c. 1616.—"The aldea Nargol ... in the lands of Daman was infested by Malabar Moors in their parós, who commonly landed there for water and provisions, and plundered the boats that entered or quitted the river, and the passengers who crossed it, with heavy loss to the aldeas adjoining the river, and to the revenue from them, as well as to that from the custom-house of Sangens."—Bocarro, Decada, 670.
1623.—"La mattina seguente, fatto giorno, scoprimmo terra di lontano ... in un luogo poco discosto da Bassain, che gl'Inglesi chiamano Terra di San Giovanni; ma nella carta da navigare vidi esser notato, in lingua Portoghese, col nome d'ilhas das vaccas, o 'isole delle vacche' al modo nostro."—P. della Valle, ii. 500; [Hak. Soc. i. 16].
1630.—"It happened that in safety they made to the land of St. Iohns on the shoares of India."—Lord, The Religion of the Persees, 3.
1644.—"Besides these four posts there are in the said district four Tanadarias (see [TANADAR]), or different Captainships, called Samgês (St. John's), Danū, Maim, and Trapor."—Bocarro (Port. MS.).
1673.—"In a Week's Time we turned it up, sailing by Baçein, Tarapore, Valentine's Peak, St. John's, and Daman, the last City northward on the Continent, belonging to the Portuguese."—Fryer, 82.
1808.—"They (the Parsee emigrants) landed at Dieu, and lived there 19 years; but, disliking the place ... the greater part of them left it and came to the Guzerat coast, in vessels which anchored off Seyjan, the name of a town."—R. Drummond.
1813.—"The Parsees or Guebres ... continued in this place (Diu) for some time, and then crossing the Gulph, landed at Suzan, near Nunsaree, which is a little to the southward of Surat."—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 109; [2nd ed. i. 78].
1841.—"The high land of St. John, about 3 leagues inland, has a regular appearance...."—Horsburgh's Directory, ed. 1841, i. 470.
1872.—"In connexion with the landing of the Parsis at Sanjân, in the early part of the 8th century, there still exist copies of the 15 Sanskrit Ślokas, in which their Mobeds explained their religion to Jadé Rânâ, the Râja of the place, and the reply he gave them."—Ind. Antiq. i. 214. The Ślokas are given. See them also in Dosabhai Framji's Hist. of the Parsees, i. 31.
b. ST. JOHN'S ISLAND, n.p. This again is a corruption of San-Shan, or more correctly Shang-chuang, the Chinese name of an island about 60 or 70 miles S.W. of Macao, and at some distance from the mouth of the Canton River, the place where St. Francis Xavier died, and was originally buried.