Visit of Danish Corvette Galatea. 1 3 



set on foot a small expedition to the Nicobar Archipelago. 

 That gentleman hoped to find amongst the southern islands 

 strata of coal, and made a voyage thither in prosecution of 

 that object, on board the schooner Espiegle, commanded by an 

 Englishman named Lewis, and accompanied by two Danes, 

 Mr. Busch, the sole commander of the expedition, and a cer- 

 tain Mr. Lowert. By the end of May the adventurers were 

 once more in Calcutta. With the exception of a few lumps 

 they had not found coal-beds on any part of the island, while 

 they lacked the physical strength requisite for founding the 

 agricultural colony, which it had been intended to set on foot 

 at the same time. The scientific results of this voyage are 

 comprised in a small hrochure,^^ H. Busch's Jom-nal of a Cruise 

 amongst the Nicobar Islands," (Calcutta, 1845). 



A further scientific exploration of the Nicobar group was 

 made by the naturalists attached to the Danish corvette 

 Galatea in the course of their voyage round the world in the 

 years 1845 — 7. A thorough examination of the Nicobars 

 was one of the chief objects of the expedition set on foot 

 under the auspices of the Danish Government. On the 

 25th January, 1846, at Nangkauri, Captain Steen Bille took 

 formal possession of this group of islands in the name of 

 H.M. the King of Denmark. Two natives, father and son, 

 named respectively Luha and Angre, the former resident in 

 Malacca, and the latter in Enuang, were on that occasion 

 installed as chief magistrates ; each being at the same time 

 provided with a staff bearing the c;y'pher of Christian VIII., 



