A Dane, named Koenig, who was a doctor of the same religious body, voyaging from India to Siam in 1778, spent several hours on Kar Nicobar, and in his diary left some account of his visit; and almost contemporaneously a vessel under the Austrian flag, the _Joseph and Theresa_, Captain Bennet, anchored off the northern island: her voyage was made to obtain plantations and trading stations in the East for the Austrian Empire. This was the scheme of a Dutchman, named Bolts, who entered the Austrian service in 1775, and who accompanied the ship, a chartered English vessel with an English crew. The expedition spent five months in the group: a fort was erected on the island, and ships purchased to trade between Madras, Pegu, and the Nicobars. War in Europe ruined the company, and it was suspended after an existence of seven years. In 1779 two more Moravians settled on Nankauri, in an attempt to found a fresh Danish Mission, but eight years later this was abandoned, and the survivor returned to Europe. With the commencement of the nineteenth century, English traders from India began to visit the islands for coconuts, and, through contact with their crews, the custom and life of the natives seems to have undergone much growth and alteration. In 1831 Denmark made a last attempt to colonise the group by missionary enterprise, and Pastor Rosen was sent out. He dwelt on Nankauri, in the middle of the north side of the harbour, and for a time also lived on Trinkat; but after three years he returned to Europe, and some time later published his experiences. The year Rosen left, two Catholic missionaries arrived at Kar Nicobar from Malacca, and lived on Teressa and Kamorta, but after a time one of them, Borie, died of fever, and the survivor left. This was the last of the series of missionary endeavours to found a settlement and convert the inhabitants. In 1845, Mr Mackay, Danish Consul at Calcutta, chartered a schooner and made a voyage to the group in search of coal, which was prospected for without success.[123] A year later the Danish corvette _Galathea_,[124] voyaging round the world, spent some months among the islands, and her commander, Steen Bille, took possession of the central group for Denmark, and invested two natives with the insignia of chief magistrates. Two years afterwards, however, the _Valkyrien_ was sent to the islands to bring away the flags and bâtons, and the last of several ineffective annexations came to an end. The _Galathea_ expedition surveyed much of the coasts, sought for coal and other minerals, and named the principal river the "Galathea." In 1858 the Austrian frigate _Novara_[125] spent a month in the group, during which, half the time was passed at sea. Many parts hitherto unsurveyed were charted by them, and valuable knowledge as to the ethnographical and geological conditions of the islands was obtained.