1601.—"Biremes, seu Cathuris quam plurimae conduntur in Lassaon, Javae civitate...."—De Bry, iii. 109 (where there is a plate, iii. No. xxxvii.).
1688.—"No man was so bold to contradict the man of God; and they all went to the Arsenal. There they found a good and sufficient bark of those they call Catur, besides seven old foysts."—Dryden, Life of Xavier, in Works, 1821, xvi. 200.
1742.—"... to prevent even the possibility of the galeons escaping us in the night, the two Cutters belonging to the Centurion and the Gloucester were both manned and sent in shore...."—Anson's Voyage, 9th ed. 1756, p. 251. Cutter also occurs pp. 111, 129, 150, and other places.
CAUVERY, n.p. The great river of S. India. Properly Tam. Kāviri, or rather Kāveri, and Sanscritized Kāvērī. The earliest mention is that of Ptolemy, who writes the name (after the Skt. form) Χάβηρος (sc. ποταμός). The Καμάρα of the Periplus (c. A.D. 80-90) probably, however, represents the same name, the Χαβηρὶς ἐμποριόν of Ptolemy. The meaning of the name has been much debated, and several plausible but unsatisfactory explanations have been given. Thus the Skt. form Kāvērī has been explained from that language by kāvēra 'saffron.' A river in the Tamil country is, however, hardly likely to have a non-mythological Skt. name. The Cauvery in flood, like other S. Indian rivers, assumes a reddish hue. And the form Kāvēri has been explained by Bp. Caldwell as possibly from the Dravidian kāvi, 'red ochre' or kā (kā-va), 'a grove,' and ēr-u, Tel. 'a river,' ēr-i, Tam. 'a sheet of water'; thus either 'red river' or 'grove river.' [The Madras Admin. Gloss. takes it from kā, Tam. 'grove,' and ēri, Tam. 'tank,' from its original source in a garden tank.] Kā-viri, however, the form found in inscriptions, affords a more satisfactory Tamil interpretation, viz. Kā-viri, 'grove-extender,' or developer. Any one who has travelled along the river will have noticed the thick groves all along the banks, which form a remarkable feature of the stream.
c. 150 A.D.—
"Χαβήρου ποταμοῦ ἐκβολάι
Χαβηρὶς ἐμποριόν."—Ptolemy, lib. vii. 1.
The last was probably represented by Kaveripatan.
c. 545.—"Then there is Sieledēba, i.e. Taprobane ... and then again on the Continent, and further back, is Marallo, which exports conch-shells; Kaber, which exports alabandinum."—Cosmas, Topog. Christ. in Cathay, &c. clxxviii.
1310-11.—"After traversing the passes, they arrived at night on the banks of the river Kānobarī, and bivouacked on the sands."—Amīr Khusrū, in Elliot, ii. 90.