To tell you frankly, Selma, I have never heard the word Canecos before. May be it is a short form of Canarins i.e. inhabitants of the coast of Canara. Canarim was a word implying contempt, used by the Portuguese to describe poor and illiterate Catholic Goans. The Portuguese got their geography wrong. From Goa to Bombay is Konkan coast, from Karwar to Mangalore it is Canara Coast and south of Mangalore is
Malabar coast. We have to keep in view that the Portuguese ships reached Goa from south perhaps from the Angediva island next to Karwar. Hence Goa in their eyes was associated with Canara coast. Antonio
