1602.—"Eitor da Silveira set out, and without any mishap arrived at the Cape of Gardafui."—Couto, IV. i. 4.
1727.—"And having now travell'd along the Shore of the Continent, from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Guardafoy, I'll survey the Islands that lie in the Ethiopian Sea."—A. Hamilton, i. 15; [ed. 1744].
1790.—"The Portuguese, or Venetians, the first Christian traders in these parts, have called it Gardefui, which has no signification in any language. But in that part of the country where it is situated, it is called Gardefan and means the Straits of Burial, the reason of which will be seen afterwards."—Bruce's Travels, i. 315.
[1823.—"... we soon obtained sight of Cape Gardafui.... It is called by the natives Ras Assere, and the high mountain immediately to its south is named Gibel Jordafoon.... Keeping about nine miles off shore we rounded the peninsula of Hafoon.... Hafoon appears like an island, and belongs to a native Somauli prince...."—Owen, Narr. i. 353.]
GUAVA, s. This fruit (Psidium Guayava, L., Ord. Myrtaceae; Span. guayava, Fr. goyavier, [from Brazilian guayaba, Stanf. Dict.]), Guayabo pomifera Indica of Caspar Bauhin, Guayava of Joh. Bauhin, strangely appears by name in Elliot's translation from Amīr Khosrū, who flourished in the 13th century: "He who has placed only guavas and quinces in his throat, and has never eaten a plantain, will say it is like so much jujube" (iii. 556). This must be due to some ambiguous word carelessly rendered. The fruit and its name are alike American. It appears to be the guaiabo of Oviedo in his History of the Indies (we use the Italian version in Ramusio, iii. f. 141v). There is no mention of the guava in either De Orta or Acosta. Amrūd, which is the commonest Hindustani (Pers.) name for the guava, means properly 'a pear'; but the fruit is often called safarī ām, 'journey mango' (respecting which see under [ANANAS]). And this last term is sometimes vulgarly corrupted into supārī ām (areca-mango!). In the Deccan (according to Moodeen Sheriff) and all over Guzerat and the Central Provinces (as we are informed by M.-Gen. Keatinge), the fruit is called jām, Mahr. jamba, which is in Bengal the name of Syzigium jambolanum (see [JAMOON]), and in Guzerāti jāmrūd, which seems to be a factitious word in imitation of āmrūd.
The guava, though its claims are so inferior to those of the pine-apple (indeed except to stew, or make jelly, it is nobis judicibus, an utter impostor), [Sir Joseph Hooker annotates: "You never ate good ones!">[ must have spread like that fruit with great rapidity. Both appear in Blochmann's transl. of the Āīn (i. 64) as served at Akbar's table; though when the guava is named among the fruits of Tūrān, doubts again arise as to the fruit intended, for the word used, amrūd, is ambiguous. In 1688 Dampier mentions guavas at Achin, and in Cochin China. The tree, like the custard-apple, has become wild in some parts of India. See Davidson, below.
c. 1550.—"The guaiava is like a peach-tree, with a leaf resembling the laurel ... the red are better than the white, and are well-flavoured."—Girol. Benzoni, p. 88.
1658.—There is a good cut of the guava, as guaiaba, in Piso, pp. 152-3.
1673.—"... flourish pleasant Tops of Plantains, Cocoes, Guiavas, a kind of Pear."—Fryer, 40.
1676.—"The N.W. part is full of Guaver Trees of the greatest variety, and their Fruit the largest and best tasted I have met with."—Dampier, ii. 107.