Photograph of a group of five men, three standing and two seated on a beach with vegetation in the background. Some members of the group are shackled at the ankle and most hold machetes.

Oscar Mallitte was part of a British survey party to the Andaman Islands (off the east coast of India) which was tasked with establishing a penal colony for Indian convicts. The party, led by Frederic John Mouat, a British surgeon, landed at Port Cornwallis on 11 December 1857.