inhabitants that it was made of the pith of the tree, in the same manner I have described in my “Voyage Round the World.”  They showed me the tree whereof it was made, and I bought about forty of the cakes.  I bought also three or four nutmegs in their shell, which did not seem to have been long gathered; but whether they be the growth of this island or not, the natives would not tell whence they had them, and seem to prize them very much.  What beasts the island affords I know not, but here are both sea and land fowl.  Of the first, boobies and men-of-war birds are the chief, some goldens, and small milk-white crab-catchers; the land-fowl are pigeons, about the bigness of mountain-pigeons in Jamaica, and crows about the bigness of those in England, and much like them, but the inner part of their feathers are white, and the outside black, so that they appear all black, unless you extend the feathers.  Here are large sky-coloured birds, such as we lately killed on New Guinea, and many other small birds, unknown to us.  Here are likewise abundance of bats, as big as young coneys, their necks, head, ears, and noses like foxes, their hair rough, that about their necks is of a whitish yellow, that on their heads and shoulders black, their wings are four feet over from tip to tip; they smell like foxes.  The fish are bass, rock-fish, and a sort of fish like mullets, old-wives, whip-rays, and some other sorts that I knew not; but no great plenty of any, for it is deep water till within less than a mile of the shore, then there is a bank of coral rocks, within which you have shoal-water, white clean sand, so there is no good fishing with the seine.

This island lies in latitude 2 degrees 43 minutes south, and meridian distance from port Babo, on the island Timor, four hundred and eighty-six miles:  besides this island, here are nine or ten other small islands.

The inhabitants of this island are a sort of very tawny Indians, with long black hair, who in their manners differ but little from the Mindanayans, and others of these eastern islands.  These seem to be the chief; for besides them we saw also shock curl pated New Guinea negroes, many of which are slaves to the others, but I think not all.  They are very poor, wear no clothes but have a clout about their middle, made of the rinds of the tops of palmetto trees; but the women had a sort of calico cloth.  Their chief ornaments are blue and yellow beads, worn about their wrists.  The men arm themselves with bows and arrows, lances, broad swords, like those of Mindanao; their lances are pointed with bone:  they strike fish very ingeniously with wooden fish-spears, and have a very ingenious way of making the fish rise; for they have a piece of wood curiously carved, and painted much like a dolphin (and perhaps other figures); these they let down into the water by a line with a small weight to sink it; when they think it low enough, they haul the line into their boats very fast, and