1598.—"There are in India other wonderfull and thicke trees, whereof Shippes are made: there are trees by Cochiin, that are called Angelina, whereof certaine scutes or skiffes called Tones [[Doney]] are made ... it is so strong and hard a woode that Iron in tract of time would bee consumed thereby by reason of the hardness of the woode."—Linschoten, ch. 58 [Hak. Soc. ii. 56].
1644.—"Another thing which this province of Mallavar produces, in abundance and of excellent quality, is timber, particularly that called Angelim, which is most durable, lasting many years, insomuch that even if you desire to build a great number of ships, or vessels of any kind ... you may make them all in a year."—Bocarro, MS. f. 315.
ANGENGO, n.p. A place on the Travancore coast, the site of an old English Factory; properly said to be Añju-tengu, Añchutennu, Malayāl.; the trivial meaning of which would be "five cocoa-nuts." This name gives rise to the marvellous rhapsody of the once famous Abbé Raynal, regarding "Sterne's Eliza," of which we quote below a few sentences from the 3½ pages of close print which it fills.
1711.—"... Anjengo is a small Fort belonging to the English East India Company. There are about 40 Soldiers to defend it ... most of whom are Topazes, or mungrel Portuguese."—Lockyer, 199.
1782.—"Territoire d'Anjinga; tu n'es rien; mais tu as donné naissance à Eliza. Un jour, ces entrepôts ... ne subsisteront plus ... mais si mes écrits ont quelque durée, le nom d'Anjinga restera dans le mémoire des hommes ... Anjinga, c'est à l'influence de ton heureux climat qu'elle devoit, sans doute, cet accord presqu'incompatible de volupté et de décence qui accompagnoit toute sa personne, et qui se mêloit à tous ses mouvements, &c., &c."—Hist. Philosophique des Deux Indes, ii. 72-73.
ANICUT, s. Used in the irrigation of the Madras Presidency for the dam constructed across a river to fill and regulate the supply of the channels drawn off from it; the cardinal work in fact of the great irrigation systems. The word, which has of late years become familiar all over India, is the Tam. comp. aṉai-kaṭṭu, 'Dam-building.'
1776.—"Sir—We have received your letter of the 24th. If the Rajah pleases to go to the Anacut, to see the repair of the bank, we can have no objection, but it will not be convenient that you should leave the garrison at present."—Letter from Council at Madras to Lt.-Col. Harper, Comm. at Tanjore, in E. I. Papers, 1777, 4to, i. 836.
1784.—"As the cultivation of the Tanjore country appears, by all the surveys and reports of our engineers employed in that service, to depend altogether on a supply of water by the Cauvery, which can only be secured by keeping the Anicut and banks in repair, we think it necessary to repeat to you our orders of the 4th July, 1777, on the subject of these repairs."—Desp. of Court of Directors, Oct. 27th, as amended by Bd. of Control, in Burke, iv. 104.
1793.—"The Annicut is no doubt a judicious building, whether the work of Solar Rajah or anybody else."—Correspondence between A. Ross, Esq., and G. A. Ram, Esq., at Tanjore, on the subject of furnishing water to the N. Circars. In Dalrymple, O. R., ii. 459.
1862.—"The upper Coleroon Anicut or weir is constructed at the west end of the Island of Seringham."—Markham, Peru & India, 426.