Chapter ANCHEDIVA, ANJEDIVA of A by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

ANCHEDIVA, ANJEDIVA

ANCHEDIVA, ANJEDIVA, n.p . A small island off the W. coast of India, a little S. of Carwar, which is the subject of frequent and interesting mention in the early narratives. The name is interpreted by Malayalim as añju-divu, ‘Five Islands,’ and if this is correct belongs to the whole group. This may, however, be only an endeavour to interpret an old name, which is perhaps traceable in ’Aigidiwn Nhsos of Ptolemy. It is a remarkable example of the slovenliness of English professional map-making that Keith Johnston’s Royal Atlas map of India contains no indication of this famous island. [The Times Atlas and Constable’s Hand Atlas also ignore it.] It has, between land surveys and sea-charts, been omitted altogether by the compilers. But it is plain enough in the Admiralty charts; and the way Mr Birch speaks of it in his translation of Alboquerque as an “Indian seaport, no longer marked on the maps,” is odd (ii. 168).

c. 1345.—Ibn Batuta gives no name, but Anjediva is certainly the is land of which he thus speaks: “We left behind us the island (of Sindabur or Goa), passing close to it, and cast anchor by a small island near the mainland, where there was a temple, with a grove and a reservoir of water. When we had landed on this little island we found there a Jogi leaning against the wall of a Budkhanah or house of idols.”—Ibn Batuta, iv. 63.

The like may be said of the Roteiro of V. da Gama’s voyage, which likewise gives no name, but describes in wonderful correspondence with Ibn Batuta; as does Correa, even to the Jogi, still there after 150 years!

1498.—“So the Captain-Major ordered Nicolas Coello to go in an armed boat, and see where the water was; and he found in the same island a building, a church of great ashlar-work, which had been destroyed by the Moors, as the country people said, only the chapel had been covered with straw, and they used to make their prayers to three black stones in the midst of the body of the chapel. Moreover they found, just beyond the church, a tanque of wrought ashlar, in which we took as much water as we wanted; and at the top of the whole island stood a great tanque of the depth of 4 fathoms, and moreover we found in front of the church a beach where we careened the ship.”—Roteiro, 95.

1510.—“I quitted this place, and went to another island which is called Anzediva… There is an excellent port between the island and the mainland, and very good water is found in the said island.”—Varthema, 120.

c. 1552.—“Dom Francesco de Almeida arriving at the Island of Anchediva, the first thing he did was to send João Homem with letters to the factors of Cananor, Cochin, and Coulão.…”—Barros, I. viii. 9.

c. 1561.—“They went and put in at Angediva, where they enjoyed themselves much: there were good water springs, and there was in the upper part of the island a tank built with stone, with very good water, and much wood; … there were no inhabitants, only a beggar man whom they called Joguedes .…”—Correa, Hak. Soc. 239.

1727.—“In January, 1664, my Lord (Marlborough) went back to England.… and left Sir Abraham with the rest, to pass the westerly Monsoons, in some Port on the Coast, but being unacquainted, chose a desolate Island called Anjadwa, to winter at.… Here they stayed from April to October, in which time they buried above 200 of their Men.”—A. Hamilton, i. 182. At p. 274 the name is printed more correctly Anjediva.