The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1911-12-27
A VICIOUS CONVICT COLONY
ENGLAND'S PENAL SETTLEMENT
IN THE ALBANIAN ISLANDS.
Often Most Desperate Prisoners Kill
One Another. Others Fall Vic
Tins to the Head Hunters.

One Another. Others Fall Vic
Tins to the Head Hunters.
Frederick Taylor, F. r. G. s., writ
ing in the Century Magazine about
life in the Andaman Islands says
1.-The sailing of the Maharaja from
Calcutta for the Andaman islands
was not accompanied by the usual
goOd-byes and handkerchief waving,
for of my fellow passengers there
were seventy to whom no one wish
ed bon voyage or a safe return.
These were cOnvicts, all murderers
under life sentence, who for some
reason had escaped the death pen
atty, and included six women, for
the Maharaja is the ship used by the
federal government to transport con-
victs to the penal settlements near
Port Blair, South Andaman island,
a distance of $50 miles from Cal
cutta
THE prisoners were all manacled
and shackled about the ankles, with
chains fastened to bands at the wrist,
and they were a despicable lot. At
night a continual moaning and Sob
bling and cursing came up from the
out of the question for me, though
the European officer slept undis-
turbed. Early the first morning l
went on deck and learned that two
of the male prisoners were i'll and
had been brought up to the deck for
air They we're closely guarded, and
raw recruits were stationed at the
railing to prevent them from COM
hitting suicide by jumping over
board in the Hugh river.
The Adamans are literally the
homes of murderers. The inhabi-
tants are the most vicious members
of an older civilization and the I'M
civilized head hunters, among whom
murder is sport and pastime. In
the settlement are about 100 pris-
Oners, including 500 women. On ar
irving at Port Bair the prisoners
first spend six months in solitary
confinement in the cellular Jail of
Viper island. They are then trans-
ferred to one of the associated jailS
and the comparative blessings of
hard labor in company with others,
though still occupying separate cells
at night. After a year and a half
of this they become slaves, working
in and about the settlement during
the day and sleeping in barracks at
night, always closely guarded At
the expiration of five years a convict
becomes eligible to join the colony
of 'self-supporters and live in the
village, where he earns his living in
his chosen way, lives in his own
house and can send for his wife and
children or marry a convict woman
is he chooses. In a limited sense he
becomes a pater-familias, but is al
ways carefully watched and cannot
leave the settlement without permis-
sion.
'Despiste the rigid discipline and
the vigilance of the authorities the
communal life is far from harmoni-
Gus, and the more vicious often re-
bel. The murderers kill one another
and are in turn murdered by the
treacherous Andamanese who re-
gard the helpless cOnvicts and their
guards as their natural prey. Occa-
sional attempts at escape are made,
but the efforts invariably prove dis
astrous. The fugitive, finding his
conditional freedom worse than serv-
itude, either dies at the hands of the
Jarawa warriors, falls a victim to
fever or other disease or starves.
There is also a system in vogue by
which the more friendly tribes of
savages cooperate with the authori-