NATIVE TRIBES. 
163 
time immemorial in a state of tolerable civilization, tbese 
islands should liave remained in a state of natnrej and 
tlieir inhabitants plonged in the grossest ignomnce and 
barbarity. The wild appearance of the eoiuitr>-, and the 
untractable and ferocious disposition of the inhabitants, 
have been the causes, probably, which have deterred 
navigators from frequenting tbem, and they have justly 
dreaded a shipwreck at the Andamans more than the 
danger of fonndering on the ocean ^ for although it is 
highly probable that in the course of time many vessels 
have been wrecked upon their coasts, an instance does 
not occur of any of their crews being saved, or of a 
single person retux'ning to give any account of such a 
disaster."* 
These remarks' are equally applicable at the present 
day, except that it does not ahmys happen that the 
crews of ships wrecked on the coast (of which scarcely a 
year passes without one or more instances occurring) fall 
a prey to the savages. In the year 1845j the ship 'Briton' 
conveJ^^g more than three hundred troops of the 80th Re* 
giment from Sydney to Calcutta, was di-iven> dismantled, 
before a hurricane, upon the east coast of the Great Anda- 
man I and within an hour a second ship, the * Kuun^niiede,' 
conveying military stores and a detachment of the 50th 
Eegiment from England to Calcutta, was wrecked within 
half a mile of the same spot. The * Briton* was short of 
provisions, but by a merciful Providence the cargo of the 
other vessel furnished an abundant supply, which enabled 
the crew and passengers to subsist until assistance could 
* " Asiatic Researches," vol. it, p. 385. 
