Caliature Wood

Abstract

DURING the preparation for the press, in 1895, of the “Diary and Consultation Book of the Agent, Governor and Council of Fort St. George”, for 1682—5, Mr. A. T. Pringle, the editor, inquired if I could throw any light on the origin of caliature, a name for redwood (Pterocarpus santalinus), frequently referred to as an article of trade in Madras. Presuming the name to be that of a port on the east coast, it has evidently disappeared from nearly all the available gazetteers and modern atlases. Inquiries were made in London, Holland, and Java with no results; but recent researches in the libraries of Calcutta have been more successful, and the following notes on the early trade of the country form an interesting chapter on the history of red-sanders wood.