3. THE TERRIBLE ISLANDS: HISTORY

The crews of the two ships had prepared and provisioned the long-boat of the Runnymede. On 25th November, the boat, christened Hope, set off with a crew of eight to get help. During the following three weeks, the shipwrecked company kept itself busy fighting off native attacks, hunting, fishing, exploring, digging wells, erecting sheds as well as keeping the make-shift tents as waterproof as could be managed. If it was not for the uncertainty about the Hope, the whole would have been an adventure-picnic. There was even time to courtmartial some unfortunates who had been caught pilfering beer from the Briton's stores. One exploring party to a neighbouring island discovered bundles of pigs' skulls tied together in heaps and stones suspended from tree branches by rattan. This was correctly taken to be some religious ceremony of the natives, none of whom were sighted.

On 15th December 1845, minutes after a severe earthquake had shaken up the encampment and only hours after the decision to half the rations in case the wait should be a long one, a sail was spotted on the horizon. This turned out to be the George Swinton with the empty Hope in tow. The Hope had indeed reached Mergui on 6th December and alerted the British authorities. Its crew was exhausted but well and had been taken to Moulmein for recuperation. At the same time, the George Swinton was dispatched ahead of a whole fleet of other rescue ships. On Sunday, 5th January 1845, 55 days after the shipwreck, the last survivors had been taken off the hostile island. At once, the aborigines swarmed all over the two wrecks that had so long been denied to them.

Fifty years later the remains of the Briton were still visible in the form of three anchors, some brass bolts and the ship's ballast which appeared as a tiny island of stones rising slightly above the level of the swamp. No trace of the Runnymede remained. A tablet set up for the dead by the shipwrecked crews had disappeared but steps cut into the rock and leading to the encampment were still visible.

Most unusually, we also have the Andamanese side of the story. The tribe occupying Ritchie's archipelago was that of the Aka-Bale, later regarded as the least aggressive and most docile of all Andamanese tribes. Thirty years after the events described, British officers questioned members of the tribe and were told that they, the heroic Aka-Bale, had fought valiantly with the soldiers, had killed many of them, had driven them from their ships and taken everything they wanted. A generation later memories of a specific event were still very much alive. That the tale had grown in the telling and with it the heroics of their ancestors and the glory of their deeds is, of course, a truly primitive trait quite unknown among people of higher civilizations.

More typical of the unceremonious slaughter often practiced by the Andamanese during the pre-British days was the case of Dr. Helfer. Note that the aborigines were not immediately hostile and became so only after a pot had accidentally been broken. The incident took place in 1840 on the east coast of North Great Andaman in Aka-Kora territory:

[Dr. Helfer] wanted to visit the Andaman Islands to investigate the aboriginals there, famous for their ferocity. He visited some islands there but did not meet any of their inhabitants. Only on 20th January 1840 did some savages show themselves on a northern island. Some of them came forward and received a gift of coconuts from Dr. Helfer. When a dish that had also been given to them to carry water broke in their hands, they withdrew and could not be persuaded to approach again. On the following day Dr. Helfer once more went ashore to try to reestablish contact but he and his companions were suddenly attacked by the savages. Dr. Helfer and his people hurriedly swam back to their ship which they all reached except for Dr. Helfer himself. He was hit in the head and mortally wounded by a poisonous [sic!] arrow that the savages had sent after him. He sunk immediately beneath the waves and his body was never recovered.



While the Great Andamanese seem to have attacked most if not all outsiders foolish enough to land or be shipwrecked on their shores, the Onge on Little Andaman were more treacherous. They are known to have at least occasionally encouraged boats to land by waving at them in a friendly way. Once the boat had pulled up on the beach the visitors were led into the jungle with all signs of friendship. Then, while one small group of warriors destroyed the visitors' boat behind their backs, the main welcoming party dropped the mask of friendship and attacked the visitors. No eyewitness accounts exist that describe these killing fields but we know that those that did not fall in battle were often killed with great cruelty.