The Countries of the World

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ...woodpeckers, and kingfishers are numerous. Reptiles and fishes are abundant, both as to individuals and species; and among the former is the turtle, which is imported in great numbers for the Calcutta market. But the Andamans are never likely to be colonised by any visitors save those of the peculiar type for whose temporary home the Indian Government has selected them. In other words, the islands have since 1858 been a convict settlement, the only European residents being the officials, garrison, and possibly a stray white who may have "got into trouble." The climate is very wet, and, indeed, only four months' fair weather can be relied on. When the convicts first arrived, the mortality among them was enormous; but of late, owing to the clearance of the jungle and the reclamation of the swamps, the health of the settlement has wonderfully improved. It is also to be hoped that the presence of a civilised colony on the islands may in time react favourably upon the natives. These are of a very low type; and though the islands are only 590 miles from the mouth of the Ganges and 160 from Cape Negrais, in British Burmah, and have been visited more or less for 2,000 years, the aborigines are to this day rude savages, who have never in even the least appreciable manner shared in the civilisation of the ancient empires off whose shores they live. Their very numbers are unknown, the different estimates varying so widely as to have put them at all figures, from 3,000 to 15,000. As early as 1789 the Bengal Government attempted to establish a penal colony on the islands, but the settlement was finally abandoned in 1796. But in 1855, owing to the repeated outrages by the natives on the crews of wrecked vessels, the scheme was again taken up; and...