Description
This book has been written at the request of LieutenantColonel R. C. Temple, C.I.E., Chief Commissioner of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, who, on assuming that office in August 1894, was anxious that the records of the Government relations with the Andamanese, which were perishing, with all that had been written about this interesting race before their occupation of this islands, should be condensed into one work before it was too late. After giving a description of the Andaman Islands, and of the appearance and customs of the Andamanese, he quotes all that has been written about those islands from the earliest times up to the date of their first settlement on them in the last century; and the present work, if not containing all that is known, at least has, between two covers, a larger number of the earlier records than any other; for in addition to the assistance afforded him in this direction by Colonel Yule’s article on the Andaman Islands in the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. The book is in two volumes. The writer then includes all that can be discovered regarding their occupation of the Andamans from 1789 to 1796 to make it an interesting discourse.
