1673.—"... ambling after these a great pace, the Palankeen-Boys support them, four of them, two at each end of a Bambo, which is a long hollow Cane ... arched in the middle ... where hangs the Palenkeen, as big as an ordinary Couch, broad enough to tumble in...."—Fryer, 34.
1678.—"The permission you are pleased to give us to buy a Pallakee on the Company's Acct. Shall make use off as Soone as can possiblie meet wth one yt may be fitt for ye purpose...."—MS. Letter from Factory at Ballasore to the Council (of Fort St. George), March 9, in India Office.
1682.—Joan Nieuhof has Palakijn. Zee en Lant-Reize, ii. 78.
[ " "The Agent and Council ... allowed him (Mr. Clarke) 2 pagos p. mensem more towards the defraying his pallanquin charges, he being very crazy and much weaken'd by his sicknesse."—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo. 1st ser. i. 34.]
1720.—"I desire that all the free Merchants of my acquaintance do attend me in their palenkeens to the place of burial."—Will of Charles Davers, Merchant, in Wheeler, ii. 340.
1726.—"... Palangkyn dragers" (palankin-bearers).—Valentijn, Ceylon, 45.
1736.—"Palanquin, a kind of chaise or chair, borne by men on their shoulders, much used by the Chinese and other Eastern peoples for travelling from place to place."—Bailey's Dict. 2nd ed.
1750-52.—"The greater nobility are carried in a palekee, which looks very like a hammock fastened to a pole."—Toreen's Voyage to Suratte, China, &c., ii. 201.
1754-58.—In the former year the Court of Directors ordered that Writers in their Service should "lay aside the expense of either horse, chair, or Palankeen, during their Writership." The Writers of Fort William (4th Nov. 1756) remonstrated, begging "to be indulged in keeping a Palankeen for such months of the year as the excessive heats and violent rains make it impossible to go on foot without the utmost hazard of their health." The Court, however, replied (11 Feb. 1756): "We very well know that the indulging Writers with Palankeens has not a little contributed to the neglect of business we complain of, by affording them opportunities of rambling"; and again, with an obduracy and fervour too great for grammar (March 3, 1758): "We do most positively order and direct (and will admit of no representation for postponing the execution of) that no Writer whatsoever be permitted to keep either palankeen, horse, or chaise, during his Writership, on pain of being immediately dismissed from our service."—In Long, pp. 54, 71, 130.
1780.—"The Nawaub, on seeing his condition, was struck with grief and compassion; but ... did not even bend his eyebrow at the sight, but lifting up the curtain of the Palkee with his own hand, he saw that the eagle of his (Ali Ruza's) soul, at one flight had winged its way to the gardens of Paradise."—H. of Hydur, p. 429.