This section is from the book "Chambers's Concise Gazetteer Of The World", by David Patrick. Also available from Amazon: Chambers's Concise Gazetteer Of The World.
An'damans, a group of thickly wooded islands towards the east side of the Bay of Bengal, 680 miles S. of the Hooghly mouth of the Ganges. They consist of the Great and Little Andaman groups. The former group, more than 150 miles long and 20 miles broad, comprises four islands, the North, Middle, and South Andaman, and Rutland Island. The Little Andaman, 30 miles S. of the larger group, is 28 miles long by 17 miles broad. The total area is 2508 sq. m. The dark, dwarfish natives, seldom five feet high, stand also in the lowest stage of civilisation. Their number in Great Andaman is about 2000; in Little Andaman, from 1000 to 1500. A British settlement was made on North Andaman in 1789, but abandoned in 1796 for Penang. The present capital is Port Blair, on South Andaman, the largest island of the group. The harbour here is one of the finest in the world. Since 1858, the Andamans have been used by the Indian government as a penal settlement for sepoy mutineers and other life-convicts. In 1901 the population of the convict colony was 18,670, of whom 2240 were women. In 1872 Lord Mayo, viceroy of India, was' assassinated at Hopetown on Viper Island by a Mussulman convict.
 
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