ich group they are sometimes included. Of these the southernmost is
distinguished in the Dutch charts by the term of Laag or low, and the
other by that of Bergen or hilly. They are both uninhabited, and the only
productions worth notice is the long nutmeg, which grows wild on them,
and some good timber, particularly of the kind known by the name of
marbau (Metrosideros amboinensis). An idea was entertained of making a
settlement on one of them, and in 1769 an officer with a few men were
stationed there for some months, during which period the rains were
incessant. The scheme was afterwards abandoned as unlikely to answer any
useful purpose.

NASSAUS OR PULO PAGI.

The two islands separated by a narrow strait, to which the Dutch
navigators have given the name of the Nassaus, are called by the Malays
Pulo Pagi or Pagei, and by us commonly the Poggies. The race of people by
whom these as well as some other islands to the northward of them are
inhabited having the appellation of orang mantawei, this has been
confounded with the proper names of the islands, and, being applied
sometimes to one and sometimes to another, has occasioned much confusion
and uncertainty. The earliest accounts we have of them are the reports of
Mr. Randolph Marriot in 1749, and of Mr. John Saul in 1750 and 1751, with
Captain Thomas Forrest's observations in 1757, preserved in Mr.
Dalrymple's Historical Relation of the several Expeditions from Fort
Marlborough to the Islands adjacent to the West-coast of Sumatra; but by
much the most satisfactory information is contained in a paper
communicated by Mr. John Crisp to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, in the
sixth volume of whose Transactions it is published, and from these
documents I shall extract such particulars as may best serve to convey a
knowledge of the country and the people.

Mr. Crisp sailed from Fort Marlborough on the 12th of August 1792 in a
vessel navigated at his own expense, and with no other view than that of
gratifying a liberal curiosity. On the 14th he anchored in the straits of
See Cockup (Si Kakap), which divide the Northern from the Southern Pagi.
These straits are about two miles in length and a quarter of a mile over,
and make safe riding for ships of any size, which lie perfectly secure
from every wind, the water being literally as smooth as in a pond. The
high land of Sumatra (inland of Moco-moco and Ipu) was plainly to be
distinguished from thence. In the passage are scatter