Chapter BANJO to BANTAM FOWLS of B by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

294. It appears from this book (p. 118) that the place in Canton River was known as Banksall Island.

1750–52.—“One of the first things on arriving here (Canton River) is to procure a bancshall, that is, a great house, constructed of bamboo and mats…in which the stores of the ship are laid up.”—A Voyage, &c., by Olof Toreen…in a series of letters to Dr Linnæus, Transl. by J. R. Forster (with Osbeck’s Voyage), 1771.

1783.—“These people (Chulias, &c., from India, at Achin)…on their arrival immediately build, by contract with the natives, houses of bamboo, like what in China at Wampo is called bankshall, very regular, on a convenient spot close to the river.”—Forrest. V. to Mergui, 41.

1788.—“Banksauls—Storehouses for depositing ships’ stores in, while the ships are unlading and refitting.”—Indian Vocab. (Stockdale).

1813.—“The East India Company for seventy years had a large banksaul, or warehouse, at Mirzee, for the reception of the pepper and sandalwood purchased in the dominions of the Mysore Rajah.”—Forbes, Or. Mem. iv. 109.

1817.—“The bangsal or mendopo is a large open hall, supported by a double row of pillars, and covered with shingles, the interior being richly decorated with paint and gilding.”—Raffles, Java (2nd ed.), i. 93. The Javanese use, as in this passage, corresponds to the meaning given in Jansz, Javanese Dict.: “Bangsal, Vorstelijke Zitplaats” (Prince’s Sitting-place).

b.—

[1614.—“The custom house or banksall at Masulpatam.”—Foster, Letters, ii. 86.]

1623.—“And on the Place by the sea there was the Custom-house, which the Persians in their language call Benksal, a building of no great size, with some open outer porticoes.”—P. della Valle, ii. 465.

1673.—“…Their Bank Solls, or Custom House Keys, where they land, are Two; but mean, and shut only with ordinary Gates at Night.”—Fryer, 27.

1683.—“I came ashore in Capt. Goyer’s Pinnace to ye Bankshall, about 7 miles from Ballasore.”—Hedges, Diary, Feb. 2; [Hak. Soc. i. 65].

1687.—“The Mayor and Aldermen, etc., do humbly request the Honourable President and Council would please to grant and assign over to the Corporation the petty dues of Banksall Tolls.”—In Wheeler, i. 207.

1727.—“Above it is the Dutch Bankshall, a Place where their Ships ride when they cannot get further up for the too swift Currents.”—A. Hamilton, ii. 6.

1789.—“And that no one may plead ignorance of this order, it is hereby directed that it be placed constantly in view at the Bankshall in the English and country languages.”—Procl. against Slave-Trading in Seton-Karr, ii. 5.

1878.—“The term ‘Banksoll’ has always been a puzzle to the English in India. It is borrowed from the Dutch. The ‘Soll’ is the Dutch or Danish ‘Zoll,’ the English ‘Toll.’ The Banksoll was then the place on the ‘bank’ where all tolls or duties were levied on landing goods.”—Talboys Wheeler, Early Records of B. India, 196. (Quite erroneous, as already said; and Zoll is not Dutch.)

BANTAM, n.p. The province which forms the western extremity of Java, properly Bantan. [Mr. Skeat gives Bantan, Crawfurd, Bantân.] It formed an independent kingdom at the beginning of the 17th century, and then produced much pepper (no longer grown), which caused it to be greatly frequented by European traders. An English factory was established here in 1603, and continued till 1682, when the Dutch succeeded in expelling us as interlopers.

[1615.—“They were all valued in my invoice at Bantan.”—Foster, Letters, iv. 93.]

1727.—“The only Product of Bantam is Pepper, wherein it abounds so much, that they can export 10,000 Tuns per annum.”—A. Hamilton, ii. 127.

BANTAM FOWLS, s. According to Crawfurd, the dwarf poultry which we call by this name were imported from Japan, and received the name “not from the place that produced them, but from that where our voyagers first found them.”—(Desc. Dict. s.v. Bantam). The following evidently in Pegu describes Bantams:

1586.—“They also eat certain cocks and hens called lorine, which are the size of a turtle-dove, and have feathered feet; but so pretty, that I never saw so pretty a bird. I brought a cock and hen with me as far as Chaul, and then, suspecting they might be taken from me, I gave them to the Capuchin fathers belonging to the Madre de Dios.”—Balbi, f. 125v, 126.

1673.—“From Siam are brought hither little Champore Cocks with ruffled Feet, well armed with Spurs, which have a strutting Gate with them, the truest mettled in the World.”—Fryer, 116.

[1703.—“Wilde cocks and hens…much like the small sort called Champores, severall of which we have had brought us from Camboja.”—Hedges, Diary, Hak. Soc. ii. cccxxxiii.

This looks as if they came from Champa (q. v.).