1691.—"November the 1st, arriv'd a [Pattamar] or Courrier, from our Fakeel, or Sollicitor at Court...."—Ovington, 415.
1811.—"The Raja has sent two Vakeels or ambassadors to meet me here...."—Ld. Minto in India, 268.
c. 1847.—"If we go into Court I suppose I must employ a Vehicle."—Letter from an European subordinate to one of the present writers.
VARELLA, s. This is a term constantly applied by the old Portuguese writers to the pagodas of Indo-China and China. Of its origin we have no positive evidence. The most probable etymology is that it is the Malay barāhlā or brāhlā, [in Wilkinson's Dict. bĕrhala], 'an idol.' An idol temple is rūmah-barāhlā, 'a house of idols,' but barāhlā alone may have been used elliptically by the Malays or misunderstood by the Portuguese. We have an analogy in the double use of pagoda for temple and idol.
1555.—"Their temples are very large edifices, richly wrought, which they call Valeras, and which cost a great deal...."—Account of China in a Jesuit's Letter appended to Fr. Alvarez H. of Ethiopia, translated by Mr. Major in his Introd. to Mendoza, Hak. Soc. I. xlviii.
1569.—"Gran quantità se ne consuma ancora in quel Regno nelle lor Varelle, che sono gli suo' pagodi, de' quali ve n'è gran quantità di grandi e di picciole, e sono alcune montagnuole fatte a mano, a giusa d'vn pan di zuccaro, e alcune d'esse alte quanti il campanile di S. Marco di Venetia ... si consuma in queste istesse varelle anco gran quantità di oro di foglia...."—Ces. Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 395; [in Hakl. ii. 368.]
1583.—"... nauigammo fin la mattina, che ci trouammo alla Bara giusto di Negrais, che cosi si chiama in lor linguaggio il porto, che va in Pegu, oue discoprimmo a banda sinistra del riuo vn pagodo, ouer varella tutta dorata, la quale si scopre di lontano da' vascelli, che vengono d'alto mare, et massime quando il Sol percote in quell'oro, che la fà risplendere all'intorno...."—Gasparo Balbi, f. 92.[[279]]
1587.—"They consume in these Varellaes great quantitie of Golde; for that they be all gilded aloft."—Fitch, in Hakl. ii. 393; [and see quotation from same under [DAGON]].
1614.—"So also they have many Varelas, which are monasteries in which dwell their religiosos, and some of these are very sumptuous, with their roofs and pinnacles all gilded."—Couto, VI. vii. 9.
More than one prominent geographical feature on the coast-navigation to China was known by this name. Thus in Linschoten's description of the route from Malacca to Macao, he mentions at the entrance to the 'Straits of Sincapura,' a rock having the appearance of an obelisk, called the Varella del China; and again, on the eastern coast of Champa, or Cochin China, we have frequent notice of a point (with a river also) called that of the Varella. Thus in Pinto: