Chapter SANGUICEL to SANSKRIT of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

SANGUICEL to SANSKRIT

SANGUICEL, s. This is a term (pl. sanguiceis) often used by the Portuguese writers on India for a kind of boat, or small vessel, used in war. We are not able to trace any origin in a vernacular word. It is perhaps taken from the similar proper name which is the subject of the next article. [This supposition is rendered practically certain from the quotation from Albuquerque below, furnished by Mr. Whiteway.] Bluteau gives “Sanguicel; termo da I ndia. He hum genero de embarcação pequena q serve na costa da India para dar alcanse aos paròs dos Mouros,” ‘to give chase to the prows of the Moors.’

[1512.—“Here was Nuno Vaz in a ship, the St. John, which was built in Çamguicar.”— Albuquerque, Cartas, p. 99. In a letter of Nov. 30, 1513, he varies the spelling to Çamgicar. There are many other passages in the same writer which make it practically certain that Sanguicels were the vessels built at Sanguicer.]

1598.—“The Conde (Francisco da Gama) was occupied all the winter (q.v.) in reforming the fleets … and as the time came on he nominated his brother D. Luiz da Gama to be Captain-Major of the Indian Seas for the expedition to Malabar, and wrote to Baçaim to equip six very light Sanguicels according to instructions which should be given by Sebastian Botelho, a man of great experience in that craft. … These orders were given by the Count Admiral because he perceived that big fleets were not of use to guard convoys, and that it was light vessels like these alone which could catch the paraos and vessels of the pirates … for these escaped our fleets, and got hold of the merchant vessels at their pleasure, darting in and out, like light horse, where they would. …”—Couto, Dec. XII. liv. i. ch. 18.

1605.—“And seeing that I am informed that … the incursions of certain pirates who still infest that coast might be prevented with less apparatus and expense, if we had light vessels which would be more effective than the foists and galleys of which the fleets have hitherto been composed, seeing how the enemy use their sanguicels, which our ships and galleys cannot overtake, I enjoin and order you to build a quantity of light vessels to be employed in guarding the coast in place of the fleet of galleys and foists. …”—King’s Letter to Dom Affonso de Castro, in Livros das Monções, i. 26.

[1612.—See under GALLIVAT, b.]

1614.—“The eight Malabaresque Sanguicels that Francis de Miranda despatched to the north from the bar of Goa went with three chief captains, each of them to command a week in turn. …”—Bocarro, Decada, 262.

SANGUICER, SANGUEÇA, ZINGUIZAR, &c., n.p. This is a place often mentioned in the Portuguese narratives, as very hostile to the Goa Government, and latterly as a great nest of corsairs. This appears to be Sangameshvar, lat. 17° 9’, formerly a port of Canara on the River Shastri, and standing 20 miles from the mouth of that river. The latter was navigable for large vessels up to Sangameshvar, but within the last 50 years has become impassable. [The name is derived from Skt. sangama-isvara, ‘Siva, Lord of the river confluence.’]

1516.—“Passing this river of Dabul and going along the coast towards Goa you find a river called Cinguiçar, inside of which there is a place where there is a traffic in many wares, and where enter many vessels and small Zambucos (Sambook) of Malabar to sell what they bring, and buy the products of the country. The place is peopled by Moors, and Gentiles of the aforesaid Kingdom of Daquem” (Deccan). —Barbosa, Lisbon ed. p. 286.

1538.—“Thirty-five leagues from Guoa, in the middle of the Gulf of the Malabars there runs a large river called Zamgizara. This river is well known and of great renown. The bar is bad and very tortuous, but after you get within, it makes amends for the difficulties without. It runs inland for a great distance with great depth and breadth.”—De Castro, Primeiro Roteiro, 36.

1553.—De Barros calls it Zingaçar in II. i. 4, and Sangaça in IV. i. 14.

1584.—“There is a Haven belonging to those ryvers (rovers), distant from Goa about 12 miles, and is called Sanguiseo, where many of those Rovers dwell, and doe so much mischiefe that no man can passe by, but they receive some wrong by them. … Which the Viceroy understanding, prepared an armie of 15 Foists, over which he made chiefe Captaine a Gentleman, his Nephew called Don Iulianes Mascharenhas, giving him expresse commandement first to goe unto the Haven of Sanguiseu, and utterly to raze the same downe to the ground.”—Linschoten, ch. 92; [Hak. Soc. ii. 170].

1602.—“Both these projects he now began to put in execution, sending all his treasures (which they said exceeded ten millions in gold) to the river of Sanguicer, which was also within his jurisdiction, being a seaport, and there embarking it at his pleasure.”— Couto, ix. 8. See also Dec. X. iv.:

“How D. Gileanes Mascarenhas arrived in Malabar, and how he entered the river of Sanguicer to chastise the Naique of that place; and of the disaster in which he met his death.” (This is