1726.—"Above all it would be a matter of general utility to the Coast that some more chaplains should be maintained there for the sole purpose of studying the Sanskrit tongue (de Sanskritze taal) the head-and-mother tongue of most of the Eastern languages, and once for all to make an exact translation of the Vedam or Law book of the Heathen...."—Valentijn, Choro. p. 72.
1760.—"They have a learned language peculiar to themselves, called the Hanscrit...."—Grose, i. 202.
1774.—"This code they have written in their own language, the Shanscrit. A translation of it is begun under the inspection of one of the body, into the Persian language, and from that into English."—W. Hastings, to Lord Mansfield, in Gleig, i. 402.
1778.—"The language as well as the written character of Bengal are familiar to the Natives ... and both seem to be base derivatives from the Shanscrit."—Orme, ed. 1803, ii. 5.
1782.—"La langue Samscroutam, Samskret, Hanscrit ou Grandon, est la plus étendue: ses caractères multipliés donnent beaucoup de facilité pour exprimer ses pensées, ce qui l'a fait nommer langue divine par le P. Pons."—Sonnerat, i. 224.
1794.—
"With Jones, a linguist, Sanskrit, Greek, or Manks."
Pursuits of Literature, 6th ed. 286.
1796.—"La madre di tutte le lingue Indiane è la Samskrda, cioè, lingua perfetta, piena, ben digerita. Krda opera perfetta o compita, Sam, simul, insieme, e vuol dire lingua tutta insieme ben digerita, legata, perfetta."—Fra Paolino, p. 258.
SAPECA, SAPÈQUE, s. This word is used at Macao for what we call [cash] (q.v.) in Chinese currency; and it is the word generally used by French writers for that coin. Giles says: "From sapek, a coin found in Tonquin and Cochin-China, and equal to about half a pfennig (1⁄600 Thaler), or about one-sixth of a German Kreutzer" (Gloss. of Reference, 122). We cannot learn much about this coin of Tonquin. Milburn says, under 'Cochin China': "The only currency of the country is a sort of cash, called sappica, composed chiefly of tutenague (see [TOOTNAGUE]), 600 making a quan: this is divided into 10 mace of 60 cash each, the whole strung together, and divided by a knot at each mace" (ed. 1825, pp. 444-445). There is nothing here inconsistent with our proposed derivation, given later on. Mace and Sappica are equally Malay words. We can hardly doubt that the true origin of the term is that communicated by our friend Mr. E. C. Baber: "Very probably from Malay sa, 'one,' and păku, 'a string or file of the small coin called pichis.' Pichis is explained by Crawfurd as 'Small coin ... money of copper, brass, or tin.... It was the ancient coin of Java, and also the only one of the Malays when first seen by the Portuguese.' Păku is written by Favre peḳū (Dict. Malais-Français) and is derived by him from Chinese pé-ko, 'cent.' In the dialect of Canton pak is the word for 'a hundred,' and one pak is the colloquial term for a string of one hundred cash." Sapeku would then be properly a string of 100 cash, but it is not difficult to conceive that it might through some misunderstanding (e.g. a confusion of peku and pichis) have been transferred to the single coin. There is a passage in Mr. Gerson da Cunha's Contributions to the Study of Portuguese Numismatics, which may seem at first sight inconsistent with this derivation. For he seems to imply that the smallest denomination of coin struck by Albuquerque at Goa in 1510 was called cepayqua, i.e. in the year before the capture of Malacca, and consequent familiarity with Malay terms. I do not trace his authority for this; the word is not mentioned in the Commentaries of Alboquerque, and it is quite possible that the dinheiros, as these small copper coins were also called, only received the name cepayqua at a later date, and some time after the occupation of Malacca (see Da Cunha, pp. 11-12, and 22). [But also see the quotation of 1510 from Correa under [PARDAO]. This word has been discussed by Col. Temple (Ind. Antiq., August 1897, pp. 222 seq.), who gives quotations establishing the derivation from the Malay sapaku.