"They began with the dense forests, the fetid swamps, and the pestilential coral banks of tropical islands, and have made out of them many square miles of grass and arable lands, supporting over fifty villages besides convict stations. Miles upon miles of swamp have been reclaimed, the coral banks have been controlled, and a place with regard to which the words climate and pestilence were almost synonymous has been turned into one favourably spoken of as to its healthiness. The Settlement now grows its own vegetables, tea,[107] coffee, cocoa, tapioca, and arrowroot; some of its ordinary food grains, and most of its fodder. It supplies itself with the greater part of its animal food, and all its fuel and salt. In other lines of work, it makes its own boats, and provides from its own resources the bulk of the materials for its buildings, which are constructed and erected locally. Amongst the materials produced are all the timber, stone, bricks, lime, and mortar, and most of the iron and metal work are made up there from raw material. In the matter of convict clothing, all that is necessary to be purchased elsewhere are the roughest of cotton hanks and wool in the first and rawest condition, every other operation being performed on the spot. It provides much of its own leather.
"In achieving the results, the officers have had first to learn for themselves as best they could how to turn out the work to hand, and then to teach what they had learnt to the most unpromising pupils that can be imagined,--only about 3 per cent. of the convicts sent there having been previously employed on the work required of them in Port Blair. And they have been hampered all along by the necessities of convict discipline, by the constant release of their men, and their punishment for misconduct. It is under such conditions that the Corps of Artificers and the other convicts have had to be utilised. Nevertheless, the roads and drains, the buildings and boats, the embankments and reservoirs, are as good and durable as are the same class of structures elsewhere. The manufactures are sufficient for their purpose, and there are among the taught those who are now skilled in the use of many kinds of machinery. Cultivation is generally fair, and some of it very good. The general sanitation--but here there are peculiar advantages--is literally second to none."[108]