Indian Antiquary Vol 61

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

Page 66

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
MARCH, 1932
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 38.) Despite the nominal occupation of the country by Europeans for so long, the inhabitants, even of Nancowry Harbour, have been systematic pirates, and there is a very long list of authentic cases in which traders and others of all nationalities have been murdered, wrecked and plundered by them even to quite recent times. The immediate object of the British occupation was to put a final stop to this. The nineteen years of the British Penal Settle. ment succeeded effectually, and there is now no fear of a recrudescence.
Complaints of piracy and murder of crews made in the records left behind by missionaries and seamen occur up to 1848, and in 1852 there commenced formal official complaints and correspondence on the subject, which continued at intervals, until in 1867 the question already mooted of annexation of the islands to stop piracy, some cases of which had heen especially atrocious, was formally taken up, and in 1889 they were annexed to the British Crown and attached to the Andamans for administration and the establishment of a Penal Settlement.
The Penal Settlement in Nancowry Harbour consisted on the average of about 350 persons : 2 European and 2 other Officers; garrison, 58 ; police, 22 ; other free residents, 35; convicts, 235. They were employed on public works similar to those of the Andamans. The health was never good, but sickness was kept within limits by constant transfer to the Andamans. Individual health, however, steadily increased with length of time and there is no doubt that in time sanitary skill and effort would have made the sick rate approach without special efforts that of the Andamans. The first year of residence was always the most sickly, partial acclimatisation being quickly acquired. Some officers stayed two to three years. Mr. E. H. Man was in actual residence on and off six and a half years. Some of the free people remained on several years : convicts usually three, and sometimes voluntarily from five to fifteen without change.
As a matter of fact, as the following table will show, with the precautions taken, the sick rate at the Nicobar Penal Settlement did not on the whole compare unfavourably with that at the Andamans. Statement showing the sicle rate of the Settlements at Port Blair and Nicobars from 1869 to 1888, inclusive, i.e., for the 19 years that the Nicobar Settlement lasted.
PORT BLAIR. NICOBARS.
Rate per cent. Rate per cent. 1869
5.45
12.31 1870
5.34 6.36
10.87 1872
5.91
8.98 1873
5:53
• 8.66 1874
7.60
14.89 1875
9.62
16.68 1876
10.35
8.66 1877
7.71
9.76 1878
Not recorded. Not recorded. 1879
8.92
6.66 1880
10.00
6.83 1881 * . .. 11.09
6.98 1882
9.77
7.01 1883
7.42
7.08
1871
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