The Nicobar archipelago remained politically independent until 1869, when England took possession of II. The first attempt at evangelization was made by Gherardo Cortenovis, apostolic vicar of Ava-Pegu (Burma), who died there in 1794. In 1835 two missionaries of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, Paolo Supriès and Alessandro Calabert, went to the Nicobars. Because of fever, they were forced to leave the islands after having baptized only one child in articulo mortis. Today the Nicobars belong to the diocese of Malacca.
BIBL.: A. Launay, Histoire des missions de l'Inde, I, Paris 1898, pp. 259-318.