1510.—"Some others which are made like ours, that is in the bottom, they call capel."—Varthema, 154.
CAPELAN, n.p. This is a name which was given by several 16th-century travellers to the mountains in Burma from which the rubies purchased at Pegu were said to come; the idea of their distance, &c., being very vague. It is not in our power to say what name was intended. [It was perhaps Kyat-pyen.] The real position of the 'ruby-mines' is 60 or 70 m. N.E. of Mandalay. [See Ball's Tavernier, ii. 99, 465 seqq.]
1506.—"... e qui è uno porto appresso uno loco che si chiama Acaplen, dove li se trova molti rubini, e spinade, e zoie d'ogni sorte."—Leonardo di Ca' Masser, p. 28.
1510.—"The sole merchandise of these people is jewels, that is, rubies, which come from another city called Capellan, which is distant from this (Pegu) 30 days' journey."—Varthema, 218.
1516.—"Further inland than the said Kingdom of Ava, at five days journey to the south-east, is another city of Gentiles ... called Capelan, and all round are likewise found many and excellent rubies, which they bring to sell at the city and fair of Ava, and which are better than those of Ava."—Barbosa, 187.
c. 1535.—"This region of Arquam borders on the interior with the great mountain called Capelangam, where are many places inhabited by a not very civilised people. These carry musk and rubies to the great city of Ava, which is the capital of the Kingdom of Arquam...."—Sommario de Regni, in Ramusio, i. 334v.
c. 1660.—"... A mountain 12 days journey or thereabouts, from Siren towards the North-east; the name whereof is Capelan. In this mine are found great quantities of Rubies."—Tavernier (E. T.) ii. 143; [ed. Ball, ii. 99].
Phillip's Mineralogy (according to Col. Burney) mentions the locality of the ruby as "the Capelan mountains, sixty miles from Pegue, a city in Ceylon!"—(J. As. Soc. Bengal, ii. 75). This writer is certainly very loose in his geography, and Dana (ed. 1850) is not much better: "The best ruby sapphires occur in the Capelan mountains, near Syrian, a city of Pegu."—Mineralogy, p. 222.
CAPUCAT, n.p. The name of a place on the sea near Calicut, mentioned by several old authors, but which has now disappeared from the maps, and probably no longer exists. The proper name is uncertain. [It is the little port of Kāppatt or Kappaṭ-ṭangadi (Mal. kāval, 'guard,' pātu, 'place,') in the Cooroombranaud Taluka of the Malabar District. (Logan, Man. of Malabar, i. 73). The Madras Gloss. calls it Caupaud. Also see Gray, Pyrard, i. 360.]
1498.—In the Roteiro it is called Capua.