Page 218 - INDIANNAVYV1

18G HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
that of Persia ; aLso some portion of the coast of Arabia between
Muscat and Kas-iil-hadd. The labours of these pioneers were of
great benefit to navigation ; the surve}^ was minute in some
parts, and, when we consider the ver}^ i]iferior instruments witli
which it was conducted, its correctness is remarkable, and reflects
great credit on those officers.*
Between 1777 and 1795, Lieutenant Archibald Blair was
activel}^ engaged in making surveys of the Kattywar coast,
Salsette, and the Andaman Islands. The official report of the
survey of the Andaman s, was laid before Lord Cornwallis,
Governor-General, in June, 1789, and Dr. Mouatt, head of a
mission sent in l(S58,t to report upon these islands, says of this
report that "not only did it contain a minute and accurate
account of the survey conducted under the superintendence of
that able officer (Blair), but it was illustrated by a chart, in
which the situation of the most remarkable localities was dis-
tinctly marked, accompanied wnth a plan of three harbours,
which he had found to be sure places of refuge for the shipping
that stress of weather or other causes might drive on the Anda-
man coasts. The report merited and obtained much praise for
the clearness with which it was written, and the intelligible
manner in which various operations of the surveying party were
described. The chief geographical features of the island were
delineated with a fidelity that has secured the approbation of
subsequent explorers."
So favourable were the reports of Lieutenant Blair and Colonel
Colebrooke, who accompanied him, that the Supreme Govern-
ment was induced to establish a penal settlement on the
Andamans, and, accordingly, a colony, inider the charge of
Lieutenant Blair, was organized on a site then named Port
Cornwallis, near the southern extremity of the great Andamtin.
This name was subsequently changed to " Old Harbour," and
again to Port Blair, in honour of its surveyor, by which it is
still known.
The spot chosen for the first colony in Port Cornwallis, or
Port Blair, was Mark Island, now called Chatham Island, which
was likewise proposed by the expedition of 1858 as the best site
for the penal settlement. Captain Blair had taken with him a
large staff of artificers from Bengal, as also provisions for six
months. His first act was to raise a redoubt, on which he
mounted the guns of his ship, the ' Ranger ;' and then the
* A MS. of this survey was in existence about forty years ago, and is described
by one who saw it, as wonderfully accurate, with the exception of the longitudes,
as they had uo chronometers.
t The combined Report of Dr. Mouatt, Lieutenant (the late commander)
Heathcote, I.N., and Dr. Playfair, forming the mission of 1858, was submitted to
Government, and was published in 1859, as the twenty-fifth number of the
" Selections from the Records of the Govei-nment of India." For an account of
Blair's Survey of the Andamans, see " Selections from the Records of the
Government of India" (Home. No. XXIV.)