They informed us that they had been without rain in the country for seven months, and that the herbage was almost burnt up.
This island, which is divided into five districts, is about thirty miles long; is called Savoo, and lies south of India. It contains near nine thousand inhabitants, and for these nine years past has been possessed by the Dutch, who have a resident here, and trade to India, Macassar, and Timor; and, from this island, furnish Concordia with provisions. It was formerly in the possession of the Portuguese, who left it about an hundred years since.
As we were not permitted to examine the country, or its products, the Dutch-man not suffering us to go any where without a strong guard, I amused myself in picking up, from the natives of the island, what particulars I could learn in respect to their language, from which I afterwards formed the following vocabulary.