A voyage seeming to offer the only hope for my recovery. I was conveyed on board, apparently in a dying state, and set sail the same day for Queda. During the voyage, the pain in my bowels was excruciating, and the motion of the ship afforded me no relief, insomuch, that I could bear no other posture than lying prostrate on deck. In this situation it occurred to me, that I had once read in Van Swieten's account of his cures, that he had found the plentiful use of honey beneficial in cases of obstruction. As soon, therefore, as we landed, I procured a sufficient quantity, and mixed it plentifully with my food and drink. My only nutriment indeed consisted of rice boiled in water, to which I added an equal quantity of honey, as also to all the water I drank, cold or warm, of which I took plenty, having a constant thirst upon me. Already, on the first day, it operated by sickness at my stomach, and frequent vomitings, which rendered its taste extremely nauseous, and unpleasant. But perceiving that it also relieved my principal complaint, I persevered, and experienced daily more of its salutary, cooling, and healing effects. As there is plenty of honey at Queda, I laid in a large stock for the voyage.

Here I became acquainted with Mr. Scott, an English captain, who informed me that Captain Light was in Bengal, and had lost his wife by death. From hence we returned to Nancauwery, where I found that Brother Sixtus had departed this life, ten days after my leaving the island. Brother J. Heinrich accompanied me to Tranquebar, and Fleckner remained alone.

When we arrived at Tranquebar, we represented to the governor, that it was necessary, that the vessel should immediately return for the relief of the Mission, to which he agreed; and Fleckner being re-called, the Brethren J. Heinrich, Rudolphi, and Soerensen, were sent thither in May 1785. The latter soon departed this life, as likewise Fleckner, at Tranquebar. In September, I returned to Nancauwery, being commissioned to convey the house belonging to the Imperial settlement on Sombrero (Comarty) to our place, which I accomplished. Our old stone house was turned into a magazine, and the Missionaries obtained a comfortable dwelling, and a sufficient supply of provisions, and other necessaries. But as to any success in making the natives acquainted with the gospel, all our exertions seemed in vain.

After my return to Tranquebar, in 1786, Brother Rudolphi left Nicobar, and arrived, after a long and tedious voyage, at Tranquebar, in 1787. Not long after, Brother J. Heinrich departed this life, and Brother Kragh remained alone.

The loss of so many valuable men, the total failure of the object of the Mission, and the want of proper Brethren, willing to devote themselves to so hopeless a cause, at length prevailed, and it was resolved to give up the Mission. I was again deputed to go to Nancauwery, to fetch Brother Kragh, and all effects belonging to the Mission, and to deliver up the premises to the Governor, who, on our representation of the impracticability of our supporting the Mission any longer, had consented to send a lieutenant, a corporal, and six privates, to take possession. I accompanied these people, and delivered to them every thing I could not carry away.

Words cannot express the painful sensations which crowded into my mind, while I was thus executing the task committed to me, and making a final conclusion of the labours of the Brethren in the Nicobar Islands. I remembered the numberless prayers, tears, and sighs offered up by so many servants of Jesus, and by our congregations in Europe, for the conversion of the poor heathen here; and when I beheld our burying-ground, where eleven of my Brethren had their resting-place, as seed sown in a barren land, I burst into tears, and exclaimed: Surely all this cannot have been done in vain! Often did I visit this place, and sat down and wept at their graves.

My last farewell with the inhabitants, who had flocked to me from all the circumjacent islands, was very affecting. They wept and howled for grief, and begged that the Brethren might soon return to them. We always enjoyed their esteem and love, and they do not deserve to be classed with their ferocious neighbours, the Malays; being, in general, kind and gentle in their dispositions, except when roused by jealously, or other provocations; when their uncontrolled passions will lead them into excesses, as some of the Danish soldiers experienced. We always found them ready to serve us.

LETTER III.

I proceed to answer the questions you have put to me, and to give you some short account of the appearance of the country in the Nicobar Islands, and the customs of the inhabitants.

The most of these islands are hilly, and some of the mountains of considerable height: but Tricut, Tafouin, and Kar Nicobar, are flat, and covered with forests of cocoa trees. The other islands have likewise a large proportion of cocoa and areca palms, and an immense quantity of timber trees of various kinds, some of them of enormous size. All the vallies and sides of the hills, to a considerable height, are thickly covered with them, insomuch, that the light of the sun has not been able for ages to penetrate through their foliage. They are in many places so closely interwoven with immense quantities of rattan and bush-rope, that they appear as it were spun together; and it is almost perfectly dark in the woods. Most of the plants and trees bear fruit, which falls down and rots. All these circumstances contribute to render the climate very unhealthy, the free current of air being wholly impeded; even the natives experience their baneful effects, but, to a European constitution, they are of the most dangerous nature.

I am no botanist, and can therefore give you but little information concerning the different species of trees, shrubs, and plants, which seem to thrive here in such luxurious abundance; but will only add, that that most useful of all trees, the cocoa, is of very easy growth, and thrives best on the sea coast, where its roots and stem are reached by the flood-tide. The nut, falling into the sand, is soon covered by it, and springs up in great strength. I have planted many, and enjoyed the fruit after five years. When the nuts are ripe, you hang them about the house: in a short time they shoot out sprigs and branches, and when these are about a yard long, you may put them into the ground, where they continue to vegetate rapidly.

Another most beautiful and valuable tree is the Mango, the fruit of which is extremely useful, both for eating and medicinal purposes. The eatable part is inclosed in a shell, which lies in a thick, pulpy rind, Its taste is spicy, very grateful, betwixt sour and sweet, and so wholesome, that there is hardly any fear of eating too plentifully of it. The shell is bitter and astringent, and the Nicobar doctors, or sorcerers, administer a decoction of it against fevers and agues, to which they, as well as strangers, are much subject.

There is also a vast variety of roots, fruits, and herbs, with the medicinal virtues of which the sorcerers are well acquainted. They are, no doubt, noticed by various authors, but I am not able to describe them.

As to the beasts and reptiles existing in these islands, I shall only mention what has come under my own observation, and remains in my recollection. There are no wild beasts here, such as tygers and leopards, as on the coast of Coromandel. Monkies are found in the southernmost islands, Sambelong, Tavap, and Katsoll. In some others are large herds of buffaloes and other cattle, originally brought thither by the Danes, but which have run wild in the woods, since the abandonment of the colony. They have