Hi, I’m the History Guy. I have a degree in history, and I love history,
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The Victoria Cross is the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that is
available to members of the British Armed Forces. Established in 1856 by Queen Victoria to recognize
acts of Valor during the Crimean War, the Victoria Cross has been awarded a total of
1,356 times. As at one time the British Empire was the largest empire in the history of the world,
the recipients of Victoria Cross are a particular interest to military historians,
as the story of the Victoria Cross is the story of the age of empire,
and of the world wars. In so in 1867, when five members of the legendary 24th Regiment of Foot,
won Victoria Crosses for one of the least known expeditions of the Victorian era, on
one of the remotest parts of the earth, it piqued a historians interest. The Archon Expedition of
1867 serves not only to illustrate the unique chapter in the history of the Victoria Cross,
but serves to dramatically illustrate the impact of empire, and the clash of cultures.
All on a remote island paradise. It is history that deserves to be remembered.
The Andaman Archipelago is an oceanic continuation of the Burmese Arakan Yoma range in the north,
and the Indonesian Archipelago in the south. It has 325 islands which cover an area of
2,474 square miles. The Archipelago lies in the Bay of Bengal between India to the west,
and Myanmar to the north and east, with the Andaman Sea to the east between the islands and
the coast of Myanmar. The islands are prototypical island paradise, with lovely white sand beaches,
and bewitching waterfalls. The vegetation of the Andamans is tropical forests with mangroves on the
coast; the climate is always warm, but with sea breezes. The Andamanese, the indigenous peoples
of the Andaman Islands, were once thought to have been descendents of the initial great
coastal migration, that was the first expansion of humanity out of Africa. But linguistic evidence
has instead led scientists to conclude that the Andamanese migrated to the islands around 26,000
years ago during a period of world glaciation, when there was a land bridge connecting
the Andaman Archipelago to Myanmar. While not descendants of the peoples of the great coastal
migration, the Andamanese are, however, an ancient people. Genetic evidence suggests that by the time
of their discovery by Europeans, the Andamanese had been separate from other populations,
for around 1,700 generations. The Andamanese were a hunter-gatherer society; they did not
practice cultivation of crops, and lived off hunting indigenous pigs, fishing, and gathering.
With the Aboriginal people of Tasmania, the Andamanese were one of only two peoples who
in the 19th century, had no method of making fire. Instead, they carefully preserved embers
in hollowed-out trees, which had been set fire by lightning strikes. They were a Stone Age people,
their only weapons were the bow and wooden harpoons. The islands had many tribes
of Andamanese who had developed mutually unintelligible languages that are believed
to have evolved over millennia. Until the late 18th century, the Andamanese were preserved from
outside influences by their fierce reaction to visitors, which included killing any shipwrecked
foreigners, and by the sheer remoteness of the islands. Little Andaman Island is the 4th largest
of the Andaman islands; it is separated from the main Archipelago, Great Andaman,
by a strait called the Duncan Passage. It is remote, even by Andaman standards, and in the 19th
century was largely ignored by the British. It was the home of an Andamanese people called the Onge.
On March 21st of 1867, the captain and seven crew of the sailing ship Assam Valley,
went ashore at little Andaman Island to collect wood. They were seen to get over
the reef on the southern side of the island, and to go into the jungle. When they hadn't
reappeared two days later, the crew of the Assam Valley sailed the ship to Rangoon in Burma,
and reported the event that became known as, the Assam Valley Incident.
After an attempt by the British diplomat in charge of the Andamanese was attacked by the Onge,
and failed to determine the fate of the lost crew of the Assam Valley,
a military expedition was sent on the steamship Arracan with a detachment of three officers,
and 100 men of the 24th Regiment. The 24th Regiment of Foot had been stationed in India
since 1846 when it had participated in the second Anglo-Sikh War. On May 17th 1867,
the Arracan dropped anchor off Little Andaman Island; two boats were launched under the command
of lieutenant, one boat carrying 17 men struggled through the pounding surf to reach the beach,
while the second remained parallel to the shore to provide cover. Almost immediately
the soldiers came under fire by bow and arrows from the Onge. Returning fire, they were able to
move inland far enough to find a human skull, and four hastily buried bodies, revealing the
fate of the lost crewmen of the Assam Valley. Still under fire, the group decided to leave.
But the surf had gotten stronger, and was too much for them, their boat was swamped.
They straggled back to shore, trying not to be pulled underwater by the weight of
their uniforms and weapons. They were still holding off the Onge but they,
and the boat that was supporting them, were running out of ammunition. The fate of the
crew of the Assam Valley was ample proof that they needed to vacate that island.
But the pounding surf had become a daunting obstacle for rescuers as well, and several
attempts to reach the shore party by boat failed, with the lieutenant of the 24th drowning in the
attempt. But by Herculean effort, a gig, manned by assistant surgeon Campbell Mellis Douglas,
and four privates, managed to get through the surf twice in order to recover all 17
men of the shore party. Who, according to the regimental history of the 24th,
were “thus rescued from the virtual certainty of being massacred, and eaten by savages”.
Douglas was an accomplished boatman, and rare amongst Victorian Europeans,
could swim. According to citation, all five men were awarded the Victoria Cross for, “The very
gallant, and daring manner, in which they risked their lives in manning a boat, and proceeding
through a dangerous surf, to the rescue of some of their comrades”. The awards are among the few,
and were the last, Victoria Crosses to have been awarded for actions, not directly in combat.
As exciting as the story is of rowing through high tide, to prevent your comrades being “eaten” by
savages, that belies the real risk; which was much greater for the Onge than the 24th Foot. In fact,
early contact between Europeans, and the Andamanese were friendly. It was abuse at
the hands of Europeans, even shipwrecked sailors who needed aid were so abusive, as well as Arab
slave traders, that compelled the Andamanese to attack anyone who showed up on their Shores.
In the end, the crew of the Assam Valley were victims of the arrogance of their own people.
But bows and arrows could not protect the Onge. The Arracan Expedition by itself killed
maybe dozens of Onge, and all that firing from the British soldiers out of a population of only about
a thousand. But firing muskets from the beach was nothing, compared to the effects of logging
later on Little Andaman Island, which eventually deprived the Onge of so much land that they could
not support themselves anymore. And exposed them to diseases, from which they had no defense. And
it wasn't just the British, during the Second World War the Japanese bombed the Andamanese,
in retaliation for their hostility. And even after they came under Indian control after independence
in 1947, and despite specific constitutional protections as a scheduled tribe, the Andamanese
have faced even greater risks from development. Refugees were resettled on Little Andaman Island,
and that has continued to deprive the Onge of land, to the point where they can barely
survive today. There were nearly a thousand Onge at the time of the Arracan Expedition,
there are less than a hundred today. And their vulnerability was dramatically shown in 2008,
when eight adult members of the tribe died, and 15 more became critically ill,
after drinking a fluid from a bottle that washed up on shore. They had confused it seems,
methanol, for drinking alcohol. The death of nearly 10 percent of the adult population,
was a blow from which the Onge still may never recover. There were some 7,000 Andamanese in
the 18th century, there are less than 500 today. In the end it was the Andamanese,
not the 24th Regiment of Foot, who were killed by savages.
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