Chapter CACOULI to CAFFER of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

early Portuguese narratives, especially the Roteiro of Vasco da Gama, which described many of the Hindu and Indo-Chinese States as being Christian.¹

[c. 1300.—“Kafir.” See under LACK.]

c. 1404.—Of a people near China: “They were Christians after the manner of those of Cathay.”—Clavijo by Markham, 141.

„ And of India: “The people of India are Christians, the Lord and most part of the people, after the manner of the Greeks; and among them also are other Christians who mark themselves with fire in the face, and their creed is different from that of the others; for those who thus mark themselves with fire are less esteemed than the others. And among them are Moors and Jews, but they are subject to the Christians.”—Clavijo, (orig.) § cxxi.; comp. Markham, 153- 4. Here we have (1) the confusion of Caffer and Christian; and (2) the confusion of Abyssinia (India Tertia or Middle India of some medieval writers) with India Proper.

c. 1470.—“The sea is infested with pirates, all of whom are Kofars, neither Christians nor Mussulmans; they pray to stone idols, and know not Christ.”—Athan. Nitikin, in India in the XVth Cent., page 11.

1552.—“… he learned that the whole people of the Island of S. Lourenço … were black Cafres with curly hair like those of Mozambique.”—Barros, II. i. 1.

1563.—“In the year 1484 there came to Portugal the King of Benin, a Caffre by nation, and he became a Christian.”— Stanley’s Correa page 8.

1572.—

“Verão os Cafres asperos e avaros
Tirar a linda dama seus vestidos.”

Camões, v. 47.

By Burton:

“shall see the Caffres, greedy race and fere
“strip the fair Ladye of her raiment torn.”

1582.—“These men are called Cafres and are Gentiles.”—Castañeda (by N.L.), f. 42b.

c. 1610.—“Il estoit fils d’vn Cafre d’Ethiopie, et d’vne femme de ces isles, ce qu’on appelle Mulastre.”—Pyrard de Laval, i. 220; [Hak. Soc. i. 307].

[c. 1610.—“… a Christian whom they call Caparou.”—Ibid., Hak. Soc. i. 261.]

1614:—“That knave Simon the Caffro, not what the writer took him for—he is a knave, and better lost than found.”—Sainsbury, i. 356.

[1615.—“Odola and Gala are Capharrs which signifieth misbelievers.”—Sir T. Roe, Hak. Soc. i: 23.]

1653.—“… toy mesme qui passe pour vn Kiaffer, ou homme sans Dieu, parmi les Mausulmans.”—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, 310 (ed. 1657).

c. 1665.—“It will appear in the sequel of this History, that the pretence used by Aureng-Zebe, his third Brother, to cut off his (Dara’s) head, was that he was turned Kafer, that is to say, an Infidel, of no Religion, an Idolater.”—Bernier, E. T. page 3; [ed. Constable, page 7].

1673:—“They snow their Greatness by their number of Sumbreeroes and Cofferies, whereby it is dangerous to walk late.”— Fryer, 74.

„ “Beggars of the Musslemen Cast, that if they see a Christian in good Clothes … are presently upon their Punctilios with God Almighty, and interrogate him, Why he suffers him to go afoot and in Rags, and this Coffery (Unbeliever) to vaunt it thus?” —Ibid. 91.

1678.—“The Justices of the Choultry to turn Padry Pasquall, a Popish Priest, out of town, not to return again, and if it proves to be true that he attempted to seduce Mr. Mohun’s Coffre Franck from the Protestant religion.”—Ft. St. Geo. Cons. in Notes and Exts., Pt. i. page 72.

1759.—“Blacks, whites, Coffries, and even the natives of the country (Pegu) have not been exempted, but all universally have been subject to intermittent Fevers and Fluxes” (at Negrais).—In Dalrymple, Or. Rep. i. 124.

„ Among expenses of the Council at Calcutta in entertaining the Nabob we find “Purchasing a Coffre boy, Rs. 500.”—In Long, 194.

1781.—“To be sold by Private Sale—Two Coffree Boys, who can play remarkably

well on the French Horn, about 18 Years of Age: belonging to a Portuguese Paddrie lately deceased. For particulars apply to the Vicar of the Portuguese Church, Calcutta, March 17th, 1781.”—The India Gazette or Public Advertiser, No. 19.

1781.—“Run away from his Master, a good-looking Coffree Boy, about 20 years old, and about 6 feet 7 inches in height.… When he went off he had a high toupie.”—Ibid. Dec. 29.

1782.—“On Tuesday next will be sold three Coffree Boys, two of whom play the French Horn … a three-wheel’d Buggy, and a variety of other articles.”—India Gazette, June 15.

1799.—“He (Tippoo) had given himself out as a Champion of