Historical details respecting this Archipelago.--Arrival at Kar-Nicobar.--Communication with the Aborigines.--Village of Sáoui and "Captain John."--Meet with two white men.--Journey to the south side of the island.--Village of Komios.--Forest Scenery.--Batte-Malve.--Tillangschong.--Arrival and stay at Nangkauri Harbour.--Village of Itoe.--Peak Mongkata on Kamorta.-- Villages of Enuang and Malacca.--Tripjet, the first settlement of the Moravian Brothers.--Ulàla Cove.--Voyage through the Archipelago.--The Island of Treis.--Pulo Milù--Pandanus Forest.-- St. George's Channel.--Island of Kondul.--Departure for the northern coast of Great Nicobar.--Mangrove Swamp.--Malay traders.--Remarks upon the natives of Great Nicobar.--Disaster to a boat dispatched to make Geodetical observations.--Visit to the Southern Bay of Great Nicobar.--General results obtained during the stay of the Expedition in this Archipelago.-- Nautical, Climatic, and Geognostic observations.--Vegetation.-- Animal Life.--Ethnography.--Prospects of this group of Islands in the way of settlement and cultivation.--Voyage to the Straits of Malacca.--Arrival at Singapore. The earliest visitants of whom we have any certain information to this cluster of islands (situated in the Bay of Bengal, between 6° 50' and 9° 10' N., and 93° and 94° E.), appear to have been Arabian traders, who, on their voyages to Southern China, landed on these islands, then known as Megabalu and Legabalu, on the first occasion in 851, and on the second in 877 of the Christian era. Abu-Zeyd-Hassan, one of these adventurers, gave a circumstantial account of these voyages, which has been translated into French, and published by Eusebius Renaudot.[1] After the Cape of Good Hope was doubled in 1497, the Nicobars were chiefly frequented by voyagers in East Indian seas, but without any such visits having in the least contributed to enlarge our information respecting a group so important by geographical position.