of novelty; but I must confefs, that the moft delightful object in that day's walk of near ten miles was the black frigate, which I difcerned at funket from a rock near the prince's gardens. Clofe to the town I was met by a native, who, perceiving me to be weary, opened a fine cocoanut, which afforded me a delicious draught: he informed me, that one of his countrymen had been punished that afternoon for a theft on board the Crocodile; and added, that, in his opinion, the punishment was no lefs juft, than the offence was difgraceful to his country. The of fender, as I afterwards learned, was a youth of a good family, who had married a daughter of old Alwi, but, being left alone for a moment in the cabin, and fecing a pair of blue morocco flippers, could not refift the temptation, and concealed them fo ill under his gown, that he was detected with the mainer. This proves, that no principle of honour is inftilled by education into the gentry of this ifland: even Alwi, when he had obferved, that," in "the month of Ramadan, it was not lawful to paint with hinna or to "tell lies;" and when I asked, whether both were lawful all the reft of the year, answered, that lies were "innocent, if no man was injured "by them." Tumuni took his leave, as well fatisfied as myself with our excurfion: I told him, before his master, that I transferred alfo to him the dollars, which were due to me out of the three guineas; and that, if ever they fhould part, I fhould be very glad to receive him into my service in India. Mr. Roberts, the mafter of the fhip, had paffed the day with Sayyad Ahmed, and had learned from him a few curious circumstances concerning the government of Hinzuan; which he found to be a monarchy limited by an aristocracy. The king, he was told, had no power of making war by his own authority; but, if the aflembly of nobles, who were from time to time convened by him, refolved on a war with any of the neighbouring iflands, they defrayed the charges of it by voluntary contributions, in return for which they claimed as their own all the booty and captives that might be taken. The hope of gain or the want of flaves is ufually the real motive for fuch enterprizes, and oftenfible pretexts are easily found at that very time, he understood, they meditated a war, because they wanted hands for the following harveft. Their fleet confifted of fixteen or feventeen fmall veffels, which they manned with about two thousand five hundred iflanders armed with muikets : and cutlaffes, or with bows and ar. rows. Near two years before they had poffeffed themselves of two towns in Mayata, which they still kept and garrifoned. The ordinary expences of the government were defrayed by a tax from two hundred villages; but the three principal towns were exempt from all taxes, except that they paid annually to the chief mufti a fortieth part of the value of all their moveable property, and from that payment neither the king nor the nobles claimed an exemption. The kingly authority, by the principles of their conftitution, was confidered as elective, though the line of fucceffion had not in fact been altered fince the first election of a fultan. He was informed, that a wandering Arab, who had fettled in the island, had, by his intrepidity in feveral wars, acquired the rank of a chieftain, and afterwards of a king, with limited powers; and that he was the grandfather of Shaikh Ahmed. I had been affured that queen Halimah was his grandmother, and that he was the fixth king; but it must be remarked, that the words jedd and jeddah in Arabick, are used for a male and female ancestor indefinitely; and, without a correct pedigree of Ahmed's family, which I expected to procure, but was difappointed, it would scarce be poffible to afcertain the time when his forefather obtained the highest rank in the government. In the year 1600 captain John Davis, who wrote an account of his voyage, found Mayata governed by a king, and Anfuame, or Hinzuan, by a queen, who fhowed him great marks of friendship: he anchored before the town of Demos (does he mean Domoni?) which was as large, he fays, as Plymouth; and he concludes from the ruins around it, that it had once been 晨 true, though I have no reafon to believe it, and have only heard it afferted without evidence; but I hope, that neither an expectation of fuch treasures, nor of any other advantage, will ever induce an European power to violate the first principles of juftice, by affuming the fovereignty of Hinzuan, which cannot answer a better purpofe than that of fupplying our fleets with feasonable refreshment; and, although the natives have an intereft in receiving us with apparent cordiality, yet, if we wifh their attachment to be unfeigned and their dealings juft, we must set them an example of strict honesty in the performance of our engagements. In truth, our nation is not cordially loved by the inhabitants of Hinzuan, who, as it commonly happens, form a general opinion from a few inftances of violence or breach of faith. Not many years ago an European, who had been hofpitably received and liberally fupported at Matfamudo, behaved rudely to a young married woman, who, being of low degree, was walking veiled through a ftreet in the evening: her husband ran to protect her, and refented the rudeness, probably with menaces, poffibly with actual force; and the European is faid to have given him a mortal wound with a knife or bayonet, which he brought, after the fcuffle, from his lodging. This foul murder, which the law of nature would have juftified the magiftrate in punishing with death, was re-; ported to the king, who told the governor (I ufe the very words of Alwi) that it would be wifer to "huth it up." Alwi mentionei a civil cafe of his own, which ought not to be concealed. When he was on the coaft of Africa in the dominions of a very favage prince, a finall European veffel was wrecked; been a place of strength and gran deur. I can only fay, that I obferved no fuch ruins. Fifteen years after, captain Peyton and fir Thomas Roe touched at the Comara islands, and from their feveral accounts it appears, that an old fultanefs then refided in Hinzuan, but had a dominion paramount over all the ifles, three of her fons governing Mohila in her name: if this be true, Sohaili and the fucceffors of Halimah must have loft their influence over the other iflands; and, by renewing their dormant claim as it fuits their convenience, they may always be furnished with a pretence for hoftilities. Five generations of eldeft fons would account for an hundred and feventy of the years, which have elapfed, fince Davis and Peyton found Hinzuan ruled by a fultanefs; and Ahmed was of fuch an age, that his reign may be reckoned equal to a generation. It is probable, on the whole, that Halimah was the widow of the firft Arabian king, and that, her mofque has been continued in repair by his defcendants; fo that we may reasonably fuppofe two centuries to have paffed, fince a fingle Arab had the courage and addrefs to eftablish in that beautiful ifland a form of government, which, though bad enough in itfelf, appears to have been administered with advantage to the original inhabitants. We have lately heard of civil commotions in Hinzuan, which, we may venture to pronounce, were not excited by any cruelty or violence of Ahmed, but were probably occafioned by the infolence of an oligarchy, naturally hoftile to king and people. That the mountains in the Comara iflands contain diamonds, and the precious metals, which are ftudiously concealed by the policy of the feveral governments, may be and the prince not only feized all that could be faved from the wreck, but claimed the captain and the crew as his flaves, and treated them with ferocious infolence. Alwi affured me, that, when he heard of the accident, he haftened to the prince, fell proftrate before him, and by ears and importunity prevailed on him to give the Europeans their liberty; that he fupported them at his own expence, enabled them to build another veffel, in which they failed to Hinzuan, and departed thence for Europe or India: he fhowed me the captain's promiffory notes for fums, which to an African trader must be a confiderable object, but which were no price for liberty, fafety, and, perhaps, life, which his good, though difinterefted, offices had procured. I lamented, that, in in my fituation, it was wholly out of my power to affift Alwi in obtaining juftice; but he urged me to deliver an Arabic letter from him, enclosing the notes, to the governorgeneral, who, as he faid, knew him well; and I complied with his requeft. Since it is poffible, that a fubftantial defence may be inade by the perfon thus accufed of injuftice, I will not name either him or the veffel which he had commanded; but, if he be living, and if this paper fhould fall into his hands, he may be induced to reflect how highly it imports our national honour, that a people, whom we call favage, but who administer to our convenience, may have no juft caufe to reproach us with a violation of our contracts.' DESCRIPTION of CARNICOBAR and its INHABITANTS. By MR. G. HAMILTON. 1. [From the fame Work.] THE HE ifland, of which I pro-led cachu. The only four-footed, pofe to give a fuccinct ac animals upon the island are hogs, count, is the northernmost of that dogs, large rats, and an animal of clufter in the Bay of Bengal, which the lizard kind, but large, called by goes by the name of the Nicobars. the natives tolonqui; these freIt is low, of a round figure, about quently carry off fowls and chickens. forty miles in circumference, and The only kind of poultry are hens, appears at a diftance, as if entirely and thofe not in great plenty. covered with trees: however, there There are abundance of fnakes of are feveral well-cleared and delight-, many different kinds, and the inhafal fpots upon it. The foil is a bitants frequently die of their bites. black kind of clay and marthy. It. The timber upon the iftand is of produces in great abundance, and many forts, in great plenty, and with little care, most of the tropical fome of it remarkably large, affordfruits, fuch as pine-apples, plantains, ing excellent materials for building papavas, cocoa-nuts, and areca-nuts; or repairing fhips. also excellent yains, and a root cal. The natives are low in ftature but |