Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.9061

c10.9061

∗ This Port was immediately outside the Straits, as appears from the description of Dom João de Castro (1541): “Now turning to the ‘Gates’ of the Strait, which are the chief object of our description, we remark that here the land of Arabia juts out into the sea, forming a prominent Point, and very prolonged. . . This is the point or promontory which Ptolemy calls Possidium. . . In front of it, a little more than a gunshot off, is an islet called the *Ilheo dos Roboeens*; because Roboa in Arabic means a pilot; and the pilots living here go aboard the ships which come from outside, and conduct them,” &c.—*Roteiro do Mar Rozo*, &c., 35. The Island retains its name, and is mentioned as Pilot Island by Capt. Haines in *J. R. Geog. Soc.* ix.