Sir Thomas Munro's visit to Ootacamund (Ooty) on 29 September 1826 led to the creation of the British Raj's first hill station in the Nilgiris. Munro, Governor of the Madras Presidency from 1820 to 1827, came at the invitation of Coimbatore Collector John Sullivan, climbed Doddabetta, the highest Nilgiri peak, and recorded the landscape and Kurinji flowers. He urged the East India Company to develop the Nilgiris so sick officials and soldiers could recover locally rather than sail to Europe. The Madras Government accepted this on 6 July 1827, the day Munro died of cholera in Andhra Pradesh. He also introduced the Ryotwari system and launched an 1822 survey of indigenous education.