a permanent European presence was established, when the whole islands were annexed by the British and a penal colony established at Ross Island(Subash Chandra Bose Island ) on South Andaman Island. Geography The islands are located in the Bay of Bengal, bordering with the Andaman Sea and are some south of the nearest Asian mainland, Cape Negrais in Myanmar. The archipelago comprises 4 larger islands, 3 medium islands, and 10 smaller islands and islets, extending in a roughly north–south chain, parallel to the main Great Andaman group. Baratang Island and South Andaman Island lie to the west across Diligent Strait; the active volcano Barren Island is further to the east. The islands of Ritchie's Archipelago run in a closely spaced arc which extends about from the southernmost Rose Island. to North Button I., with Diligent Strait between them and Great Andaman ranging from to less than . Most of the islands are clustered closely together separated by only narrow, almost river-like channels. The exceptions are Rose Island and Neill Island to the south of Havelock Island, and the three small Button islands which are smaller outliers to the north of the group. The interior of most of the islands consists of undulating hills and plains, with a topography generally not exceeding above mean sea level. Wilson Island rises to 216 m. Occasionally the land rises reasonably abruptly from the sea to a domed plateau, and there are a few rocky coastal cliffs; however, in the main the coastlines are relatively flat, interspersed by both rocky and sand beaches and some low-lying lagoons and estuaries on the larger islands. Coral reefs surround many of the islands, particularly on the "sea-ward" (i.e., eastern) coastlines. Havelock, John Lawrence, Henry Lawrence, Peel and Outram Is. have a few tidal creeks winding into their interiors; in general freshwater streams are few. Islands The main islands in the archipelago (in decreasing order of approximate size) are: Havelock Island - Henry Lawrence Island - John Lawrence Island - , formerly inhabited Peel Island - Wilson Island - Outram Island - Neill Island - Administration Politically, Ritchie's Archipelago is part of Port Blair Taluk. Demographics The islands were originally populated by the indigenous Great Andamanese peoples, in particular the tribal and linguistic grouping known as Aka-Bale. However, as the populations of the various Andamanese indigenous peoples declined greatly in the decades following the establishment of colonial settlements by