The Arabs and Africans who first visited the west coast of India, came “Mu-abbar”: “from beyond” the sea. In the voyages of Ibn Batuta, translated by Dr. Lee, the country is called Muabbar, without any surmise that this is Malabar. The Syrian Christians who live in Travancore wrote the word in Syriac characters , and it has occurred to me that in careless writing this may have been altered into Malabar: a name unknown to the inhabitants; who fancy it is the European name for their country and language. The Eastern shore of India also was visited by men “from over the sea:” and the name Malabar has also been wrongly applied to the Eastern coast.