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& [Government Rest House, Mount Harriet - Port Blair].Two watercolours. Mounted, with wash lines. Both measuring 143 by 223mm. c.

The artist was British Resident of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the 1890s, from which period these drawings date.First surveyed in 1788/9 by Lieuts. Colebrooke and Blair, under instructions from the government of Bengal, the Andaman Islands were not sucessfully colonised by the British until after 1857. The first settlement established on Great Andaman in September 1789 was short lived and was moved to the North East of the island after two years before being abandoned altoghether in 1796.Following attacks by the natives on sailors and shipwrecked crews plans to colonise the Andamans re-surfaced in 1855. This time the new settlement was to include a penal colony, however plans were once again put on hold with the outbreak of the Indian Rebellion in 1857 (the Mutiny). However, this in itself provided cause to re-examine the plans at its conclusion, and whilst avoiding the original position of Port Cornwallis, Port Blair was founded on the same bay as the first settlement on Great Andaman.Although mortality rates were initially high, these were greatly reduced with the swamp reclamation and extensive forest clearance carried out by Colonel Henry Man who had charge of the islands from 1868-70. Following the colonisation of the Nicobar Islands in 1869 the two island groups were administered from Port Blair from 1872 by a chief commisioner - a post held by the artist.

D'OYLY, Sir Hastings Hadley Stock Code: TR25047