The region has been inhabited by hunter-gatherer tribals like the Malayarayan and Muthuvan for thousands of years. Tradition states that Colonel Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington, was the first British person to pass through Munnar during Tippu Sultan's campain in Travancore, but this is unsubstantiated. The first survey of the terrain was undertaken by Benjamin Swayne Ward in 1816-1817, who followed the Periyar into the Western Ghats and established a camp at the confluence of three rivers, from which the name of Munnar is derived.