BASSADORE, n.p. A town upon the island of [Kishm] in the Persian Gulf, which belonged in the 16th century to the Portuguese. The place was ceded to the British Crown in 1817, though the claim now seems dormant. The permission for the English to occupy the place as a naval station was granted by Saiyyid Sultan bin Aḥmad of 'Omān, about the end of the 18th century; but it was not actually occupied by us till 1821, from which time it was the depôt of our Naval Squadron in the Gulf till 1882. The real form of the name is, according to Dr. Badger's transliterated map (in H. of Imâns, &c. of Omân), Bāsīdū.
1673.—"At noon we came to Bassatu, an old ruined town of the Portugals, fronting Congo."—Fryer, 320.
BASSAN, s. H. bāsan, 'a dinner-plate'; from Port. bacia (Panjab N. & Q. ii. 117).
BASSEIN, n.p. This is a corruption of three entirely different names, and is applied to various places remote from each other.
(1) Wasāi, an old port on the coast, 26 m. north of Bombay, called by the Portuguese, to whom it long pertained, Baçaim (e.g. Barros, I. ix. 1).
c. 1565.—"Dopo Daman si troua Basain con molte ville ... ne di questa altro si caua che risi, frumenti, e molto ligname."—Cesare de' Federici in Ramusio, iii. 387v.
1756.—"Bandar Bassai."—Mirat-i-Ahmadi, Bird's tr., 129.
1781.—"General Goddard after having taken the fortress of Bessi, which is one of the strongest and most important fortresses under the Mahratta power...."—Seir Mutaqherin, iii. 327.
(2) A town and port on the river which forms the westernmost delta-arm of the Irawadi in the Province of Pegu. The Burmese name Bathein, was, according to Prof. Forchammer, a change, made by the Burmese conqueror Alompra, from the former name Kuthein (i.e. Kusein), which was a native corruption of the old name Kusima (see [COSMIN]). We cannot explain the old European corruption Persaim. [It has been supposed that the name represents the Besynga of Ptolemy (Geog. ii. 4; see M‘Crindle in Ind. Ant. xiii. 372); but (ibid. xxii. 20) Col. Temple denies this on the ground that the name Bassein does not date earlier than about 1780. According to the same authority (ibid. xxii. 19), the modern Burmese name is Patheng, by ordinary phonetics used for Putheng, and spelt Pusin or Pusim. He disputes the statement that the change of name was made by Alaungp'aya or Alompra. The Talaing pronunciation of the name is Pasem or Pasim, according to dialect.]
[1781.—"Intanto piaciutto era alla Congregazione di Propagando che il Regno di Ava fosse allora coltivato nella fede da' Sacerdoti secolari di essa Congregazione, e a' nostri destino li Regni di Battiam, Martaban, e Pegu."—Quirini, Percoto, 93.