was indebted to the goodness of Sir Robert Chambers, a Moonshee,* and
inferior domestics of various descriptions, increased our numbers to more
than seventy persons. Light and unfavourable' breezes retarded our progress
down the river, and before we had got clear, an accident happened
that created much concern. An hospital assistant, in the employment of
Dr. Buchanan, who had never before been in a ship, arose in the middle
of the night,, walked leisurely to the gangway, and, insensible to: his situation,
stepped overboard into a rapid tide, and was heard of .no more ; this
early loss o f a good: and useful man, impressed a general sentiment of
regret upon the whole crew.. - / . v ;
On the evening of the 26th, our pilot left us in seven fathom water,
having then passed all the dangers, of the channel. ; The wind continuing
foul, we anchored for the night; next inomiiig weighed and; stood .tö^the
soüth-east with a favouring breëze, which blew without intermissiop.till
the 4th of March, when We made the Great and Little Cocoa Islands,
so called from being clothed with cocoa-nut trees of unusual luxuriance.
These islands are flat, small, and swampy; they are uninhabited, and destitute
o f. good water. Woperceived the. rains o t a »hut o|t the sea shorey
which had been erected by an adventurer, who came thither from Madras
to express oil from the cocoa-nut : the scheme did not succeed'; some of
the party died, and the rest relinquished the project. Steering between
the southern Cocoa, and the north end of the Island of Andaman, we
opened Port Cornwallis on the east side of the latter. A t eleven o’clock
pn the 5 th, we hauled our wind and stood in ; at one, our ship came to
anchor, a quarter of a mile from the,shore. On landing we-were received
by Captains Ramsay and Stokoe (Colonel Kyd, the Governor, being
* A Mussulman professor of language.
absent) with the kindest bbspi-talityf which» was! equally extended to the
foapfain- and 6ffrce»s.jofcthe-ship} and continued to'every* individual belong?*
ingj.fjO 'the missidn, during’iKe tune ilhidweTfemaifae'd their m
The settlement; in -Port' Cdrawalhs ds. not''situated''on w e ” "'principal
'rslahd, but; on a 'smaller one*within” theqtarb&Qr/t-a&med Ipothc, English,
fehatham Island; the utmdst length ol which docs not exceed tvotftiilteS1,
and the_hreadth. little more than half Epndfesitth^fc'oulhera extremiSurfer;
females irr a narrow neck of landp/ordabTe ’ai fow .water^tn inhibit efei
tisfFhe Andaman. J'slan'ds.'areCa’icdhtfeuatiprl Of sthe ^T^hijjel'a^bvithat exi-
tends from Cape Negiaii to Atchein J Ic id', snetching fnim I®° fi^to f j?4©/
nonla latiDudcs Judlhom 9j0° Ol .to tLt’t e k u O m d t i t i t Ii is i5ce5a
»honsi’dered'as;the‘ Gieat Andaman, isijsffe most! northbni,t abbui ifne,Jhun7
’dre^jandsfortyaniles in ibngth, aififcnot oXc'eedingit-’v^thy'-broad: A separation,
1■" or ,'sti?ait;i however) has * lately^mwfeg- To: >allmimqkteidenfj&i-beep
discovered in .this island, which, in fact, divideS|B®ajfo. two; atjd'open? >a
clear passage intd'-the. Bay of Bengal. ..The firs t^et-elementfefltbf .English
was made in the year 1701, near the-'southem 'extremity of the island, in
a bay on-.the east fsfes!; 'But it was afterwards'removed' in 1 7>§3;' b-y-bdvice
* In thermphth of February, 1791, a vessel yySs: freighted fiom Madia, to cany .‘tores tb
his Majesty’s fleet at Andaman ; the master hetflg. unacquainted*^with the harbour, sent a
small boat, in the afternoon; to explore an opening in thelandj that ‘ appeared like tne' entrance’;
the boat stood in, “it'fell-dark, and* she was swept, by a rapid current, through a
^channel that divided the main island, and opened into the Bay of Bengal.' - The north-cSst
«nonsoon prevailed with great violence: unable to work against stream and wind, .the boar
was-borne to . leeward, and driven irresistibly into t-he Indian oceaiv.1'" -Eignteeh days -afterwards
she was picked Up by a French ship, near the equinoctial“ frhd? The crew “Consisted
of two Europeans and six Lascars; and, shocking fo relate, whbn-feliSved by the French
ship, three of the Lascars had been killed and eaten by th&ir-'cdrri^anions.”51“ s