The transportation of European offenders is now discontinued, but a large number of female convicts are engaged mainly in turning the wool prepared in Viper Jail into blankets.
Caste--a most important point in connection with people of India--is carefully respected, and the Brahmin prisoners are nearly all employed as cooks.
The majority of the convicts are from the Indian Peninsula, and are resident for life. Of the Burmese, however, the greater part are serving sentences of ten years, for engaging too recklessly in the national pastime of dacoity, and many of them are employed in the jungle and as boatmen.
To maintain discipline, and for the protection of the Settlement, a military force of about 440 men is stationed at Aberdeen, Ross, and Viper--two companies of European and four of native troops--and a battalion of military police.
After leaving Viper Island we returned to the headquarters of the Settlement, where next day we left behind the last post of civilisation met with, until three months later we reached Olehleh, the most northerly of the Dutch colonies in Acheen.
MACPHERSON STRAIT--SOUTH ANDAMAN AND RUTLAND ISLAND
Gunboat Tours--South Andaman--Rutland Island--Navigation-- Landing-place--Native Camp--Natives--Jungle--Birds--Appearance of the Natives--Our Guests--Native Women: Decorations and Absurd Appearance--Trials of Photography--The Village--Food--Bows, Arrows, and Utensils--Barter--_Coiffure_--Fauna--Water--New Species.
After leaving Port Blair, where we got up anchor at half-past three in the morning to make the most of a light breeze, we sailed slowly along the coast of South Andaman, until, rounding the point of the south-east corner, we came to anchor in Macpherson Strait.
Just outside the port we met the R.I.M.S. _Elphinstone_ returning from a census-taking visit to the Nicobars; three or four times a year she makes a ten days' trip round the group, stopping at a few of the more important places; and these cruises are almost the only thing that brings home to the natives the fact that they are under the British raj.
For some distance south of the Settlement the land consists of undulating grassy hills, dotted with coco palms, and streaked by gullies, in which dark clumps of jungle still remain. It is an ideal country for game, and some years ago hog-deer were introduced; but, although they have multiplied, they are very rarely seen, and have afforded but little sport.