1598.—"The roote of China is commonlie vsed among the Egyptians ... specially for a consumption, for the which they seeth the roote China in broth of a henne or cocke, whereby they become whole and faire of face."—Dr. Paludanus, in Linschoten, 124, [Hak. Soc. ii. 112].
c. 1610.—"Quant à la verole.... Ils la guerissent sans suer avec du bois d'Eschine...."—Pyrard de Laval, ii. 9 (ed. 1679); [Hak. Soc. ii. 13; also see i. 182].
[c. 1690.—"The caravans returned with musk, China-wood (bois de Chine)."—Bernier, ed. Constable, p. 425.]
CHINAPATAM, n.p. A name sometimes given by the natives to Madras. The name is now written Shennai-Shenna-ppatanam, Tam., in Tel. Chennapattanamu, and the following is the origin of that name according to the statement given in W. Hamilton's Hindostan.
On "this part of the Coast of Coromandel ... the English ... possessed no fixed establishment until A.D. 1639, in which year, on the 1st of March, a grant was received from the descendants of the Hindoo dynasty of Bijanagur, then reigning at Chandergherry, for the erection of a fort. This document from Sree Rung Rayeel expressly enjoins, that the town and fort to be erected at Madras shall be called after his own name, Sree Runga Rayapatam; but the local governor or Naik, Damerla Vencatadri, who first invited Mr. Francis Day, the chief of Armagon, to remove to Madras, had previously intimated to him that he would have the new English establishment founded in the name of his father Chennappa, and the name of Chenappapatam continues to be universally applied to the town of Madras by the natives of that division of the south of India named Dravida."—(Vol. ii. p. 413).
Dr. Burnell doubted this origin of the name, and considered that the actual name could hardly have been formed from that of Chenappa. It is possible that some name similar to Chinapatan was borne by the place previously. It will be seen under [MADRAS] that Barros curiously connects the Chinese with St. Thomé. To this may be added this passage from the English translation of Mendoza's China, the original of which was published in 1585, the translation by R. Parke in 1588:—
"... it is plainely seene that they did come with the shipping vnto the Indies ... so that at this day there is great memory of them in the Ilands Philippinas and on the cost of Coromande, which is the cost against the Kingdome of Norsinga towards the sea of Bengala (misprinted Cengala); whereas is a town called vnto this day the Soile of the Chinos for that they did reedifie and make the same."—(i. 94).
I strongly suspect that this was Chinapatam, or Madras. [On the other hand, the popular derivation is accepted in the Madras Gloss., p. 163. The gold plate containing the grant of Sri Ranga Rāja is said to have been kept by the English for more than a century, till its loss in 1746 at the capture of Madras by the French.—(Wheeler, Early Rec., 49).]
1780.—"The Nawaub sent him to Cheena Pattun (Madras) under the escort of a small party of light Cavalry."—H. of Hydur Naik, 395.
CHINCHEW, CHINCHEO, n.p. A port of Fuhkien in China. Some ambiguity exists as to the application of the name. In English charts the name is now attached to the ancient and famous port of Chwan-chau-fu (Thsiouan-chéou-fou of French writers), the Zayton of Marco Polo and other medieval travellers. But the Chincheo of the Spaniards and Portuguese to this day, and the Chinchew of older English books, is, as Mr. G. Phillips pointed out some years ago, not Chwan-chau-fu, but Chang-chau-fu, distant from the former some 80 m. in a direct line, and about 140 by navigation. The province of Fuhkien is often called Chincheo by the early Jesuit writers. Changchau and its dependencies seem to have constituted the ports of Fuhkien with which Macao and Manilla communicated, and hence apparently they applied the same name to the port and the province, though Chang-chau was never the official capital of Fukhien (see Encyc. Britann., 9th ed. s.v. and references there). Chincheos is used for "people of Fuhkien" in a quotation under [COMPOUND].