Chapter NAZIR to NEGRAIS of N by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

of the native name which the Burmese express as Naga-rit, ‘Dragon’s whirlpool.’ The set of the tide here is very apt to carry vessels ashore, and thus the locality is famous for wrecks. It is possible, however, that the Burmese name is only an effort at interpretation, and that the locality was called in old times by some name like Nagarashtra. Ibn Batuta touched at a continental coast occupied by uncivilised people having elephants, between Bengal and Sumatra, which he calls Baranagar. From the intervals given, the place must have been near Negrais, and it is just possible that the term Barra de Negrais, which frequently occurs in the old writers (e.g. see Balbi, Fitch, and Bocarro below) is a misinterpretation of the old name used by Ibn Batuta (iv. 224–228). 1553.—“Up to the Cape of Negrais, which stands in 16 degrees, and where the Kingdom of Pegu commences, the distance may be 100 leagues.”—Barros, I. ix. 1.

1583.—“Then the wind came from the S.W., and we made sail with our stern to the N.E., and running our course till morning we found ourselves close to the Bar of Negrais, as in their language they call the port which runs up into Pegu.”—Gasparo Balbi, f. 92.

1586.—“We entered the barre of Negrais, which is a braue barre,” &c. (see COSMIN).—R. Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 390.

1613.—“Philip de Brito having sure intelligence of this great armament…ordered the arming of seven ships and some sanguicels, and appointing as their commodore Paulo de Rego Pinheiro, gave him precise orders to engage the prince of Arracan at sea, before he should enter the Bar and rivers of Negrais, which form the mouth of all those of the kingdom of Pegù.”—Bocarro, 137.

1727.—“The Sea Coast of Arackan reaches from Xatigam (see CHITTAGONG) to Cape Negrais, about 400 Miles in length, but few places inhabited…” (after speaking of “the great Island of Negrais”)…he goes on.…“The other Island of Negrais, which makes the Point called the Cape…is often called Diamond Island, because its Shape is a Rhombus.…Three Leagues to the Southward of Diamond Island lies a Reef of Rocks a League long…conspicuous at all Times by the Sea breaking over them…the Rocks are called the Legarti, or in English, the Lizard.”—A. Hamilton, ii. 29. This reef is the Alguada, on which a noble lighthouse was erected by Capt. (afterwards Lieut-Gen.) Sir A. Fraser, C.B., of the Engineers, with great labour and skill. The statement of Hamilton suggests that the original name may have been Lagarto. But Alagada, “overflowed,” is the real origin. It appears in the old French chart of d’Après as Ile Noyée. In Dunn it is Negada or Neijada, or Lequado, or Sunken Island (N. Dir. 1780, 325).

1759.—“The Dutch by an Inscription in Teutonic Characters, lately found at Negrais, on the Tomb of a Dutch Colonel, who died in 1607 (qu. if not 1627 ?), appear then to have had Possession of that Island.”—Letter in Dalrymple, Or. Rep. i. 98.

1763.—“It gives us pleasure to observe that the King of the Burmahs, who caused our people at Negrais to be so cruelly massacred, is since dead, and succeeded by his son, who seems to be of a more friendly and humane disposition.”—Fort William Consns., Feb. 19. In Long, 288.

[1819.—“Negraglia.” See under MUNNEEPORE.]

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