Chapter XII: Concerning the Island of Necuveran

When you leave the Island of Java (the less) and the kingdom of Lambri, you sail north about 150 miles, and then you come to two Islands, one of which is called NECUVERAN. In this Island they have no king nor chief, but live like beasts. And I tell you they go all naked, both men and women, and do not use the slightest covering of any kind. They are Idolaters. Their woods are all of noble and valuable kinds of trees; such as Red Sanders and Indian-nut and Cloves and Brazil and sundry other good spices.{1}

There is nothing else worth relating; so we will go on, and I will tell you of an Island called Angamanain.

NOTE 1.—The end of the last chapter and the commencement of this
I have taken from the G. Text. There has been some confusion in
the notes of the original dictation which that represents, and
corrections have made it worse. Thus Pauthier’s text runs: “I will
tell you of two small Islands, one called Gauenispola and the other
Necouran,” and then: “You sail north about 150 miles and find two
Islands, one called Necouran and the other Gauenispola.” Ramusio
does not mention Gauenispola, but says in the former passage: “I
will tell you of a small Island called Nocueran”—and then: “You
find two islands, one called Nocueran and the other Angaman.”

Knowing the position of Gauenispola there is no difficulty
in seeing how the passage should be explained. Something has
interrupted the dictation after the last chapter. Polo asks
Rusticiano, “Where were we?” “Leaving the Great Island.” Polo
forgets the “very small Island called Gauenispola,” and passes to
the north, where he has to tell us of two islands, “one called
Necuveran and the other Angamanain.” So, I do not doubt, the
passage should run.

Let us observe that his point of departure in sailing north to the
Nicobar Islands was the _Kingdom of Lambri_. This seems to indicate
that Lambri included Achin Head or came very near it, an indication
which we shall presently see confirmed.

As regards Gauenispola, of which he promised to tell us and forgot
his promise, its name has disappeared from our modern maps, but
it is easily traced in the maps of the 16th and 17th centuries,
and in the books of navigators of that time. The latest in which
I have observed it is the _Neptune Oriental_, Paris 1775, which
calls it _Pulo Gommes_. The name is there applied to a small
island off Achin Head, outside of which lie the somewhat larger
Islands of Pulo Nankai (or Nási) and Pulo Bras, whilst Pulo Wai
lies further east.[1] I imagine, however, that the name was by the
older navigators applied to the larger Island of Pulo Bras, or to
the whole group. Thus Alexander Hamilton, who calls it _Gomus_ and
_Pulo Gomuis_, says that “from the Island of Gomus and Pulo Wey
... the southernmost of the Nicobars may be seen.” Dampier most
precisely applies the name of Pulo Gomez to the larger island which
modern charts call Pulo Bras. So also Beaulieu couples the islands
of “_Gomispoda_ and Pulo Way” in front of the roadstead of Achin.
De Barros mentions that Gaspar d’Acosta was lost on the Island
of _Gomispola_. Linschoten, describing the course from Cochin to
Malacca, says: “You take your course towards the small Isles of
GOMESPOLA, which are in 6°, near the corner of Achin in the Island
of Sumatra.” And the Turkish author of the _Mohit_, in speaking of
the same navigation, says: “If you wish to reach Malacca, guard
against seeing JÁMISFULAH (جامس فله), because the mountains of
LÁMRI advance into the sea, and the flood is there very strong.”
The editor has misunderstood the geography of this passage, which
evidently means “Don’t go near enough to Achin Head to see even
the islands in front of it.” And here we see again that Lambri is
made to extend to Achin Head. The passage is illustrated by the
report of the first English Voyage to the Indies. Their course was
for the Nicobars, but “by the Master’s fault in not duly observing
the South Star, they fell to the southward of them, _within sight
of the Islands of Gomes Polo_.” (_Nept. Orient._ Charts 38 and 39,
and pp. 126–127; _Hamilton_, II. 66 and Map; _Dampier_, ed. 1699,
II. 122; _H. Gén. des Voyages_, XII. 310; _Linschoten_, Routier, p.
30; _De Barros_, Dec. III. liv. iii. cap. 3; _J. A. S. B._ VI. 807;
_Astley_, I. 238.)

The two islands (or rather groups of islands) _Necuveran_ and
_Angamanain_ are the Nicobar and Andaman groups. A nearer trace of
the form Necuveran, or _Necouran_ as it stands in some MSS., is
perhaps preserved in _Nancouri_, the existing name of one of the
islands. They are perhaps the _Nalo-kilo-chéu_ (_Narikela-dvipa_)
or Coco-nut Islands of which Hiuen Tsang speaks as existing some
thousand _li_ to the south of Ceylon. The men, he had heard,
were but 3 feet high, and had the beaks of birds. They had no
cultivation and lived on coco-nuts. The islands are also believed
to be the _Lanja bálús_ or _Lankha bálús_ of the old Arab
navigators: “These Islands support a numerous population. Both men
and women go naked, only the women wear a girdle of the leaves
of trees. When a ship passes near, the men come out in boats of
various sizes and barter ambergris and coco-nuts for iron,” a
description which has applied accurately for many centuries. [Ibn
Khordâdhbeh says (_De Goeje’s transl._, p. 45) that the inhabitants
of Nicobar (Alankabâlous), an island situated at ten or fifteen
days from Serendib, are naked; they live on bananas, fresh fish,
and coco-nuts; the precious metal is iron in their country; they
frequent foreign merchants.—H. C.] Rashiduddin writes of them
nearly in the same terms under the name of _Lákváram_, but read
NÁKAVÁRAM opposite LAMURI. Odoric also has a chapter on the island
of _Nicoveran_, but it is one full of fable. (_H. Tsang_, III. 114
and 517; _Relations_, p. 8; _Elliot_, I. p. 71; _Cathay_, p. 97.)

[Mr. G. Phillips writes (_J. R. A. S._, July 1895, p. 529) that the
name Tsui-lan given to the Nicobars by the Chinese is, he has but
little doubt, “a corruption of Nocueran, the name given by Marco
Polo to the group. The characters Tsui-lan are pronounced Ch’ui-lan
in Amoy, out of which it is easy to make Cueran. The Chinese
omitted the initial syllable and called them the Cueran Islands,
while Marco Polo called them the Nocueran Islands.”—H. C.]

[The Nicobar Islands “are generally known by the Chinese under the
name of _Râkchas_ or Demons who devour men, from the belief that
their inhabitants were anthropophagi. In A.D. 607, the Emperor of
China, Yang-ti, had sent an envoy to Siam, who also reached the
country of the Râkchas. According to _Tu-yen’s T’ung-tien_, the
Nicobars lie east [west] of Poli. Its inhabitants are very ugly,
having red hair, black bodies, teeth like beasts, and claws like
hawks. Sometimes they traded with _Lin-yih_ (Champa), but then at
night; in day-time they covered their faces.” (_G. Schlegel, Geog.
Notes_, I. pp. 1–2.)—H. C.]

Mr. Phillips, from his anonymous Chinese author, gives a quaint
legend as to the nakedness of these islanders. Sakya Muni, having
arrived from Ceylon, stopped at the islands to bathe. Whilst he
was in the water the natives stole his clothes, upon which the
Buddha cursed them; and they have never since been able to wear any
clothing without suffering for it.

[Professor Schlegel gives the same legend (_Geog. Notes_, I. p.
8) with reference to the _Andaman_ Islands from the _Sing-ch’a
Shêng-lan_, published in 1436 by Fei-sin; Mr. Phillips seems to
have made a confusion between the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
(_Doolittle’s Vocab._ II. p. 556; cf. _Schlegel_, _l.c._ p.
11.)—H. C.]

The chief part of the population is believed to be of race akin to
the Malay, but they seem to be of more than one race, and there
is great variety in dialect. There have long been reports of a
black tribe with woolly hair in the unknown interior of the Great
Nicobar, and my friend Colonel H. Man, when Superintendent of our
Andaman Settlements, received spontaneous corroboration of this
from natives of the former island, who were on a visit to Port
Blair. Since this has been in type I have seen in the _F. of India_
(28th July, 1874) notice of a valuable work by F. A. de Roepstorff
on the dialects and manners of the Nicobarians. This notice speaks
of an aboriginal race called _Shob’aengs_, “purely Mongolian,” but
does not mention negritoes. The natives do not now go quite naked;
the men wear a narrow cloth; and the women a grass girdle. They are
very skilful in management of their canoes. Some years since there
were frightful disclosures regarding the massacre of the crews of
vessels touching at these islands, and this has led eventually to
their occupation by the Indian Government. Trinkat and Nancouri
are the islands which were guilty. A woman of Trinkat who could
speak Malay was examined by Colonel Man, and she acknowledged
having seen nineteen vessels scuttled, after their cargoes had been
plundered and their crews massacred. “The natives who were captured
at Trinkat,” says Colonel Man in another letter, “were a most
savage-looking set, with remarkably long arms, and very projecting
eye-teeth.”

The islands have always been famous for the quality and abundance
of their “Indian Nuts,” _i.e._ cocos. The tree of next importance
to the natives is a kind of Pandanus, from the cooked fruit of
which they express an edible substance called Melori, of which
you may read in Dampier; they have the betel and areca; and they
grow yams, but only for barter. As regards the other vegetation,
mentioned by Polo, I will quote, what Colonel Man writes to me from
the Andamans, which probably is in great measure applicable to the
Nicobars also! “Our woods are very fine, and doubtless resemble
those of the Nicobars. Sapan wood (_i.e._ Polo’s _Brazil_) is in
abundance; coco-nuts, so numerous in the Nicobars, and to the north
in the Cocos, are not found naturally with us, though they grow
admirably when cultivated. There is said to be sandal-wood in our
forests, and camphor, but I have not yet come across them. I do not
believe in _cloves_, but we have lots of the wild nutmeg.”[2] The
last, and cardamoms, are mentioned in the _Voyage of the Novara_,
vol. ii., in which will be found a detail of the various European
attempts to colonise the Nicobar Islands with other particulars.
(See also _J. A. S. B._ XV. 344 _seqq._) [See _Schlegel’s Geog.
Notes_, XVI., _The Old States in the Island of Sumatra._—H. C.]

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[1] It was a mistake to suppose the name had disappeared, for it is
applied, in the form _Pulo Gaimr_, to the small island above
indicated, in Colonel Versteeg’s map to Veth’s _Atchin_ (1873).
In a map chiefly borrowed from that, in _Ocean Highways_, August,
1873, I have ventured to restore the name as _Pulo Gomus_. The name
is perhaps (Mal.) _Gamás_, “hard, rough.”

[2] Kurz’s _Vegetation of the Andaman Islands_ gives four _myristicae_
(nutmegs); but no sandal-wood nor camphor-laurel. Nor do I find
sappan-wood, though there is another Caesalpinia (_C. Nuga_).