[1598.—"The countrey of the Abexynes, at Prester John's land."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 38.
1617.—"He sent mee to buy three Abassines."—Sir T. Roe, Travels, Hak. Soc. ii. 445.]
A. C. (i.e. 'after compliments'). In official versions of native letters these letters stand for the omitted formalities of native compliments.
ACHÁNOCK, n.p. H. Chānak and Achānak. The name by which the station of [Barrackpore] is commonly known to Sepoys and other natives. Some have connected the name with that of Job Charnock, or, as A. Hamilton calls him, Channock, the founder of Calcutta, and the quotations render this probable. Formerly the Cantonment of Secrole at Benares was also known, by a transfer no doubt, as Chhotā (or 'Little') Achānak. Two additional remarks may be relevantly made: (1) Job's name was certainly Charnock, and not Channock. It is distinctly signed "Job Charnock," in a MS. letter from the factory at "Chutta," i.e. Chuttanuttee (or Calcutta) in the India Office records, which I have seen. (2) The map in Valentijn which shows the village of Tsjannok, though published in 1726, was apparently compiled by Van der Broecke in 1662. Hence it is not probable that it took its name from Job Charnock, who seems to have entered the Company's service in 1658. When he went to Bengal we have not been able to ascertain. [See Diary of Hedges, edited by Sir H. Yule, ii., xcix. In some "Documentary Memoirs of Job Charnock," which form part of vol. lxxv. (1888) of the Hakluyt Soc., Job is said to have "arrived in India in 1655 or 1656.">[
1677.—"The ship Falcone to go up the river to Hughly, or at least to Channock."—Court's Letter to Ft. St. Geo. of 12th December. In Notes and Extracts, Madras, 1871, No. 1., p. 21; see also p. 23.
1711.—"Chanock-Reach hath two shoals, the upper one in Chanock, and the lower one on the opposite side ... you must from below Degon as aforesaid, keep the starboard shore aboard until you come up with a Lime-Tree ... and then steer over with Chanock Trees and house between the two shoals, until you come mid-river, but no nearer the house."—The English Pilot, 55.
1726.—"'t stedeken Tsjannock."—Valentijn, v. 153. In Val.'s map of Bengal also, we find opposite to Oegli (Hoogly), Tsjannok, and then Collecatte, and Calcula.
1758.—"Notwithstanding these solemn assurances from the Dutch it was judged expedient to send a detachment of troops ... to take possession of Tanna Fort and Charnoc's Battery opposite to it."—Narrative of Dutch attempt in the Hoogly, in Malcolm's Life of Clive, ii. 76.
1810.—"The old village of Achanock stood on the ground which the post of Barrackpore now occupies."—M. Graham, 142.
1848.—"From an oral tradition still prevalent among the natives at Barrackpore ... we learn that Mr. Charnock built a bungalow there, and a flourishing bazar arose under his patronage, before the settlement of Calcutta had been determined on. Barrackpore is at this day best known to the natives by the name of Chanock."—The Bengal Obituary, Calc. p. 2.