This word is found on the very first page, on the very first chapter entitled Sara.
Looks familiar? This is actually a scene from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. East Indian sailors were recruited by the European traders to help out in their ships. They do not have the easiest life; according to the Royal Greenwich Museums website: "...the Lascar crew would be paid a fixed monthly wage for the voyage from India to London. When in London, they were to get bounty money and maintenance while waiting for a return passage to their port of origin." At times they weren't even welcomed back to the ship that brought them to London, they would simply abandon them.