270 Professor Flower [April 13, 



tation tlie inhabitants had acquired for ferocious and inhospitable 

 treatment of strangers brought by accident to their shores, caused 

 them to be carefully avoided, and no permanent settlement or 

 relations of anything like a friendly character, or likely to afford 

 any useful information as to the character of the islands or the in- 

 habitants, were established. It is fair to mention that this hostility 

 to foreigners, which for long was one of the chief characteristics by 

 which the Andamanese were known to the outer world, found much 

 justification in the cruel exj)eriences they suffered from the mal- 

 practices, especially kidnapping for slavery, of the Chinese and 

 Malay traders who visited the islands in search of heche de mer and 

 edible birds'-nests. It is also to this characteristic that the in- 

 habitants owe so much of their interest to us from a scientific point 

 of view, for we have here the rare case of a population, confined to a 

 very limited space, and isolated for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of 

 years from all contact wdth external influence, their physical 

 characters unmixed by crossing, and their culture, their beliefs, their 

 language entirely their own. 



In 1857, when the Sepoy mutiny called the attention of the 

 Indian Government to the necessity of a habitation for their numerous 

 convict prisoners, the Andaman Islands wxre again thought of for 

 the purpose. A Commission, consisting of Dr. F. J. Mouat, 

 Dr. G. Playfair, and Lieut. J. A. Heathcote, was sent to the islands 

 to report upon their capabilities for such a jnirpose ; and, acting upon 

 its recommendations, early in the following year the islands were 

 taken possession of in the name of the East India Company by 

 Captain (now General) H. Man, and the British flag hoisted at Port 

 Blair, near the southern end of Great Andaman, which thenceforth 

 became the nucleus of the settlement of invaders, now numbering 

 about 15,000 persons, of whom more than three-fourths are convict 

 prisoners, the rest soldiers, police, and the usual accompaniments 

 of a military station. 



The effect of this inroad upon the unsophisticated native popula- 

 tion, who, though spread over the whole area of the islands, were far 

 less numerous, may easily be imagined. It is simply deterioration 

 of character, moral and physical decay, and finally extinction. The 

 newly-introduced habits of life, vices, and diseases, are spreading at 

 a fearful rate, and with deadly effect. In this sad history there are, 

 however, two redeeming features which distinguish our occupation of 

 the Andaman s from that of Tasmania, where a similar tragedy was 

 played out during the present century. In the first place, the 

 British Governors and residents appear from the first to have used 

 every effort to obtain for the natives the most careful and considerate 

 treatment, and to alleviate as much as possible the evils which they 

 have unintentionally been the means of inflicting on them. Secondly, 

 most careful records have been preserved of the physical characters, 

 the social customs, the arts, manufactures, traditions, and language of 

 the people while still in their primitive condition. For this most 



