The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-01-05 00:00:00

A TRAGEDY AND A HEROINE.

The Times gives the following particulars of the
recent murder of political officer at the Nicobar
Islands :

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, situated in the
By of Bengal, a few days' sail from Calcutta, are the
great renal settlement of India, especially the former,
whazo more than 10,000 native convicts, many of
them belonging, to the most desperate class of
criminals, are kept under restraint, or employed
in out-of-door labour under vigilant supervision.
A branch convict settlement exists at Camorta,
the capital of the Nicobar Islands, where there
are at present two hundred convicts guarded by
thirty men of the 2nd Madras Native Infantry and
a like number of police under a native chief constable.
The officer in charge of the station was Mr. de Roep-
sterff, a Danish gentleman belonging to the Indian
Civil Uncovenanted Service. A havildar, or native
sergeant of the Madras Infantry, a man of 30 years'
service, had been accused by a native watchman of
appropriating cocoanuts, and had in return struck the
watchman and put him for a short time under a
sentry. The next day Mr. de Roepaterff commenced
the investigation of the case, and having taken the
evidence for the prosecution adjourned the hearing till
the following day, when the havildar was ordered to
bring up his witnesses. Shortly afterwards he was
riding past the Native Infantry barracks, about 30
yards off, when the havildar fired at him from his
room and hit him between the shoulders, the bullet
coming out at the breast. He fell from his horse, and
the orderly and groom who were with him went in-
stantly to his assistance. He was only able to say,
"Do not be confused, take care of the mem-sahib
(his wife) or she will be shot too." Mrs. de Roepsterff,
who was riding a little behind, came up, but her hue
-
band was unable to speak farther, and he died in a
few minutes. The havildar immediately afterwards
reloaded his rifle and blew his own brains out,

The position of the poor lady was deplorable—her
husband killed before her eyes, not a soul who could
speak a word of English nearer than 300 miles off by
sea, 200 convicts to keep in order without a prison to
confine them in, and bad feeling existing to a
dangerous extent between the Sikh police and the
Madras Native Infantry. In these trying circum-
stances the lady evinced a force of character
amounting to heroism. She had her husband's body
carried at once to the bungalow and afterwards
buried. She despatched a native craft which hap-
pened to be in the harbour to Port Blair, the seat
of Government in the Andamans, with two con-
stables to report what had taken place. In the
meantime she assumed command of the station, order-
ing all reports to be made to herself, and managed
it with perfect success, an illustration of how
naturally Orientals submit to and rely on a European
mind when exercised with firmness and discretion. In
six or seven days Major Protheroe, the acting com-
mandant at Port Blair, arrived, accompanied by some
other officers and the chaplain, and relieved her of her
terrible responsibilities. Then, on the chaplain read-
ing the funeral service over her husband's grave, she
broke down, threw herself on the grave, and had to be
removed by force.

It appears that Mr. de Roepsterff, with his wife's
assistance, had nearly completed a dictionary of the
Nicobaresse language, and had also made considerable
progress in a translation of the Bible. His widow
desires to remain for some time at Port Blair to finish
the work.