Chapter MUSSUCK to MUSTEES of M by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

an Indian, and halfe a Portugall.”—Candish, in Hakl. iv. 337.

c. 1610.—“Le Capitaine et les Marchands estoient Mestifs, les autres Indiens Christianisez.”—Pyrard de Laval, i. 165 ; [Hak. Soc. i. 78 ; also see i. 240]. This author has also Métifs (ii. 10 ; [Hak. Soc. i. 373]), and again : “…qu’ils appellent Metices, c’est à dire Metifs, meslez” (ii. 23 ; [Hak. Soc. ii. 38]).

„ “Ie vy vne moustre generalle de tous les Habitans portans armes, tant Portugais que Metices et Indiens, and se trouuerent environ 4000.”—Moquet, 352.

[1615.—“A Mestiso came to demand passage in our junck.”—Cocks’s Diary, Hak. Soc. i. 216.]

1653.—(At Goa) “Les Mestissos sont de plusieurs sortes, mais fort mesprisez des Reinols et Castissos (see CASTEES), parce qu’il y a eu vn peu de sang noir dans la generation de leurs ancestres…la tache d’auoir eu pour ancestre une Indienne leur demeure iusques à la centiesme generation : ils peuuent toutesfois estre soldats et Capitaines de forteresses ou de vaisseaux, s’ils font profession de suiure les armes, et s’ils se iettent du costé de l’Eglise ils peuuent estre Lecteurs, mais non Prouinciaux.”—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, ed. 1657, p. 226.

c. 1665.—“And, in a word, Bengale is a country abounding in all things ; and ’tis for this very reason that so many Portu-guese, Mesticks, and other Christians are fled thither.”—Bernier, E.T. 140 ; [ed. Constable, 438].

[1673.—“Beyond the Outworks live a few Portugals Musteroes or Misteradoes.”—Fryer, 57.]

1678.—“Noe Roman Catholick or Papist, whether English or of any other nation shall bear office in this Garrison, and shall have no more pay than 80 fanams per mensem, as private centinalls, and the pay of those of the Portuguez nation, as Europeans, Musteeses, and Topasees, is from 70 to 40 fanams per mensem.”—Articles and Orders…of Ft. St. Geo., Madraspatam. In Notes and Exts., i. 88.

1699.—“Wives of Freemen, Mustees.”—Census of Company’s Servants on the Coast, in Wheeler, i. 356.

1727.—“A poor Seaman had got a pretty Mustice Wife.”—A. Hamilton, ii. 10 ; [ed. 1744, ii. 8].

1781.—“Eloped from the service of his Mistress a Slave Boy aged 20 years, or thereabouts, pretty white or colour of Musty, tall and slinder.”—Hicky’s Bengal Gazette, Feb. 24.

1799.—“August 13th.…Visited by appointment …Mrs. Carey, the last survivor of those unfortunate persons who were imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.…This lady, now fifty-eight years of age, as she herself told me, is…of a fair Mesticia colour.…She confirmed all which Mr. Holwell has said.…”—Note by Thomas Boileau (an attorney in Calcutta, the father of Major-Generals John Theophilus and A. H. E. Boileau, R.E. (Bengal)), quoted in Echoes of Old Calcutta, 34.

1834.—“You don’t know these Baboos. …Most of them now-a-days have their Misteesa Beebees, and their Moosulmaunees, and not a few their Gora Beebees likewise.” The Baboo, &c., 167–168.

1868.—“These Mestizas, as they are termed, are the native Indians of the Philippines, whose blood has to a great extent perhaps been mingled with that of their Spanish rulers. They are a very exclusive people…and have their own places of amusement…and Mestiza balls, to which no one is admitted who does not don the costume of the country.”—Collingwood, Rambles of a Naturalist, p. 296.