[c. 1300.—"Kāfir." See under [LACK].]
c. 1404.—Of a people near China: "They were Christians after the manner of those of Cathay."—Clavijo by Markham, 141.
" And of India: "The people of India are Christians, the Lord and most part of the people, after the manner of the Greeks; and among them also are other Christians who mark themselves with fire in the face, and their creed is different from that of the others; for those who thus mark themselves with fire are less esteemed than the others. And among them are Moors and Jews, but they are subject to the Christians."—Clavijo, (orig.) § cxxi.; comp. Markham, 153-4. Here we have (1) the confusion of Caffer and Christian; and (2) the confusion of Abyssinia (India Tertia or Middle India of some medieval writers) with India Proper.
c. 1470.—"The sea is infested with pirates, all of whom are Kofars, neither Christians nor Mussulmans; they pray to stone idols, and know not Christ."—Athan. Nitikin, in India in the XVth Cent., p. 11.
1552.—"... he learned that the whole people of the Island of S. Lourenço ... were black Cafres with curly hair like those of Mozambique."—Barros, II. i. 1.
1563.—"In the year 1484 there came to Portugal the King of Benin, a Caffre by nation, and he became a Christian."—Stanley's Correa, p. 8.
1572.—
"Verão os Cafres asperos e avaros
Tirar a linda dama seus vestidos."
Camões, v. 47.