4 
JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL BISTORT S0CLET7, 1892. 
The earliest topographical account of any of the islands is a 
description of the Oannanore island of Anderut* * * § by Lieut. Wood, 
who visited it in December, 1834, and who, from enquiries 
made in this one, drew up a table in which the names of all the 
islands, with their condition as to population and vegetation, are 
shown. A chart of the group had, however, already been prepared 
from a survey by Lieut. Moresby in 1828.t The group was more 
fully described by Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Robinson, of the 
Madras Civil Service, who in 1844 and 1845 visited the inhabited 
islands directly under British rule, and made enquiries of the people 
of Ameni, Kadamum, Kiltan, and Chitlac regarding the condition of 
Bitrapar and of the inhabited islands belonging to the Cannanore 
Raj. Mr. Robinson^s account J had prefixed to it by the Editorial 
Committee of the Madras Literary Society an admirable digest of 
the history of the islands down to 1845, and this pi’eface, with the 
paper that follows it, has been made the basis of the official account 
of the group.§ From the time of Mr. Robinson’s visit till 1876 
* Extract from Lient. Wood’s private Journal regarding the Lakeradeevh Archi¬ 
pelago; “ Journ. of the Roy. Geogr. Soc.,” vol. vi., p. 29-33 (1830). 
t A reduced reproduction of this chart is given in “ Madr. Journ. of Lit. and Sc.,*’ 
vol. xiv., plate 16 (1847). 
“ Description of the Laccadive Islands,” by W. Robinson, Esq., of the Civil 
Service ; “ Madras Journ. of Lit. and Science,” vol. xiv., pp. 5-46 (1847). 
§ “ Imperial Gazetteer of India,” ed. ii., vol. viii., pp. 392-396 (1886). Much of this 
article is a paraphrase of Mr. Robinson’s account, many sentences being taken 
verbatim, though without acknowledgment, from the Madras Journal. The compiler 
accredits to Mr. Robinson one passage in the paragraph on population ; this passage 
though enclosed within quotation commas, differs rather more than many of the 
unacknowledged sentences. The paper by Mr. Robinson being essentially “ official,” 
the writer of the Gazetteer may not have been technically bound to acknowledge the 
source of his information; this can hardly, however, apply to the editorial preface, 
which is appropriated without remark. In doing so the “ Gazetteer ” somewhat 
inexactly speaks of Kalp^ni as the “ ‘ Kaluftee ' of Ibn Batuta,” although the writer 
of the paraphrased digest has been careful to say that “ no distinct mention of the 
Laccadives occurs in Ibn Batuta” (“ Madras Journ.,” xiv. 2), and as carefully indicates 
that the passage in which Kaluftee is given as the name of one of the principal 
inhabited Laccadive Islands occurs in the Tohfat-al-MujaMdin (“Madras Journ.,” xiv.3) 
The identification of Kaluftee with Kalp^ni is altogether arbitrary; it is quite as 
likely that Korati is intended. 
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