Chapter MOLE-ISLAM to MONEGAR of M by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

sandalwood, both the white and the red; and further on still are the Maluc, whence come the cloves. The bark of these trees I am sending you; an excellent thing it is; and so are the flowers.”—Letter of Giovanni da Empoli, in Archivio Stor. Ital., p. 81.

1515.—“From Malacca ships and junks are come with a great quantity of spice, cloves, mace, nut (meg), sandalwood, and other rich things. They have discovered the five Islands of Cloves; two Portuguese are lords of them, and rule the land with the rod. ’Tis a land of much meat, oranges, lemons, and clove-trees, which grow there of their own accord, just as trees in the woods with us … God be praised for such favour, and such grand things!”—Another letter of do., ibid. pp. 85–86.

1516.—“Beyond these islands, 25 leagues towards the north-east, there are five islands, one before the other, which are called the islands of Maluco, in which all the cloves grow. … Their Kings are Moors, and the first of them is called Bachan, the second Maquian, the third is called Motil, the fourth Tidory, and the fifth Ternaty … every year the people of Malaca and Java come to these islands to ship cloves. …”—Barbosa, 201–202.

1518.—“And it was the monsoon for Maluco, dom Aleixo despatched dom Tristram de Meneses thither, to establish the trade in clove, carrying letters from the King of Portugal, and presents for the Kings of the isles of Ternate and Tidore where the clove grows.”—Correa, ii. 552.

1521.—“Wednesday the 6th of November … we discovered four other rather high islands at a distance of 14 leagues towards the east. The pilot who had remained with us told us these were the Maluco islands, for which we gave thanks to God, and to comfort ourselves we discharged all our artillery … since we had passed 27 months all but two days always in search of Maluco.”—Pigafetta, Voyage of Magellan, Hak. Soc. 124.

1553.—“We know by our voyages that this part is occupied by sea and by land cut up into many thousand islands, these together, sea and islands, embracing a great part of the circuit of the Earth … and in the midst of this great multitude of islands are those called Maluco. … (These) five islands called Maluco … stand all within sight of one another embracing a distance of 25 leagues … we do not call them Maluco because they have no other names; and we call them five because in that number the clove grows naturally. … Moreover we call them in combination Maluco, as here among us we speak of the Canaries, the Terceiras, the Cabo-Verde islands, including under these names many islands each of which has a name of its own.”—Barros, III. v. 5.

„ “… li molti viaggi dalla città di Lisbona, e dal mar rosso a Calicut, et insino alle Molucche, done nascono le spezierie.”—G. B. Ramusio, Pref. sopra il Libro del. Magn. M. Marco Polo.

1665.—“

As when far off at sea a fleet descried
Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds
Close sailing from Bengala, or the Isles
Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring
Their spicy drugs. …”

Paradise Lost, ii. 636–640.

MONE, n.p. Mon or Mun, the name by which the people who formerly occupied Pegu, and whom we call Talaing, called themselves. See TALAING.

MONEGAR, s. The title of the headman of a village in the Tamil country; the same as patil (see PATEL) in the Deccan, &c. The word is Tamil mani yakkaran, ‘an overseer,’ maniyam, ‘superintendence.’

1707.—“Ego Petrus Manicaren, id est Villarum Inspector. …”—In Norbert, Mem. i. 390, note.

1717.—“Towns and villages are governed by inferior Officers … maniakarer (Mayors or Bailiffs) who hear the complaints.”—Phillips, Account, &c., 83.

1800.—“In each Hobly, for every thousand Pagodas (335l. 15s. 10¼d.) rent that he pays, there is also a Munegar, or a Tahsildar (see TAHSEELDAR) as he is called by the Mussulmans.”—Buchanan’s Mysore, &c., i. 276.