Chapter MANGELIN to MANGO of M by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

&c., 362.

1510.—“Another fruit is also found here, which is called Amba, the stem of which is called Manga,” &c.—Varthema, 160-161.

c. 1526.—“Of the vegetable productions peculiar to Hindustân one is the mango (ambeh).… Such mangoes as are good are excellent.…” &c.—Baber, 324.

1563.—“O. Boy! go and see what two vessels those are coming in—you see them from the varanda here—and they seem but small ones.

“Servant. I will bring you word presently.

“S. Sir! it is Simon Toscano, your tenant in Bombay, and he brings this hamper of mangas for you to make a present to the Governor, and says that when he has moored the boat he will come here to stop.

“O. He couldn’t have come more à propos. I have a manga-tree (mangueira) in that island of mine which is remarkable for both its two crops, one at this time of year, the other at the end of May, and much as the other crop excels this in quality for fragrance and flavour, this is just as remarkable for coming out of season. But come, let us taste them before His Excellency. Boy! take out six mangas.”—Garcia, ff. 134v, 135. This author also mentions that the mangas of Ormuz were the most celebrated; also certain mangas of Guzerat, not large, but of surpassing fragrance and flavour, and having a very small stone. Those of Balaghat were both excellent and big; the Doctor had seen two that weighed 4 arratel and a half (41/5 lbs.); and those of Bengal), Pegu, and Malacca were also good.

[1569.—“There is much fruit that comes from Arabia and Persia, which they call mangoes (mangas), which is very good fruit.” —Cronica dos Reys Dormuz, translated from the Arabic in 1569.]

c. 1590.—“The Mangoe (Anba).… This fruit is unrivalled in colour, smell, and taste; and some of the gourmands of Túrán and Irán place it above musk melons and grapes.… If a half-ripe mango, together with its stalk to a length of about two fingers, be taken from the tree, and the broken end of its stalk be closed with warm wax, and kept in butter or honey, the fruit will retain its taste for two or three months.”—Ain, ed. Blochmann, i. 67–68.

[1614.—“Two jars of Manges at rupees 4½.”—Foster, Letters, iii. 41.

[1615.—“George Durois sent in a present of two pottes of Mangeas.”—Cock’s Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 79.]

„ “There is another very licquorish fruit called Amangues growing on trees, and it is as bigge as a great quince, with a very great stone in it.”—De Monfart, 20.

1622.—P. della Valle describes the tree and fruit at Miná (Minao) near Hormuz, under the name of Amba, as an exotic introduced from India. Afterwards at Goa he speaks of it as “manga or amba.”—ii. pp. 313–14, and 581; [Hak. Soc. i. 40].

1631.—“Alibi vero commemorat mangae speciem fortis admodum odoris, Terebinthinam scilicet, et Piceae arboris lacrymam redolentes, quas propterea nostri stinkers appellant.”—Piso on Bontius, Hist. Nat. p. 95.

[1663.—“Ambas, or Mangues, are in season during two months in summer, and are plentiful and cheap; but those grown at Delhi are indifferent. The best come from Bengale, Golkonda, and Goa, and these are indeed excellent. I do not know any sweet-meat more agreeable.”—Bernier, ed. Constable, 249.]

1673.—Of the Goa Mango,¹ Fryer says justly: “When ripe, the Apples of the Hesperides are but Fables to them; for Taste, the Nectarine, Peach, and Apricot fall short.…”—p. 182.

1679.—“Mango and saio (see SOY), two sorts of sauces brought from the East Indies.” —Locke’s Journal, in Ld. King’s Life, 1830, i. 249.

1727.—“The Goa mango is reckoned the largest and most delicious to the taste of any in the world, and I may add, the wholesomest and best tasted of any Fruit in the World.”—A. Hamilton, i. 255, [ed. 1744, i. 258].

1883.—“… the unsophisticated ryot … conceives that cultivation could only emasculate the pronounced flavour and firm fibrous texture of that prince of fruits, the wild mango, likest a ball of tow soaked in turpentine.”—Tribes on My Frontier, 149.

The name has been carried with the fruit to Mauritius and the West Indies. Among many greater services to India the late Sir Proby Cautley diffused largely in Upper India the delicious fruit of the Bombay mango, previously rare there, by creating and encouraging groves of grafts on the banks of the Ganges and Jumna canals. It is especially true of this fruit (as Sultan Baber indicates) that excellence depends on the variety. The common mango is coarse and strong of turpentine. Of this only an evanescent suggestion remains to give peculiarity to the finer varieties. [A useful account of these varieties, by Mr. Maries, will be found in Watt, Econ. Dict. v. 148 seqq.]