>375 
Port Blair; it remains nevertheless difficult to understand why not a 
single Coco-nut should have escaped the notice of the Andamanese— 
who after all are not a numerous race—while, as it happens, we have 
Mr. Kurz’s positive statement that in certain parts of North Andaman 
the species docs occur. 
It seems to the winter that for this particular group of islands, 
although the spread of the Coco-nuts within the group is undoubtedly 
due to the agency of the sea, the ocean-current theory does not explain 
the presence of the species, and that the original introduction has more 
probably been due to human interference. The question remains whether 
this was voluntary or involuntary. It may have been the result of an 
attempt at settlement in the island. The most recent attempt, which 
dates from 1878, is not the only one on record. An earlier attempt, as 
unsuccessful as the last, was made in 1849. But it does not follow, 
though these are the only attempts known, that they are the only ones 
which have been made. Both were made entirely on account of the 
Coco-nut being present in the islands, as perhaps other attempts before 
them may have been, for it appears that the name Coco Islands, implying 
the establishment there of Coco nucifera and the knowledge of that 
fact by navigators, dates from some of the very earliest European visits 
to Eastern seas. But it is not impossible that a yet earlier attempt to 
settle here may have been made and that the introduction of the Coco¬ 
nut may have been one of its results. It is easy to undei’stand that 
these islands should have been chosen in preference to the more inviting- 
looking Andaman group owing to the character for ferocity which, for 
some curious reason, was attributed to the inhabitants of the Andamans 
by eaidy navigators, and it is as easy to understand that the adverse 
natural conditions which prevail, and which have caused the failure of 
all recent attempts at settlement, must soon have led to the abandonment 
of the earliest attempt. The writer feels inclined to think that this may 
be the true explanation of the presence of Coco nucifera in the Cocos 
Islands. Bnt it may quite as readily have been due to involuntary in¬ 
troduction by ship-wreck ; for while disinclined to accept the suggestion 
that there ai'e no Coco-nut trees in the Andamans because the Anda¬ 
manese have eaten all the stranded Coco-nuts, when it is applied to nuts 
thrown up by ocean-currents, the writer thinks this explanation may well 
enough account for the presence of Coco-nut trees in the Cocos while 
they are absent from the main islands, if introduction by reason of ship¬ 
wreck is postulated. In the Cocos there are no inhabitants, while in the 
main islands there are ; and though it is scarcely reasonable to suppose 
that the Andamanese would detect every nut that is cast -up on the 
beach, there is little doubt that they would soon become aware of the 
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