Chapter SAGWIRE to SAINT JOHN’S of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

l and se ttlement of the Parsees in India.” Sanjan is about 3 m. from the little river-mouth port of Umbargam. “Evidence of the greatness of Sanjan is found, for miles around, in old foundations and bricks. The bricks are of very superior quality.”— Bomb. Gazetteer, vol. xiv. 302, [and for medieval references to the place, ibid. I. Pt. i. 262, 520 seq.].

c. 1150.—“Sindan is 1½ mile from the sea. … The town is large and has an extensive commerce both in exports and imports.”—Edrisi, in Elliot, i. 85.

c. 1599.—

“When the Dastur saw the soil was good,
He selected the place for their residence:
The Dastur named the spot Sanjan,
And it became populous as the Land of Iran.”

—Kissah, &c., as above, p. 179.

c. 1616.—“The aldea Nargol … in the lands of Daman was infested by Malabar Moors in their parós, who commonly landed there for water and provisions, and plundered the boats that entered or quitted the river, and the passengers who crossed it, with heavy loss to the aldeas adjoining the river and to the revenue from them, as well as to that from the custom-house of Sangens.”—Bocarro, Decada, 670.

1623.—“La mattina seguente, fatto giorno, scoprimmo terra di lontano … in un luogo poco discosto da Bassain, che gl’ Inglesi chiamano Terra di San Giovanni; ma nella carta da navigare vidi esser notato, in lingua Portoghese, col nome d’ilhas das vaccas, o ‘isole delle vacche’ al modo nostro.”—P. della Valle, ii. 500; [Hak. Soc. i. 16].

1630.—“It happened that in safety they made to the land of St. Iohns on the shoares of India.”—Lord, The Religion of the Persees, 3.

1644.—“Besides these four posts there are in the said district four Tanadarias (see TANADAR), or different Captainships, called Samgês (S t. John’s), Danu, Maim. and Trapor.”—Bocarro (Port. MS.).

1673.—“In a Week’s Time we turned it up, sailing by Baçein, Tarapore, Valentine’s Peak, St. John’s, and Daman, the last City northward on the Continent, belonging to the Portuguese.”—Fryer, 82.

1808.—“They (the Parsee emigrants) landed at Dieu, and lived there 19 years; but, disliking the place … the greater part of them left it and came to the Guzerat coast, in vessels which anchored off Seyjan, the name of a town.”—R. Drummond.

1813.—“The Parsees or Guebres … continued in this place (Diu) for some time, and then crossing the Gulph, landed at Suzan, near Nunsaree, which is a little to the southward of Surat.”—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 109; [2nd ed. i. 78].

1841.—“The high land of St. John, about 3 leagues inland, has a regular appearance. …”—Horsburgh’s Directory, ed. 1841, i. 470.

1872.—“In connexion with the landing of the Parsis at Sanjân, in the early part of the 8th century, there still exist copies of the 15 Sanskrit Slokas, in which their Mobeds explained their religion to Jadé Rânâ, the Râja of the place, and the reply he gave them.”—Ind. Antiq. i. 214. The Slokas are given. See them also in Dosabhai Framji’s Hist. of the Parsees, i. 31.

b. ST. JOHN’S ISLAND, n.p. This again is a corruption of San-Shan, or more correctly Shang-chuang, the Chinese name of an island about 60 or 70 miles S.W. of Macao, and at some distance from the mouth of the Canton River, the place where St. Francis Xavier died, and was originally buried.

1552.—“Inde nos ad Sancianum, Sinarum insulam a Cantone millia pas. circiter cxx Deus perduxit incolumes.”—Scti. Franc. Xacerii Epistt., Pragae 1667, IV. xiv.

1687.—“We came to Anchor the same Day, on the N.E. end of St. John’s Island. This Island is in Lat. about 32 d. 30 min. North, lying on the S. Coast of the Province of Quantung or Canton in China.”—Dampier, i. 406.

1727.—“A Portuguese Ship … being near an Island on that Coast, called after St. Juan, some Gentlemen and Priests went ashore for Diversion, and accidentally found the Saint’s Body uncorrupted, and carried it Passenger to Goa.”—A. Hamilton, i. 252; [ed. 1744, ii. 255].

1780.—“St. John’s,” in Dunn’s New Directory, 472.

c. ST. JOHN’S ISLANDS. This is also the chart-name, and popular European name, of two islands about 6 m. S. of Singapore, the chief of which is properly Pulo Sikajang, [or as Dennys (Desc. Dict. 321) writes the word, Pulo Skijang].