192 ANDAMAN ISLANDS AND INHABITANTS 



fled into the adjacent jungle with shouts of alarm. The party 

 in the boat thereupon returned to the launch and steamed out 

 of the harbour. 



It was suspected that these same men were responsible for 

 the unprovoked murder of a petty officer of an oil-collecting 

 gang, which had recently taken place near one of the Jarawa 

 districts. 



The population of the islands has been computed from time 

 to time — from the 6000 at the period of the founding of the 

 Settlement — in variously diminishing numbers down to the 

 present day, when it is placed at about 1900.* 



The case affords a striking example of the effect of contact 

 between civilised and savage man, for only those tribes of the 

 Andamanese that are still hostile or who have little or no inter- 

 course with the Government Settlement, have preserved any 

 respectable number of individuals in their ranks. 



Of these, the Jarawas, although not distantly located from the 

 Settlement, receive all advances with inveterate implacabilit)-, 

 while the Onges of Little Andaman, who were until 1884 

 almost totally unvisited, are further off, and enjoy an insular 

 position. 



These two tribes between them represent by estimation 

 some 1250 of the total inhabitants of the islands. The numbers 

 in the various other tribes are now very small, but possibly were 

 never as large as those of the two mentioned. 



Everywhere is noticeable an enormous disproportion between 

 the numbers of adults and children — a feature, in view of the 

 fewness of the former, that argues badly for a much longer 

 continuance of the race. Concerning the fact, some of the 

 natives say that it is not due to sickness, but that children are 

 very seldom born ; others state that the first, or first and second 

 children are dead, and that the one present is the sole survivor. 

 Undoubtedly, however, the infant mortality that exists is due to 

 the presence of syphilis, which occurs in some of its most 

 virulent forms amongst these people, and not to maternal 



* Vide Appendix D. 



