a whale boat, and joined by wooden pegs driven into both edges of the planks. The plan adopted by this people is to send every fifth year upwards of one hundred canoes, with from fifteen to thirty-five men in each, armed with muskets, while during the other four years, they dispatch not more than thirty, on account of the want of provisions they might experience, and with a view to leave time for the plantations to be restored to their usually flourishing condition. The King told me that during the siege last year nearly two hundred women and children died from hunger, owing to their not daring to go outside the walls for provisions, and that many of the women actually eat their own children.
"The town of Johanna, called Sultan's Town, has, in different parts of its walls and in a fort on the hill close behind it, upwards of fifty guns mounted, though in a wretched state. The King keeps in his possession papers from Admiral Renier and Blanket, requesting captains of ships of war to assist them with powder and arms. Their chief reliance for a supply of these articles is on the Governor and Council of Bombay, who last year sent them in an Arab boat 40 half-barrels of powder, 80 muskets, and one iron six pounder, 1500 flints, and 2000 musket-balls. A French cruiser unfortunately fell in with this boat, and plundered it of every thing, except the muskets and six half-barrels of powder. It is my opinion that the whole of these islands will in a few years become desolate, unless they receive more effectual assistance. It deserves particular notice, that, though this people has been plundered of the greater part of its cattle by these savage enemies, who destroyed those for which they had themselves no occasion, they nevertheless keep the few which remain for the use of the East India Company's ships, never killing any for their own consumption, it being expressly prohibited by the King, who looks up to the Company as his only friends."
The facts above mentioned appear to me to constitute strong grounds for an appeal to the generosity, I had almost said justice, of the English nation, and I cannot help expressing a sanguine hope that the cause of the poor Johannese may not be much longer neglected; for while we are in possession of the Isles of France and the
