1864.] 



Memoranda relative to three Andarnanese. 



169 



whom they knew, and also a sailor of the Naval brigade at Port 

 Blair, who had formerly charge of them, and to whom they were 

 much attached, and under the care of these kind friends they reached 

 their native country safely, and were, with all their traps, put on 

 shore at a spot on the beach they pointed out, and quickly vanished 

 into the jungle ! 



From that time to the present, I have heard no more of my 

 quondam proteges : I cannot indeed distinctly ascertain whether either 

 of them ever made his appearance again at Port Blair. An apprehen- 

 sion existed for a long time, that they had been murdered by their 

 countrymen for the sake of the precious iron articles they had with 

 them, and I know not whether such a conjecture has been refuted. 



The experiment of civilizing these two, by weaning them from their 

 wild habits and creating artificial wants, to supply which should 

 involve the necessity of frequent visits to the settlement, and thus 

 form as it were the nucleus of increasing intercourse with a superior 

 race, has certainly so far failed. With younger subjects we might 

 have succeeded better, particularly in teaching them English: but 

 probably so at the expense of their own language and of their own 

 habits to such a degree, that as interpreters or channels of communi- 

 cation with the natives, they would have been as useless as Crusoe or 

 Friday. It remains to be seen what effects will by and bye arise 

 from the repeated interviews between the aborigines and our people. 

 Unfortunately these are frequently of anything but an amicable 

 nature, and tend rather to widen than to bridge over the gulph 

 between them. Indeed if the inference be correct, that the inhabi- 

 tants are of the same race as the Nigrettoes of the Philippines, who 

 to this day keep entirely aloof from the settlers on the coast, we may 

 surmise that the colonisation of the Andaman islands, when its 

 spread begins to interfere with the aborigines, will tend rather to the 

 extermination of the latter, than to any amelioration in their condi- 

 tion. It is to be regretted that since the days of Colonel Haughton, 

 very little information is published regarding our relations with this 

 truly savage people. 



Rangoon, July 28th, 1863. 



j|j 



