A SURVEY SEASON IN THE NICOBAR ISLANDS. 971 
an entrance at each end, one to the eastward, another to tlie westward, with 
soundings close to them, where ships may anchor occasionally, makes it very 
convenient and they may enter or depart from it in every month of the year. 
The western entrance, about one-eighth of a mile or 100 fathoms wide, is formed 
between two steep points of high land and the depths in it are generally from 
27 to 35 fathoms ; outside of it, a sand bank with irregular soundings from 6 to 
12 fathoms, and patches of rocky bottom project a little way from the S. W. 
point of Carmorta. The eastern entrance is very little wider than the former, 
being contracted by rocky banks which line the shore on each side havmg 12 
and 14 fathoms close to them and from 18 to 20 fathoms in mid-channel 
The tide runs strongly with eddies through the Western entrance. The flood sets 
tlrrough the harbour to the eastward ; but with very little velocity inside.” 
At the base of the cliffs on either side of the western entrance several of the 
larger rocks and boulders have been gradually eroded and now form rocky arch, 
ways through which the siu'f rushes in a smother of white foam. Once past 
the narrow entrance the harbour widens out and indentations of the coast line 
form four subsidiary bays — Satellite and Octavia Bays on the northern side and 
Wasp and Spiteful Bays on the south. As we steamed slowly up the harbour 
we saw several scattered villages, each consisting of two or three huts with 
thatched roofs and built on piles just above high water mai’k on a patch of sandy 
beach. The site of a village is almost invariably rendered conspicuous by 
the presence of one or more tall, ta^^ering bamboos, decorated at intervals 
with bunches of leaves and grass, which the inhabitants erect in the .water 
a little distance in front of their huts. We eventually anchored in Octavia 
Bay not very far from the jetty that has been built out across the coral reef 
opposite the Government Agent’s bungalow ; to celebrate our arrival a union- 
jack was hoisted on the flag-staff on shore and shortly afterwards the agent 
himself came on board to report. 
During the first few days of our sojourn we received a succession of visitors 
in the persons of the headmen of the neighbouring villages, who came, in ac- 
cordance with the terms of their office, to report themselves and to offer such 
assistance as should be required, but in reality their chief object was to find out 
what they could obtain from us in the way of cigarettes, ship’s biscuits, rum or 
spirits, etc., for, whatever they may have been in the past, mider the present 
sj''stem of government the Xicobarese have become the most bare-faced and 
persistent ‘ cadgers.’ Every headman, according to the Gazetteer!, receives 
an annual gift from Government of a suit of clothes and he is instructed to don 
these whenever he reports on board Government ships. This custom dates back 
for many years prior to the British occupation of these Islands, for Buschf, in 
his journal of a cruise among the Nicobar Islands in the Schooner V 
Espit’gle in 1845, relates that “ several natives, dressed in jackets, hats and 
trousers, came on board and some of them showed us badges of authority — as 
also several certificates — appointing them headmen of different villages.” 
At the time of Busch’s visit the Nicobars were under no administration. 
The badges and certificates that he refers to had been granted during the 
Danish occupation, which practically terminated in 1837. It was not till 1869 
that the British Government undertook the control of these islands and it was 
during the thirty years of abandonment that piracy became so rife, over 
27 ships being scuttled and the majority of their crews murdered by the 
natives during the period. There seems to be little doubt that the Nicobarese 
J Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 
Calcutta, 1909. 
Vide Selections from Records of Government of India, Home Dept., No. 
XXVIL, “ Papers relating to the Nicobar Islands,” Calcutta, 1870 
