%%Long ago, Côn Đảo Island and the adjacent islets, a beautiful archipelago in the Eastern Sea, were visited by Arab, Western and Chinese navigators and travellers. In the 9th century, the Arabs called them "Cundur". Early visitors to the islands included Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Englishmen and Frenchmen. In 1294, 14 boats of Marco Polos fleet took shelter at Côn Đảo in a raging storm which sank his eight other boats. In his famous stories, Marco Polo compared Côn Đảo to a fairy land. In 1516, around mid-September, a Portuguese navigator, Pernao Peres de Andrade, arrived at Côn Đảo. He saw foreign boats replenishing fresh water there. His crew reported that chicken, sea turtles and even grapes were sold at Côn Đảo. In the mid-60s of the 16th century, another Portuguese, the poet Luis Vaz de Campes, who added reputation to Portuguese literature in the Renaissance, called at Côn Đảo and Vũng Tàu harbour. He managed to keep unscathed the draft of the immortal "Os Lusiadas", in the shipwreck at the mouth of the Tiền River. Perhaps "Os Lusiadas" was the first western poem that said something about Vietnam. In March 1895, the French composer Camille Saint-Saens arrived at Côn Đảo in his trip to Indochina. A plaque of the French Museum at a brick house on the way to the pier said :"Here lived and worked the great composer Camille Sait-Saens between March 20 and April 19,1895". He completed his opera "Brunechilda" during his stay at Côn Đảo which, music students believed, inspired him a great deal. The salvage in 1990 of a ship wrecked on her voyage to Europe at Hòn Cau in the waters of Côn Đảo brought ashore antiques made towards the end of the 17th century and at the beginning of the 18th century corresponding to the Chinese dynasty of Kang Hi (1622-1722). The antiques included terracotta, porcelain, earthenware, copper and stone articles and utensils. Some of them had European motifs - perhaps they were made on orders from Europe. One porcelain plate, in particular, had the picture of a mermaid playing the violin. (VNS)