Chapter TEA-CADDY to TEAK of T by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

arose…a second slip took place. I then called for planks of teak (saj).…”—Quotation in Mas’udi, Prairies d’Or, vi. 298–299.

c. 880.—“From Kol to Sindan, where they collect teak-wood (saj) and cane, 18 farsakhs.” |—Ibn Khurdadba, in J. As. S. VI. tom. v. 284.

c. 940.—“ … The teak-tree (saj). This tree, which is taller than the date-palm, and more bulky than the walnut, can shelter under its branches a great number of men and cattle, and you may judge of its dimensions by the logs that arrive, of their natural length, at the depôts of Basra, of ’Irak, and of Egypt. … ”—Mas’udi, iii. 12.

Before 1200.—Abu’l-dhali’ the Sindian, describing the regions of Hind, has these verses:

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“By my life! it is a land where, when the rain falls,
Jacinths and pearls spring up for him who wants ornaments.
There too are produced musk and camphor and ambergris and agila,

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And ivory there, and teak (al-saj) and aloeswood and sandal. … ”

Quoted by Kazwini, in Gildemeister, 217–218.

The following order, in a King’s Letter to the Goa Government, no doubt refers to Pegu teak, though not naming the particular timber:

1597.—“We enjoin you to be very vigilant not to allow the Turks to export any timber from the Kingdom of Pegu, nor from that of Achem (see ACHEEN), and you must arrange how to treat this matter, particularly with the King of Achem.”—In Archiv. Port. Orient. fasc. ii. 669.

1602.—“ … It was necessary in order to appease them, to give a promise in writing that the body should not be removed from the town, but should have public burial in our church in sight of everybody; and with this assurance it was taken in solemn procession and deposited in a box of teak (teca), which is a wood not subject to decay. … ”—Sousa, Oriente Conquist. (1710), ii. 265.

[„ “Of many of the roughest thickets of bamboos and of the largest and best wood in the world, that is teca.”—Couto, Dec. VII. Bk. vi. ch. 6. He goes on to explain that all the ships and boats made either by Moors or Gentiles since the Portuguese came to India, were of this wood which came from the inexhaustible forests at the back of Damaun.]

1631.—Bontius gives a tolerable cut of the foliage, &c., of the Teak-tree, but writing in the Archipelago does not use that name, describing it under the title “Quercus Indica, Kiati Malaiis dicta.”—Lib. vi. cap. 16. On this Rheede, whose plate of the tree is, as usual, excellent (Hortus Malabaricus, iv. tab. 27), observes justly that the teak has no resemblance to an oak-tree, and also that the Malay name is not Kiati but Jati. Kiati seems to be a mistake of some kind growing out of Kayu-jati, ‘Teak-wood.

1644.—“Hã nestas terras de Damam muyta e boa madeyra de Teca, a milhor de toda a India, e tambem de muyta parte do mundo, porque com ser muy fasil de laurar he perduravel, e particullarmente nam lhe tocando agoa.”—Bocarro, MS.

1675.—“At Cock- crow we parted hence and observed that the Sheds here were round thatched and lined with broad Leaves of Teke (the Timber Ships are built with) in Fashion of a Bee-hive.”—Fryer, 142.

„ “ … Teke by the Portuguese, Sogwan by the Moors, is the firmest Wood they have for Building … in Height the lofty Pine exceeds it not, nor the sturdy Oak in Bulk and Substance. … This Prince of the Indian Forest was not so attractive, though mightily glorious, but that … ”—Ibid. 178.

1727.—“Gundavee is next, where good Quantities of Teak Timber are cut, and exported, being of excellent Use in building of Houses or Ships.”—A. Hamilton, i. 178; [ed. 1744].

1744.—“Tecka is the name of costly wood which is found in the Kingdom of Martaban in the East Indies, and which never decays.”—Zeidler, Univ. Lexicon, s.v.

1759.—“They had endeavoured to burn the Teak Timbers also, but they lying in a swampy place, could not take fire.”—Capt. Alves, Report on Loss of Negrais, in Dalrymple, i. 340.

c. 1760.—“As to the wood it is a sort called Teak, to the full as durable as oak.”—Grose, i. 108.

1777.—“Experience hath long since shewn, that ships built with oak, and joined together with wooden trunnels, are by no means so well calculated to resist the extremes of heat and damp, in the tropical latitudes of Asia, as the ships which are built in India of tekewood, and bound with iron spikes and bolts.”—Price’s Tracts, i. 191.

1793.—“The teek forests, from whence the marine yard at Bombay is furnished with that excellent species of ship-timber, lie along the western side of the Gaut mountains … on the north and north-east of Basseen. … I cannot close this subject without remarking the unpardonable negligence we are guilty of in delaying to build teak ships of war for the service of the Indian seas.”—Rennell, Memoir, 3rd ed. 260.

[1800.—“Tayca, Tectona Robusta.”—Buchanan, Mysore, i. 26.]