or Nias Isle. This island is situated on the west coast of Sumatra, from which it is separated by a strait sixty miles in breadth, and is fifty miles in length by twenty in average breadth. It is a large and productive island, and is divided into about fifty small districts, under chiefs or rajahs, who live in a state of perpetual hostility, their great object being to make prisoners, that they may sell them for slaves. These violences are encouraged by native traders, who resort to these islands for cargoes of slaves, and who are accused of occasionally surprising and carrying off whole families. The number of slaves exported is estimated at from 600 to 1000. Besides slaves, padi and rice are exported to a considerable amount. The cultivation of these articles is carried on at a distance from the coast, whither the natives retire, to be secure from piratical depredations. They bring down their produce to the harbours, and exchange it for iron, steel, beads, tobacco, and the coarser kinds of Madras and Surat piece-goods. Hogs are reared in great numbers; and several parts of the continent are supplied from thence with yams.

Now the Behut or Bedusta, also called by the natives the Jylum, which still affords an abundant supply of timber. bears, and poultry. It is well peopled, and its inhabitants are a peculiar and distinct race, not only from those of Sumatra, but from the people on all the islands to the southward. They are of lighter complexions, especially the women, than the Malays; smaller also in their persons, and shorter in their stature, with broad mouths, flat noses, and their ears pierced and distended in an extraordinary manner. They have a singular sort of leprous scurf on their skins, which in some covers the whole body and limbs, whilst in others it resembles rather the ring-worm running in waving lines or concentric curves. The principal food of the common people is rice, and the better classes use pork. The natives are remarkable for their docility and expertness in handicraft work, and are excellent house-carpenters and joiners. They are likewise industrious and frugal, temperate and regular in their habits, but at the same time avaricious, sullen, vindictive, and sanguinary. They are often employed by the Dutch as domestic servants; but they are always esteemed dangerous. In many cases, however, this may be owing to the bad treatment which they receive. Some of the petty rajahs in the island have amassed treasures to a considerable amount, equal to 10,000 or 20,000 dollars.