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illuftrious Cook found in part a fepulchre in the maws o f the
inhabitants o f the Sandwich iflands.
On the ifland of Enganho, about ninety miles fouth o f fort
Marlborough, are inhabitants o f moil favage appearance, and o f
a language unintelligible to the few who have vifited the place.
It was fcarcely known to have been inhabited, as it was long
deemed inacceflible by reafon of the rocks, and dreadful breakers.
Commodore Beaulieu calls it IMfie Trompeufe, and adds,
that the natives murder all that come on ihore. It appears from
the Eafl India pilot * to be o f a triangular form. Mr. Charles
Miller was hardy enough to vifit it. He found the men from
five feet eight to five feet ten inches high, o f a red color, with
black ilrait hair cut ihort; that o f the women long, and rolled'
into a neat curl on the top o f the head. The men went quite
naked; the women had no more than a plantain leaf to hide
their nakednefs ; the arms o f the men were lances headed with
the bone of fiih, their^canoes made of two boards fewed together,
and the feam filled with pitch. Their houfes were circular, fup-
ported on flakes o f iron-wood; they had no fort o f fowl, cattle,
or rice; they lived on cocoa nuts, fugar canes, and fweet potatoes,
or fiih dried in the fmoke. The fifh they caught with
their lances, or in nets very neatly manufaftured by themfelves.
Their behavior was hofpitable, nor did they give any fort of umbrage,
till fome imprudent condudt on our fide excited an alarm.
Conch fhells, the Murex Trilonis, refounded in all parts o f the
ifland, and our people thought fit to make a fudden retreat.
A m o s t fu r io u s f u r f r i f e s o n g r e a t p a r t o f t h e w e i t e r n a n d
* Vo], ii. tab/73.
fouthern
fouthern fide of Sumatra, fuch as vexes the weitern coafts of
Africa. “ It begins, fays Mr. Marfden *, to affume its form at fome
<■'. diftance from the place where it breaks, gradually accumu-
“ lating as it moves forward, till it gains a height, in common, o f
*9 fifteen to twenty feet, when it overhangs at top, and falls like
“ a cafcade, nearly perpendicular, involving itfelf as it defcends;
“ the noife made by the fall is prodigious, and, during the ftill-
“ nefs o f the night, may be heard many miles up the country.
“ It forms fometimes but a fingle range along the ihore; atr
“ other times, there is a fucceflion o f two, three, four, or more,
“ behind each other, extending fperhaps half a mile out to
“ fea. The number of ranges is generally in proportion to the
® height and violence of the furf.’’
Java is feparated from the ifland o f Sumatra, by the narrow
itreights of Sunda; their depth i§_ from thirty to fifty fathoms,
and in fome places are no foundings ; the voyager is advifed o f
the approach to Java by vait drifts of bamboos, and flocks o f the
booby t, or, according to Mr. AJbeck's reference, the Pelecanus
pifcator of Linnaus. The currents are ilrong in the narroweft
part, and from January to April ufually run from the weftward;
the reft o f the year from the eaitward.
T h e {heights begin with great breadth between Sumanca
bay in Sumatra, and Welcome bay in Java. Sumanca and other
peaks mark the former. Prince’s ifland lies near the Javanefe
ihore, and is known by a fmall mount called Java head, or the
Pico. The latitude of the anchoring place iri. Kafuarus bay, is
& 36' 15" fouth. This ifland is univerfally wooded, and vegeta-
• Sumatra, p. 28. t Cateiby, i. 87.
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