3-034-682 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Christ Church, Port Blair, Andaman Islands, [India], 1871. Church in '...the British Indian official settlement in the Andaman Islands, which lie almost directly opposite Madras, above 700 miles eastward of the coast of Hindostan. The place has been used, since 1857, for the penal transportation and servitude of convicts from different parts of our Indian Empire. The most desperate and violent of these criminals are kept in chains, on Viper Island, Port Blair; while those whose characters allow of their milder treatment are placed to work at other stations. The whole number of convicts there at present is about 8000...Our present Illustration is a view of Ross Island Church (Christ Church), built by private contribution and aided by a Government grant. It was completed and consecrated by Bishop Milman, of Calcutta, in March of last year. The gentleman who sends us this Illustration writes "We have just had a wedding in the church; and this is, perhaps, the only place in the world where, with a church and a community of Englishmen numbering nearly 200, the wedding party cannot drive away. The place is too hilly for carriages; ladies are, therefore, carried in sedan-chairs, and gentlemen use the means of locomotion provided them by nature'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.