1525.—"A load of anyll in cakes which weighs 3½ maunds, 353 tangas."—Lembrança, 52.
1563.—"Anil is not a medicinal substance but an article of trade, so we have no need to speak thereof.... The best is pure and clear of earth, and the surest test is to burn it in a candle ... others put it in water, and if it floats then they reckon it good."—Garcia, f. 25 v.
1583.—"Neel, the churle 70 duckats, and a churle is 27 rottles and a half of Aleppo."—Mr Iohn Newton, in Hakl. ii. 378.
1583.—"They vse to pricke the skinne, and to put on it a kind of anile, or blacking which doth continue alwayes."—Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 395.
c. 1610.—"... l'Anil ou Indique, qui est vne teinture bleüe violette, dont il ne s'en trouue qu'à Cambaye et Suratte."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 158; [Hak. Soc. ii. 246].
[1614.—"I have 30 fardels Anil Geree." Foster, Letters, ii. 140. Here Geree is probably H. jaṛi (from jaṛ, 'the root'), the crop of indigo growing from the stumps of the plants left from the former year.]
1622.—"E conforme a dita pauta se dispachará o dito anil e canella."—In Archiv. Port. Orient., fasc. 2, 240.
1638.—"Les autres marchandises, que l'on y débite le plus, sont ... du sel ammoniac, et de l'indigo, que ceux de pais appellent Anil."—Mandelslo, Paris, 1659, 138.
1648.—"... and a good quantity of Anil, which, after the place where most of it is got, is called Chirchees Indigo."—Van Twist, 14. Sharkej or Sirkej, 5 m. from Ahmedabad. "Cirquez Indigo" (1624) occurs in Sainsbury, iii. 442. It is the "Sercase" of Forbes [Or. Mem. 2nd ed. ii. 204]. The Dutch, about 1620, established a factory there on account of the indigo. Many of the Sultans of Guzerat were buried there (Stavorinus, iii. 109). Some account of the "Sarkhej Rozas," or Mausolea, is given in H. Brigg's Cities of Gujaráshtra (Bombay, 1849, pp. 274, seqq.). ["Indigo of Bian (Biana) Sicchese" (1609), Danvers, Letters, i. 28; "Indico, of Laher, here worth viijs the pounde Serchis."—Birdwood, Letter Book, 287.]
1653.—"Indico est un mot Portugais, dont l'on appelle une teinture bleüe qui vient des Indes Orientales, qui est de contrabande en France, les Turqs et les Arabes la nomment Nil."—De la Boullaye-le-Gouz, 543.