Chapter MOONSHEE to MOOR of M by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

nearly as late as 1840. In Ceylon, the Straits, and the Dutch Colonies, the term Moorman for a Musalman is still in common use. Indeed the word is still employed by the servants of Madras officers in speaking of Mahommedans, or of a certain class of these. Moro is still applied at Manilla to the Musulman Malays.

1498.—“… the Moors never came to the house when this trading went on, and we became aware that they wished us ill, insomuch that when any of us went ashore, in order to annoy us they would spit on the ground, and say ‘Portugal, Portugal.’ ”—Roteiro de V. da Gama, page 75.

„ “For you must know, gentlemen, that from the moment you put into port here (Calecut) you caused disturbance of mind to the Moors of this city, who are numerous and very powerful in the country.”—Correa, Hak. Soc. 166.

1499.—“We reached a very large island called Sumatra, where pepper grows in considerable quantities. … The Chief is a Moor, but speaking a different language.”—Santo Stefano, in India in the XVth Cent. [7].

1505.—“Adì 28 zugno vene in Venetia insieme co Sier Alvixe de Boni un sclav moro el qual portorono i spagnoli da la insula spagniola.”—MS. in Museo Civico at Venice. Here the term Moor is applied to a native of Hispaniola!

1513.—“Hanc (Malaccam) rex Maurus gubernabat.”—Emanuelis Regis Epistola, f. 1.

1553.—“And for the hatred in which they hold them, and for their abhorrence of the name of Frangue, they call in reproach the Christians of our parts of the world Frangues (see FIRINGHEE), just as we improperly call them again Moors.”—Barros, IV. iv. 16.

c. 1560.—“When we lay at Fuquien, we did see certain Moores, who knew so little of their secte that they could say nothing else but that Mahomet was a Moore, my father was a Moore, and I am a Moore.”—Reports of the Province of China, done into English by R. Willes, in Hakl. ii. 557.

1563.—“And as to what you say of Ludovico Vartomano, I have spoken both here and in Portugal, with people who knew him here in India, and they told me that he went about here in the garb of a Moor, and that he came back among us doing penance for his sins; and that the man never went further than Calecut and Cochin, nor indeed did we at that time navigate those seas that we now navigate.”—Garcia, f. 30.

1569.—“… always whereas I have spoken of Gentiles is to be understood Idolaters, and whereas I speak of Moores, I mean Mahomets secte.”—Caesar Frederike, in Hakl. ii. 359.

1610.—“The King was fled for feare of the King of Makasar, who … would force the King to turne Moore, for he is a Gentile.”—Midleton, in Purchas, i. 239.

1611.—“Les Mores du pay faiso iet courir le bruict, que les notres avoient esté battus.”—Wytfliet, H. des Indes, iii. 9.

1648 .—“King Jangier (Jehangir) used to make use of a reproach: That one Portugees

was better than three Moors, and one Hollander or Englishman better than two Portugees.”—Van Twist, 59.

c. 1665.—“Il y en a de Mores et de Gentils Raspoutes (see RAJPOOT) parce que je savois qu’ils servent mieux que les Mores qui sont superbes, and ne veulent pas qu’on se plaigne d’eux, quelque sotise ou quelque tromperie qu’ils fassent.”—Thevenot, v. 217.

1673.—“Their Crew were all Moors (by which Word hereafter must be meant those of the Mahometan faith) apparell’d all in white.”—Fryer, page 24.

„ “They are a Shame to our Sailors, who can hardly ever work without horrid Oaths and hideous Cursing and Imprecations; and these Moormen, on the contrary, never set their Hands to any Labour, but that they sing a Psalm or Prayer, and conclude at every joint Application of it, ‘Allah, Allah,’ invoking the Name of God.”—Ibid. pp. 55–56.

1685.—“We putt out a peece of a Red Ancient to appear like a Moor’s Vessel: not judging it safe to be known to be English; Our nation having lately gott an ill name by abusing ye Inhabitants of these Islands: but no boat would come neer us …” (in the Maldives).—Hedges, Diary, March 9; [Hak. Soc. i. 190].

1688.—“Lascars, who are Moors of India.”—Dampier, ii. 57.

1689.—“The place where they went ashore was a Town of the Moors. Which name our Seamen give to all the Subjects of the great Mogul, but especially his Mahometan Subjects; calling the Idolators, Gentous or Rashboots (see RAJPOOT).”—Dampier, i. 507.

1747.—“We had the Misfortune to be reduced to almost inevitable Danger, for as our Success chiefly depended on the assistance of the Moors, We were soon brought to the utmost Extremity by being abandoned by them.”—Letter from Ft. St. Geo. to the Court, May 2 (India Office MS. Records).

1752.—“His successor Mr. Godehue … even permitted him (Dupleix) to continue the exhibition of those marks of Moorish dignity, which both Murzafa-jing and Salla-bad-jing had permitted him to display.”—Orme, i. 367.

1757.—In Ives, writing in this year, we constantly find the terms Moormen and Moorish, applied to the forces against which Clive and Watson were acting on the Hoogly.

1763.—“From these origins, time has formed in India a mighty nation of near ten millions of Mahomedans, whom Europeans call Moors.”—Orme, edition 1803, i. 24.

1770.—“Before the Europeans doubled the Cape of Good Hope, the Moors, who were the only maritime people of India, sailed from Surat and Bengal