1501.—Tanaser appears in the list of places in the East Indies of which Amerigo Vespucci had heard from the Portuguese fleet at C. Verde. Printed in Baldelli Boni's Il Milione, pp. liii. seqq.
1506.—"At Tenazar grows all the verzi (brazil), and it costs 1½ ducats the baar (bahar), equal to 4 kantars. This place, though on the coast, is on the mainland. The King is a Gentile; and thence come pepper, cinnamon, galanga, camphor that is eaten, and camphor that is not eaten.... This is indeed the first mart of spices in India."—Leonardo Ca' Masser, in Archiv. Stor. Ital. p. 28.
1510.—"The city of Tarnassari is situated near the sea, etc."—Varthema, 196. This adventurer's account of Tenasserim is an imposture. He describes it by implication as in India Proper, somewhere to the north of Coromandel.
1516.—"And from the Kingdom of Peigu as far as a city which has a seaport, and is named Tanasery, there are a hundred leagues...."—Barbosa, 188.
1568.—"The Pilot told vs that wee were by his altitude not farre from a citie called Tanasary, in the Kingdom of Pegu."—C. Frederike, in Hakl. ii. 359. See Lancaster.
c. 1590.—"In Kambayat ([Cambay]) a Nákhuda ([Nacoda]) gets 800 R.... In Pegu and Dahnasari, he gets half as much again as in Cambay."—Āīn, i. 281.
[1598.—"Betweene two Islandes the coast runneth inwards like a bow, wherein lyeth the towne of Tanassarien."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 103. In the same page he writes Tanassaria.
[1608.—"The small quantities they have here come from Tannaserye."—Danvers, Letters, i. 22.
[c. 1610.—"Some Indians call it (Ceylon) Tenasirin, signifying land of delights, or earthly paradise."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 140, with Gray's note (Hak. Soc.) quoted above.]
1727.—"Mr. Samuel White was made Shawbandaar ([Shabunder]) or Custom-Master at Merjee ([Mergui]) and Tanacerin, and Captain Williams was Admiral of the King's Navy."—A. Hamilton, ii. 64; [ed. 1744].