Indian Antiquary Vol 61

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 169

AUGUST, 1932] REMARKS ON THE NICOBAR ISLANDERS AND THEIR COUNTRY
REMARKS ON THE NICOBAR ISLANDERS AND THEIR COUNTRY. BY THE LATE SIR RICHARD C. TEMPLE, BT., C.B., C.I.E., F.B.A., F.S.A., Chief Commissioner, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, from 1894 to 1903. (Continued from page 59.)
Among the advantages presented by the site over any other in or near the harbour, and which, therefore, led to its selection, were that (a) it was well raised, exposed to every breeze there being no higher land within a considerable radius, and commanded both entrances to the harbour; (b) the greater portion of the site was under grass, and therefore very little clearing of jungle and undergrowth had to be undertaken before the necessary number of buildings could be erected; and (c) extensive grass heaths, suitable for grazing large herds of cattle, such as it was desired to establish, stretched for many miles northwards; while the drawbacks and disadvantages were not so immediately apparent, but soon proved to be (1) the extensive foreshore of pestiferous black mud with, here and there, exposed coral reefs, which skirted the three sides of the small promontory on which the settlement was planted; (2) the existence of a large fetid swamp, measuring some 40 acres on the north-east border of the station, and a few small swamps and jhils in other portions of the same area; and (3) the poverty of the soil, consisting mainly of polycistina clay, and the difficulty consequently found not only in cultivating it successfully or utilising it in any other way, such as in brick, tile or pot-making, but also in draining it. The two first of these drawbacks would, however, it was thought, be ere long successfully overcome.
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The services of the hulk Blenheim, a well-known East Indiaman, which was anchored in the harbour for the first five years (viz., till April 1874) proved useful to the pioneers of the settlement both in affording accommodation while the buildings were being erected, and as a sanitarium to those subsequently requiring a change from the shore.
The average strength at which the convict gang was maintained varied during the nineteen years from 172 to 308 men, the mean average being about 235. The number with which the colony was started was 262 convicts.
The protective force, consisting of Madras sepoys averaging between 50-65, and police 15.30, usually aggregated about 80 men, while the free residents, exclusive of the crew of the station steamer, which was first granted in February 1884, consisting of Government officials, employés, cocoanut-traders and, in late years, children of free and convict settlers, ranged between 20 and 50. The total number of residents (free and convict) rarely, therefore, exceeded 400, and was in some years so low as 300.
The officer in charge was one of the Assistant or Extra Assistant Superintendents on the Port Blair Establishment; when available, a European officer was detailed from his regiment to the command of the Madras Infantry detachment, and a medical subordinate (an apothecary or hospital assistant) was in charge of the hospitals.
The experiences of the first few years proved most trying to the pioneers of the infant colony, as evidenced by the high sick-rate among all classes, notwithstanding the adoption of many precautionary measures. This state of things was almost entirely due to the malaria for which the harbour has, from remote times, been notorious. It, therefore, soon became evident that, until some marked improvement occurred in the sanitary condition of the locality, it would be necessary to avail ourselves largely of the facilities afforded by the visits of the mail steamer, which in the first few years communicated once every six weeks, and subsequently once every four weeks, to effect reliefs at short intervals of all free residents, and to transfer to Port Blair all cases of convict patients requiring change of air for their recovery.
In the case of the free establishment a residence of, at one time, three months and, at another time, of six months usually qualified for a relief, but, in some instances, the stay was voluntarily prolonged to periods of from one to four or more years. In the case of convicts,