ANDAMAN, IsLEs, the name of a cluster of islands, in the gulf of Bengal, opposite to the coast of Malacca, stretching from north to south. One of theS'e islands, which is about 140 miles long, and 20 broad, is called the Great Andaman. It is surrounded with a broken and indented coast, with deep bays and good harbours, and intersected by creeks and arms of the sea, one of which permits small vessels to sail completely through the island. The soil is principally black mould, and the rocks are formed of a white sand-stone. Ebony, and the .11 fillori or Nicoban bread-fruit, grow in the exten sive forests. Wild hogs, monkics, and rats, are almost the only quadrupeds ; and among the fish which abound in the bays and creeks, are soles, mullets, and oysters. The Little Andaman is about 24 miles long, and 15 broad.
The inhabitants of these islands seem to exceed in barbarity and rudeness every other people upon earth. Dispersed in small tribes along the coast, or among the lesser islands around, they seek for a precarious meal of fish by climbing the rocks. Their huts consist of four sticks fixed in the ground, bound together at the top, and fastened across by others, to which branches of trees are hung. Though they live chiefly on fish, which they shoot with wonderful dexterity, yet, in stormy weather, when they seek in vain for this article of food, they will greedily devour lizards, rats, and snakes. In order to keep off the insects, they plaster
themselves in the morning with mud, which, when dried by the sun, forms a sufficient defence against their at tacks. The inhabitants seldom exceed five feet in sta ture. Their limbs are extremely slender, their shoul ders high, their head large, their bellies projecting, their hair woolly, their noses flat, their lips thick, their eyes small and red, their skin of a deep black, and their countenance displays a brutality of character, and a wretchedness of condition, which seldom mark the hu man species. They wander about completely naked ; but two of their young women were careful of their chastity, when they had been allured on board an Eng lish vessel. Their similarity to negroes has given rise to the opinion, that they are descended from African slaves; but this is far from being probable, as they are described with the same peculiarities, in the ninth cen tury, by Mahometan travellers. A British settlement has been lately established in the Greater Andaman, and some convicts sent from Bengal. Some of the An damans abound in quicksilver. The population is be tween 2000 and 2500. See Asiatic Researches, vol. ii., vol. iv. p. 585. Syme's Journey. Hamilton's New Ac count of the East Indies. (a-)