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Home , Adriaan Reland, Bali Sea, Bali Strait, Bangka Strait, Flores Sea, Golden Chersonese

Changing Indonesian Names

Ferjan Ormeling University

Introduction

Foreign influence on Indonesian toponymy is negligible. Names that are demonstra- bly of foreign origin are only a handful. Examples are the names , Enggano and Rondo, which are of Portuguese origin; some names of mountain ranges in the interior of still show the influence of German explorers. The names of two prominent cities, Batavia and Buitenzorg, were decolonised and changed into Jakarta and (Batavia referred to the Batavi, a Germanic tribe living in the in Roman times; Buitenzorg is the Dutch equivalent of the French name Sanssoucis). But, overall, the namescape in is an Indonesian one. Underneath the layer of Indonesian names, however, there are still foreign influences, masked because they have been translated into Bahasa Indonesia (the Indonesian language), or because Indonesian names were used by foreigners. As far as I have been able to assess there was no indigenous tradition in naming specific water bodies, apart from the South Sea (Samudra Kidul or Laut Kidul) and the naming of Indonesian thus was due to foreign or colonial intervention.

Sources

My sources in finding out the chronology of this sea naming process have been maps and charts, geographical descriptions and pilots or nautical guides as available through Google Books. No Indonesian literature could be found on the subject. I have studied old printed maps of Southeast , in order to find out when specific names were first used, and also manuscript maps: a recent source (2010) is the book Sailing for the East, by Schilder and Kok from the Explokart Research Group at , which presents an overview of all the manuscript charts on vellum produced for the (VOC). Dutch nautical guides for this area were only printed in 1753, because of secrecy considerations. The Dutch East India Company wanted to preserve its trading monopoly for this area. The pilot book annex sea- of these waters produced on behalf of the VOC was volume 6 of the Nieuwe Groote ligtende zee-fakkel (The New Great Shining Sea Torch) by Jan de Marre and (II), published 1753.

By that time Britain and France had already produced their own pilot books for these waters: John Thornton had produced the third book of The English Pilot in 1703, with maps and sailing directions for Eastern waters. The Frenchman J.B.d’Apres de Manne- villette produced his Neptune Oriental in 1745, and wrote his Instruction Sur La Navigation Des Indes Orientales et de la Chine in 1775. Before d’Apres, Jacques-Nicolas Bellin updated and improved the Neptune François, and eventually re-issued it in several editions, with the title of Hydrographie Française des cartes receuil dressées au Dépôt des plans de la Marine, pour le service des vaisseaux du Roy (1756).

The most influential pilot books for the 19th century for these waters probably were the ones by J. Horsburgh: Memoirs: comprising the navigation to and from China, by the China Sea and through the various straits and channels in the Indian archipelago, published in London in 1805, as well as his India directory or directions for sailing to and from the , etc. London: 1836.

Figure 1 – Detail from East Asian manuscript map produced by VOC cartographers about 1650 (from: Sailing for the East, Schilder and Kok 2010). Ilhas de Ladrones refers to Cheju-do .

A common trait of all these pilot books was the almost total absence of sea names although they did cover names of bays, straits and capes, so other sources had to be found: these were the 19th century in which European geographers tried to order the available information. It was here that the first systematic naming of the seas was visible. I have analysed the material in websites on 19th century German atlases, as Germany was the primary atlas producer in that century. Another aspect of putting into order the spatial information is the grouping into larger units, as is the case with the Sunda isles: the division into Greater Sunda and Lesser Sunda stems from that period too. The Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap der Kunsten en Wetenschappen (Proceedings of the Batavia Society of Arts and Sciences) founded in 1778 were also scrutinised, as were the Daghregisters of Batavia Castle: from 1619 onwards everything that passed through the port of Batavia was noted down, stating the business of everyone, where they had come from or went to and what their business was. So much geographical information was contained in these registers.

Early European explorers

In the first atlas produced, by , reference is made, apart from the Indian , to two seas in the area: , which is either matched with the or the China Sea, and the Sinus Gangeticus or Gulf of Bengal; in between which the was located: either Malaya or the whole Southeast Asian peninsula.

In the first Portuguese maps, as on Vaz Dourado’s map, only the Mare Indium Orientalis is mentioned, that is the Sea of the East Indies, or the sea that envelops all of the East Indies. This is the only sea mentioned at the time, but gradually some sea straits are also incorporated on the maps, just as are some other navigational hazards like reefs and shoals.

Figure 2: Part of Indonesian archipelago, from Atlas Isaak de Graaf (1700)

When we look at the maps in the first Dutch atlas of the archipelago, produced in 1700 in (see figure 2) from map material collected by the hydrographer of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia (Schilder e.a.2006), the only hydronyms we find are names of sea straits, like Sunda Straits, Strait Drioens (Selat Durian), Strait Singapura, Strait Bangka, Strait Madura, Strait , Strait and Strait Alas.

Figure 3, from an English atlas published in 1720, shows a similar situation, with only Straits of , Singapura, Sunda, Bali, Lombok, Alas, Sapi and Makassar named apart from the Indian and Pacific and the Bay of Siam. But gradually seas are being named as well. The first one to be named was the Sea – but this sea name referred to a different concept from what we are used to now.

Figure 3, Detail from Herman Moll’s New and Compleat Atlas (1720)

Figure 4 Detail of Adriaan Reland’s map (1718) titled Insula Iavae pars orientalis. From surrounding seas to demarcated seas

Initially, the East Indian Sea is the name of the sea the East Indies are located in, just as the name refers to the waters that surround Java island, just as, in the 1860s, the Sea is still the sea Timor is located in (see figure 6 and 7). In figure 6 it says in a name inserted on both the north and south side of Java island: De Oost-Indische Zee of de Zee van Java, that is the East-Indian Sea or the Sea of Java. So here the Java Sea is the sea Java is situated in. The name Oost-Indische Zee refered to the waters that bathed the East Indies, and it stretched from India to the Philippines and on some maps evenn to Japan. The same is visible in maps produced by other seafaring nations: in the atlas produced by Nicolas Sanson in 1669 the Ocean Oriental ou Indien can be found all around continental , and the Ocean ou Mer Indiene or Mare dell’Indie washes South East Asia’s islands.

This also has a bearing on later developments, after demarcation of specific sea areas: If the originally was all around the island, it can be understood when there later emerges confusion, whether the area to the north or to the south of Celebes should be the Celebes Sea.

Figure 5 – Detail from the map on the Asiatic Archipelago, from John Arrowsmith’s London Atlas of Universal , London 1832, showing the Passages in eastern Indonesian waters. Bougainville Strait is located north of Waygion (presently Waigeo) island.

Passages

Gradually this changes and the surrounding seas are being demarcated and carved up into individually named parts: Java Sea, from the 19th century onwards is located only north of Java, while the south coast of Java is henceforth only watered by the Indian Ocean. But first, before this demarcation, there is an interim period in which western mariners discern a number of compound passages through the archipelago, for the clippers that engaged in the tea trade: as Strait Makassar is very difficult to navigate for sailing vessels during part of the year, in 1758 a British sea captain named Wilson found a quicker passage when navigating from China to CapeTown. It was located north of Ceram island, and he called this Pitt’s passage (present Laut Seran). In continuation of this strait sailing ships would navigate northwards either through the Moluccas Passage (present Laut Maluku), through the Gilolo Passage (present Laut Halmahera), Bougainville Strait or Dampier Strait.

My attestations for the first use of the names of these passages are: -Pitt’s passage 1758 (named by Captain Wilson, after his ship Pitt, 1758), -Moluccas passage 1804 (named by Arrowsmith) -Gilolo Passage 1805 (Horsburgh) (named after Gilolo or Halmahera island) -Ombay Passage 18o5 (Horsburgh)(northeast of Timor, named after Ombay or ).

Increased interest in marine matters

In the 19th century interest emerged in the seas themselves, also due to oceanographic research. There was an increase in the publication of reference and educational works too that called for names to designate the topogra-phical objects shown. For educational and scientific purposes collective names, like Greater and Lesser Sunda isles were coined, and the sea bodies themselves also were named gradually. Prior to this, seas, like mountains, were only experienced as barriers, but now they attracted interest in their own right, and they were therefore named. There is a similarity to mountains, which also got named only in the 18th century when interest in them for their own sake emerged. It is not clear by whom the seas were named. In my opinion this probably was done by atlas editors that sought to put the seas to order! The latter five seas mentioned in box 1, sort of left over after the more important stretches of sea had been named, at least are first attested from atlases. The first two sea names are taken from charts, the third from a treatise on sea shells, the next 5 from pilot books.

My earliest attestations for the use of sea names in the Indonesian archipelago are:

-Zee van Java (Java Sea): 1718 (Reland) (= sea around Java); 1805 (Horsburgh) (= Sea north of Java) -Zee van Madura (Madura Sea): 1718 (Reland) -Zee van Banda (): 1768 (Pallas). This is the sea around the Banda Isles. -: 1800 (J.H.Moore) -Mer d’Arafura (): 1805 (Annuaire pour l’an 1805). This is the only sea not called after an island but after a population group, that is seafaring south Moluccans. -Mer de Timor (): 1809 (Faujas de St.Fond) -Mer des Moluques (Moluccos Sea): 1813 (Malte-Brun) -Sea of Celebes: 1818 (A.M’Konochie) -Flores Zee (): 1844 (Sohr-Berghaus atlas; Boekzaal der geleerde wereld (journal)) -Ceramsche Zee (Ceram Sea): 1855 (Melvill van Carnbee) -Zee van Halmahera (): 1855 (Melvill van Carnbee) -Bali Zee (): 1868 (Globus journal) -Sawu Zee (Sawu Sea): 1888 (TAG) (although not effectuated yet in figure 7). Box 1: First attestations of sea names

These dates will certainly not be the final ones, as more research is being done, but I assume that they are indicative of the naming process. The first three names in box 1 can still be constructed as the ‘sea around the object’, the Sulu Sea name has been used for seas both north and south of the Sulu archipelago, as was the case initially for the Timor and Celebes Sea. Only later the parts of the interinsular seas these names refer to would be standardised.

Confusion in sea names

As indicated, these attestations are a bit fuzzy because of the issue of changing sea names, just as there were also changes in the naming of sea straits. The name Karimata Sea was used by the Dutch for the southern part of what is now , northwards from Street Karimata (Van der Aa 1849, Van Gelder 1881, see figure 6). Apparently for some time the idea was held that the South China Sea ended southwards at the barrier of the Natuna and Anambas islands.

The name Sunda Sea was used in geological texts for the combination of Java and South China Sea (covering the Sunda shelf); it has also been used as an alternative for the combination of Java Sea and Flores Sea or for the Java Sea only (see Van der Aa, Nederlandsch Indië 1849), and also only for the area we now call Flores Sea; the latter two also overlapped (see figure 6 and 7).

Figure 6: Karimata sea (Zee van Karimata) instead of southern South China sea (Van Gelder 1881)

The name Mindorosche Zee for the sea between the Sulu islands and Palawan, introduced by Busscher in 1830 and Von Derfelden in 1839, had already been named Sulu Sea by Moore in 1800 and this was continued by Crawfurd and Walker in 1820.

The name Celebes Sea (1818) for the sea area in between northern Celebes and the Sulu Islands had some competition from the name Sulu Sea. Up to 1860 it was refered to as Sulu Sea in the Kiepert Handatlas. In figure 6 the issue is solved by putting the name Sulu Sea close to the Sulu Islands, an the name Celebes Sea close to irs northern peninsula.

Busscher’s Celebesche Zee (1830) for the waters south of Celebes has been called Flores Sea since 1844.

The most logical reaction, if I want to navigate from A to B, would be to cross the strait leading to B, that is B.Strait. So the Strait to be crossed from Java to Bali would be , as Java is the principal island. But this has not always been experienced in this way, as it attested by a chart from Van Keulen (1720) which shows Bali strait as the name of the Strait from Lombok to Bali.

The final definition of the seas in the Indonesian Archipelago was made by the International Hydrographic Organization in its publication

Figure 7 Detail from Dornseiffen’s Atlas van Nederlandsch Oost- en West-Indië (1901)

Boundaries of Oceans and Seas in which preparation the Netherlands participated (see also figure 9). This image conformed to the one held in Indonesia from the 1880’s onwards, as can be seen also in figure 8, a map supplement to the Royal Netherlands Geographical Society’s journal by H.Witkamp and the Javanese cartographer Abdullah Mohamed Hamerodin. Together they produced a school atlas, aimed at Indonesian pupils. The only difference with the present situation is the location of the name Laut Timor, that is Timor Sea, which takes the place of present Sawu Sea.

Figure 8: Map by Witkamp and Hamerodin for a proposed Indonesian school atlas (1889) with sea names in Indonesian.

Summary

So we first saw a lack of interest in hydrographic names, then, in the 17th century, some navigational hotspots were named, like straits and reefs. Some sea areas are separated from the surrounding Indian or Pacific oceans by naming them separately, like the Java Sea or Banda Sea, but what seems to be meant by these names is just the sea in which either Java or the Banda islands are located. Before a further demarcation is ensured, the phenomenon of the passages occurs: the Indonesian waters are a barrier to be crossed as quickly as possible by the tea clippers en route from China to the Cape of Good Hope and beyond and try to find the quickest thoroughfares, taking account of the monsoon winds. These passages are formed each by consecutive combinations of sea straits. Finally, in the first half of the 19th century, consensus is reached about demarcating the various stretches of sea and naming them, without any help of the IHO! We can follow that process in school– and reference atlases, and the result is what we see today, without any conflicting claims.

Figure 9. Official definition of the areas of the seas in the Indoneesian archipelago (IHO, 1953)

Literature

-Aa, A.J. van der (1849) Nederlandsch Indië of Beschrijving der Nederlandsche bezittingen in Oost-Indië. Amsterdam. -Annuaire pour l’an 1805. France, Bureau des longitudes. Paris -Arrowsmith, A. (1804) [Map of the] East India islands -Boekzaal der geleerde wereld. Vol. 1844. -Busscher, J.T. (1830) Manuscript charts of Indonesian waters. National Archive, Den Haag. -Crawfurd, John (1820) History of the Indian Archipelago. London -Derfelden van Hinderstein, G.F. von (1842) Algemeene Kaart van Nederlandsch Oost- Indië . Den Haag -Dornseiffen, I. (1901) Atlas van Nederlandsch Oost- en West-Indië (5th edition) Amsterdam: Seyffardt’s Boekhandel -Faujas-de-St.-Fond , B. (1809) Essai de géologie pour servir à l'histoire naturelle du globe. Paris -Globus (1868) (journal) -Horsburgh, J. (1805) Memoirs: comprising the navigation to and from China. London -Horsburgh, J. (1836) India directory or directions for sailing to and from the East Indies, etc. London: W.H.Allen & Co. -IHO (1953) Limits of Oceans and Seas. (Special publication no 23). 3rd edition, Monaco. -M'Konochie, A. (1818) A Summary View of the Statistics and Existing Commerce of the Principal shores of the . London -Lijst van de voornaamste aardrijkskundige namen in den Nederlandsch-Indischen archipel (2nd edition)(1923) published by the Topographic Survey in Batavia. -Malte-Brun, Conrad (1813) Précis de la géographie universelle. Paris -Melvill van Carnbee, P. en W.F. Versteeg (1853-62.) Algemeene atlas van Nederlandsch Indië. Batavia: Kolff -Moore, John Hamilton (1800) The new practical navigator. London -Pallas, Peter Simon (1798) Natuurlyke historie der plant dieren - Reland, Adriaan (1718) [map of] Insulae Iavae pars occidentalis/orientalis (published by Van Keulen 1720) -Schilder, Günter, Jacques Moerman, F.J.Ormeling, P.P.W.J. van den Brink, J.Ferwerda (2006) Atlas Isaak de Graaf/Atlas Amsterdam. Zierikzee. -Schilder, Günter and Hans Kok (2010) Sailing for the East. History and catalogue of manuscript charts on vellum of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) 1602-1799. Volume X in the series Historisch-Cartografische Studies, Onderzoeksprogramma URU- Explokart, Universiteit Utrecht . 't Goy-Houten: HES & de Graaf, 2010. -Sohr-Berghaus atlas: K.Sohr (1844) Vollständiger Hand-Atlas der neueren Erdbeschreibung über alle Theile der Erde. Glogau: Carl Flemming. -Thornton, John (1703) The English Pilot. London -Tijdschrift van het Aardrijkskundig genootschap = TAG (1888) (journal) -Gelder, W. van (1881) Atlas van Nederlandsch Oost-Indië. Batavia: Kolff -Zeemansgids Oost-Indische Archipel. 5 vols. (1899-1906). Ministerie van Marine, Den Haag