1498.—"... much ginger, and pepper, and cinnamon, but this is not so fine as that which comes from an island which is called Cillam, and which is 8 days distant from Calicut."—Roteiro de V. da Gama, 88.
1514.—"Passando avanti intra la terra e il mare si truova l'isola di Zolan dove nasce la cannella...."—Giov. da Empoli, in Archiv. Stor. Ital., Append. 79.
1516.—"Leaving these islands of Mahaldiva ... there is a very large and beautiful island which the Moors, Arabs, and Persians call Ceylam, and the Indians call it Ylinarim."—Barbosa, 166.
1586.—"This Ceylon is a brave Iland, very fruitful and fair."—Hakl. ii. 397.
[1605.—"Heare you shall buie theis Comodities followinge of the Inhabitants of Selland."—Birdwood, First Letter Book, 84.
[1615.—"40 tons of cinnamon of Celand."—Foster, Letters, iii. 277.
[ " "Here is arrived a ship out of Holland ... at present turning under Silon."—Ibid. iv. 34.]
1682.—"... having run 35 miles North without seeing Zeilon."—Hedges, Diary, July 7; [Hak. Soc. i. 28].
1727.—A. Hamilton writes Zeloan (i. 340, &c.), and as late as 1780, in Dunn's Naval Directory, we find Zeloan throughout.
1781.—"We explored the whole coast of Zelone, from Pt. Pedro to the Little Basses, looked into every port and spoke to every vessel we saw, without hearing of French vessels."—Price's Letter to Ph. Francis, in Tracts, i. 9.