1610.—"And (I prayse God) I have aboord one hundred thirtie nine Tunnes, six Cathayes, one quarterne two pound of nutmegs and sixe hundred two and twenty suckettes of Mace, which maketh thirtie sixe Tunnes, fifteene Cathayes one quarterne, one and twentie pound."—David Midleton, ibid. i. 247. In this passage, however, Cathayes seems to be a strange blunder of Purchas or his copyist for Cwt. Suckette is probably Malay sukat, "a measure, a stated quantity." [The word appears as suckell in a letter of 1615 (Foster, iii. 175). Mr. Skeat suggests that it is a misreading for Pecul. Sukat, he says, means 'to measure anything' (indefinitely), but is never used for a definite measure.]
b. The word catty occurs in another sense in the following passage. A note says that "Catty or more literally Kuttoo is a Tamil word signifying [batta]" (q.v.). But may it not rather be a clerical error for batty?
1659.—"If we should detain them longer we are to give them catty."—Letter in Wheeler, i. 162.
CATUR, s. A light rowing vessel used on the coast of Malabar in the early days of the Portuguese. We have not been able to trace the name to any Indian source, [unless possibly Skt. chatura, 'swift']. Is it not probably the origin of our 'cutter'? We see that Sir R. Burton in his Commentary on Camoens (vol. iv. 391) says: "Catur is the Arab. katīreh, a small craft, our 'cutter.'" [This view is rejected by the N.E.D., which regards it as an English word from 'to cut.'] We cannot say when cutter was introduced in marine use. We cannot find it in Dampier, nor in Robinson Crusoe; the first instance we have found is that quoted below from Anson's Voyage. [The N.E.D. has nothing earlier than 1745.]
Bluteau gives catur as an Indian term indicating a small war vessel, which in a calm can be aided by oars. Jal (Archéologie Navale, ii. 259) quotes Witsen as saying that the Caturi or [Almadias] were Calicut vessels, having a length of 12 to 13 paces (60 to 65 feet), sharp at both ends, and curving back, using both sails and oars. But there was a larger kind, 80 feet long, with only 7 or 8 feet beam.
1510.—"There is also another kind of vessel.... These are all made of one piece ... sharp at both ends. These ships are called Chaturi, and go either with a sail or oars more swiftly than any galley, fusta, or brigantine."—Varthema, 154.
1544.—"... navigium majus quod vocant caturem."—Scti. Franc. Xav. Epistolae, 121.
1549.—"Naves item duas (quas Indi catures vocant) summâ celeritate armari jussit, vt oram maritimam legentes, hostes commeatu prohiberent."—Goës, de Bello Cambaico, 1331.
1552.—"And this winter the Governor sent to have built in Cochin thirty Catures, which are vessels with oars, but smaller than brigantines."—Castanheda, iii. 271.
1588.—"Cambaicam oram Jacobus Lacteus duobos caturibus tueri jussus...."—Maffei, lib. xiii. ed. 1752, p. 283.