A colleague is going through the diary of a 19th century British seaman who makes a reference to “Pintagall, India.” He can’t find a reference to such a place anywhere. Of course the seaman may be spelling phonetically, and accents and dialects may have distorted the name. Anyone here know anything that can help?
Point de Galle (now known as just Galle) in the country of Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka) may be a possibility. It’s long been a major port:
Sailors may have referred to it as being part of India, even though it actually wasn’t.
“India”, to the British mind in the nineteenth century, encompassed not only what we now think of as India and Pakistan, but also what we now think of as Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
I was looking at:
and Point de Galle jumped out as the most likely possibility.
This is brilliant. I’ll pass it on. Many thanks,
Pondicherry? Old French colony on E coast of mainland?
Still has a remnant Christian community of locals, plus French cuisine and architecture.
Might jog a memory.
I enjoyed reading the answers.
Pondicherry is a good guess, but the diary mentions it by name, so that can’t be it. I’m thinking Point de Galle is the best bet.