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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APMIE, 1908.
possesses those advantages most in Request with Naval Officers. Its situation in a centrical part of the Bay, promises a speedy communication at all seasons of the Year, with Bengal and the Coromandel Coast. The Harbour will contain the largest Fleet, which may work in and out with every Wind that blows. Wood and fresh water are to be had in the greatest abundance, and with the utmost facility. These advantages are conspicuous, and perhaps they are all a Seaman looks for, it may be presumed be expects Administration will make bis Port secure, and supply it with every necessary and Refreshment he may eventually require. It remains for the wisdom of our Superiors to consider the Olimate, the Scale of Defence necessary, and the Resources their Settlements possess for colonizing so extensive an scquisition, and whether a Proportion of Foreigners can be obtained for this parpose. The Climate must create the larger part of the expence of labour, for whether Men are incapable of labour one half of the Year from Indisposition, or the inclemency of the Weather, it must be carried to the account, the encreased Wages of Workmen as an inducement for them to quit their Native Country and their Sabsistence for some years at the expence of their Employers, must also be considered, and it is a question whether in time to come, Sofficient Grain can be ealtivated for a numerous population whose Principal diet it constitutes, in a Hilly Country, and a Soil exposed to such heavy torrents of Rain for so great & part of the year, & period when Cultivation and Agrecultare are at a Stand throughout Hindostan. A careful examination of the Plan will shew its indefensible State, and that it cannot be made to afford protection to an inferior against & Superior Fleet, without an expence apparently disproportioned to the benefits to be derived The outer Harbour must be abandoned unless a Scale of defence could be proportioned to its magnitude. The Entrance of the inner Harbour cannot be secured by any Works constructed on Chatham Island, and the fortifying Perseverance point, would at, once require a double Establishment, as they must have every resource within themselves to make a separate resistance. A System of Fortification for this Port, therefore seems to be limited to Chatham Island, which possesses great choice of very strong Ground, and a small Fort well appointed would afford some protection to a few Ships, and certainly could not be taken, but by a regalar Seige, in which the Opposers would have to encounter every disadvantage of Ground peculiar to a ragged Country.
It would be difficult to acquire a numerous Population for this Colony. The Carnatic is only recovering its Inbabitants since the Conclusion of the Mysorean War, the Northern Sircars, are comparatively speaking almost in a State of depopulation, and I believe Bengal can ill spare so large a portion of its Inhabitants as this place would require to succeed on a grand Scale. Foreigners must therefore be sought at the expence of Government, for tbe Andamans hold out no other inducements to attract Voluntary Settlers except exorbitant Wages, cheap living, a demand for Manufactures, and a Prospect of Commerce are wanting. This position of the Colony, tho' at a first View. favourable from ite Centrical Sitaation, does not in reality hold forth a Prospect of becoming an Emporium, it lays out of the costomary Track of all Trade. The Shores of these Islands have ever been considered replete with dangers to Navigators, and the Reefs and Shouls discovered during the Survey of the Island, have not I imagine tended to obliterate the idea of danger; they are in themselves snfficient to deter Vessels approaching this Harbour except in cases of distress of necessity. It is impossible to say what the experience of another year may produce, the Magnitude of the Port bəs engaged much of my attention, and was I certain it possessed every advantage of Climate, Soil, and situation; I should not be an Advocate for an extensive support of it. It is too far from Great Britain, and I cannot think it would prove advantagious to them, that their vast territorial possessions in Indir, should be so closely connected, as they would be, by the possession of an Harbour that would doubtless in those circumstances, become the Center of India Trade, and promote te large a Maratime force ; this tho' more specnlative ides may be worth the attention of Superior Włsdom. Should Port Cornwallis therefore be altimately approved of, the Scale of
