The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1884-01-05 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

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 Roepsterff, 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 instantly 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 circumstances 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 happened to be in the harbour to Port Blair, the seat of Government in the Andamans, with two constables to report what had taken place. In the meantime she assumed command of the station, ordering 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 commandant at Port Blair, arrived, accompanied by some other officers and the chaplain, and relieved her of her terrible responsibilities. Then, on the chaplain reading 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.