ANDAMAN ISLANDS - HISTORY Andaman first appears distinctly in the Arab notices of the 9th century. But it seems possible that the Agathou daimonos pesos (Good Spirit Island) of Ptolemy was really a misunder standing of some form like Agdamdn. The islands are briefly noticed by Marco Polo (who probably saw without visiting them), under the name Angamanain, seemingly an Arabic dual, "The two Angamans," with the exaggerated but not unnatural picture of the natives, long current, as dog-faced Anthropophagi. Another notice occurs in the story of Nicolo Conti (c. 144o), who explains the name to mean "Island of Gold," and speaks of a lake with peculiar virtues as existing in it. The name is probably derived from the Malay Handuman, coming from the ancient Hanuman (monkey). Later travellers repeat the stories, too well founded, of the ferocious hostility of the people. In Sept. 1789 Captain Blair, acting under instructions from the Government of Bengal, established a penal colony, associated with a harbour of refuge on Chatham Island, in the south-east bay of the Great Andaman, now called Port Blair, but then Port Cornwallis. Two years later, urged by Admiral Cornwallis, the Government transferred the colony—together with its name of Port Cornwallis—to the north east part of Great Andaman, where a naval arsenal was to be established. But the scheme did ill; and in 1796 the Government put an end to it. In 1839, Dr. Helfer, a German savant employed by the Indian Government, was attacked and killed in the islands. In 1844 the troop-ships "Briton" and "Runnymede" were driven ashore there. The natives showed their usual hostility, killing all stragglers. Outrages on shipwrecked crews continued so frequent that the question of occupation was revived, and in 1855 a project was formed for a settlement and a convict establishment. This scheme was interrupted by the Indian Mutiny of 1857, but as soon as the revolt was broken, it became more than ever urgent to provide such a resource, on account of the great number of prison ers falling into British hands. Lord Canning, therefore, despatched in Nov. 1857 a commission, headed by Dr. F. Mouat, to examine and report. The commission reported favourably, selecting as a site Blair's original Port Cornwallis, but avoiding the vicinity of a salt swamp which seemed to have been pernicious to the old colony. To avoid confusion, the name of Port Blair was given to the new settlement, which was established in the beginning of 1858. For some time sickness and mortality were excessively large, but the reclamation of swamp and clearance of jungle on an extensive scale by Col. Henry Man (1868-7o) was ultimately suc cessful. The Andaman colony obtained a tragic notoriety from the murder, by a Mohammedan convict, of the viceroy, the earl of Mayo, when on a visit to the settlement on Feb. 8, 1872. In the same year the two groups, Andaman and Nicobar—the occu pation of the latter having been forced on the British Government in 1869 by the continued outrages upon vessels—were united under a chief commissioner residing at Port Blair. Since that time the Islands have been continuously used as a convict settle ment. The penal settlement however is being gradually discon tinued, the islands being left to develop on free lines.