PORTO NOVO, n.p. A town on the coast of South Arcot, 32 m. S. of Pondicherry. The first mention of it that we have found is in Bocarro, Decada, p. 42 (c. 1613). The name was perhaps intended to mean 'New Oporto,' rather than 'New Haven,' but we have not found any history of the name. [The Tamil name is Parangi-pēṭṭai, 'European town,' and it is called by Mahommedans Maḥmūd-bandar.]
1718.—"At Night we came to a Town called Porta Nova, and in Malabarish Pirenkī Potei (Parangipēṭṭai)."—Propagation of the Gospel, &c., Pt. ii. 41.
1726.—"The name of this city (Porto Novo) signifies in Portuguese New Haven, but the Moors call it Mohhammed Bendar ... and the Gentoos Perringepeente."—Valentijn, Choromandel, 8.
PORTO PIQUENO, PORTO GRANDE, nn.pp. 'The Little Haven and the Great Haven'; names by which the Bengal ports of [Satigam] (q.v.) and Chatigam (see [CHITTAGONG]) respectively were commonly known to the Portuguese in the 16th century.
1554.—"Porto Pequeno de Bemgala ... [Cowries] are current in the country; 80 cowries make 1 pone (see [PUN]); of these pones 48 are equal to 1 [larin] more or less."—A. Nunes, 37.
1554.—"Porto Grande de Bemgala. The [maund] (mão), by which they weigh all goods, contains 40 [seers] (ceros), each seer 182⁄5 ounces...."—A. Nunes, 37.
1568.—"Io mi parti d'Orisa per Bengala al Porto Picheno ... s'entra nel fiume Ganze, dalla bocca del qual fiume sino a Satagan (see [SATIGAM]) città, oue si fanno negotij, et oue i mercadanti si riducono, sono centi e venti miglia, che si fanno in diciotto hore a remi, cioè, in tre crescenti d'acqua, che sono di sei hore l'uno."—Ces. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 392.
1569.—"Partissemo di Sondiua, et giungessemo in Chitigan il gran porto di Bengala, in tempo che già i Portoghesi haueuano fatto pace o tregua con i Rettori."—Ibid. 396.
1595.—"Besides, you tell me that the traffic and commerce of the Porto Pequeno of Bemguala being always of great moment, if this goes to ruin through the Mogors, they will be the masters of those tracts."—Letter of the K. of Portugal, in Archiv. Port. Orient., Fascic. 3, p. 481.
1596.—"And so he wrote me that the Commerce of Porto Grande of Bengala is flourishing, and that the King of the Country had remitted to the Portuguese 3 per cent. of the duties that they used to pay."—Ibid. p. 580.