The Two Thousand Isles

This book is not intended to be a treatise on the Maldive Islands—that terra incognita—but is simply the narrative of a visit to these islands by the author. The Maldive Archipelago is a group of coral islands and atolls in the Indian Ocean near the equator. Isolated more or less as the inhabitants are from the rest of the world except for communication with Ceylon and India, chiefly by dhows or buggalows and their own primitive sailing craft, they have retained nearly all their original customs and traditions. They are ruled over by a Sultan who is styled “king of thirteen provinces and twelve-thousand islands”. The country has maintained its independence, and, although now under the suzerainty of the Government of Ceylon, it formulates its own laws. There has been little or no change in the general condition of the people since the Frenchman Pyrard was shipwrecked there early in the 17 century. The people are undoubtedly of Aryan or Sinhalese origin, and are a hardy sea-faring race.