SPAFA Digest 1985, Vol. 6, No. 2

12 Sailing Instructions for Southeast Asian Seas (15th-17th Century) A Virtually Untapped Historical Source by Pierre-Yves Manguin Nautical literature of a techni- European texts. cal nature — Asian as well as Nautical literature European — has so far been left Arabic sailing instructions have practically untapped by historians of a technical been known for a long time. A of Southeast Asia. Among these 16th century Turkish translation texts, sailing instructions are by nature-Asian as of earlier Arabic texts was trans- far the more common. They can- lated into German at the end of not, indeed, be directly read and well as European- the last century, but Gabriel used by non-specialists, but they has so far been Ferrand was responsible for finding in fact require a minimal knowledge the original Arabic texts, the of navigational practices. Whatever left practically authors of which were the pilots the language in which they are Sulaiman al-Mahri and Ahmad ibn- written, the general pattern re- untapped by Majid. He published the Arabic mains, with few variations and texts and later translated and additions: "From place A to historians of annotated them (Ferrand 1913-14). place B, you steer x° for Y miles Southeast Asia. But his translations of these 15th (or hours)". However, as we shall and early 16th- century authors see, there is much more to it than are now outdated by Tibbetts' just these very dry statements. winds and so forth, is for instance works. The latter carefully col- Only two Asian languages are so often referred to in Arabic texts, lected all the known manuscripts, far known to have been used in but none of it seems to have been translated them into English (Tib- the period considered to record preserved in written form. Simi- betts 1971) and extensively com- sailing instructions in a written lary, it seems that Malays or Ja- mented upon their contents on from, i.e. Arabic and Chinese. We vanese only exceptionally wrote Southeast Asia in a later book know from various sources that down their sea-pilots: the only (Tibbetts (1979). such sailing instructions were used known example is that of the so- One small reservation on the by navigators from all over Asia, called 'Javanese map', a copy use of these Arabic texts is the fact but the major part of it would of which was made by the Portu- that they provide only scant have remained in oral form. Indian guese pilot Francisco Rodrigues in information on the routes East nautical knowledge about latitudes, the early 16th century (and then of the Straits of Malacca, which unfortunately lost when Albuquer- were no longer used by the Arabs que's ship the 'Flor de la Mar' at this late date. foundered off the Sumatran coast in 1511 (Ferrand 1918; Winter Reversely, Chinese sailing in- (1949). The present very brief structions deal principally with Dr. Pierre-Yves Manguin is Chargé introductory survey of this speci- Southeast Asian waters. Apart de Recherchés at the Ecole Francaise d' Extreme Orient in Paris, France. fic literary genre will thus only from a few unreliable technical deal with Arabic, Chinese and data on actual sea-routes that may 13 ding a few new 'roteiros' correcting the proceeding ones after they themselves had a chance to sail on.a ...the bare, factual statements about particular route, etc. The earliest text complied in the Codex Castello routes leading from one named place to Melhor are earlier than 1595 (they another...provide concrete data on were translated in Linschoten's Rey Gheschrift). toponyms. After this brief survey of the available sources, I will now discuss the validity and usefulness of such sailing instructions as historical sources. I must however start by be found in scattered earlier histori- little on Southeast Asia that is not stating that this is not as yet the cal sources and in travelogues, translated from Portuguese. The result of a completed work, but all that has been preserved in first Dutch sea-pilot was com- merely the outline of an on-going, written form again dates back to piled and printed in 1595 by long term research project. I base the 15th century onwards. It Linschoten under the title Heys myself on the experience acquired appears that these sea-pilots were Gheschrift. Linschoten had served while collecting in public archives first put down into writings in the the Portuguese for many years and private collections the totality wake of the Ming expeditions of before turning over all the infor- — as far as this can be achieved — Zheng He; but the earliest extant mation he had gathered to the of the available Portuguese manu- manuscripts or editions only date Dutch, and his book is thus nothing scripts containing 'roteiros', while back to the 17th century — or but a translation of Portuguese using the latter for a study of the later —, and do all contain later 'roteiros' (most of the originals historical geography of the coasts interpolations. There is no need have by now been found; this, in of Campa and Vietnam (Manguin here to provide an account of the turn, allows one to provide a 1972); and while preparing the half-dozen such texts that have terminus ad quern for their writing). edition of the Cotex Castello now been published, as this can be Melhor. found in J.V. Mills' article (1979) Most Portuguese 'roteiros', with in the Selected Readings from very few exceptions as far as In what way would a systematic Southeast Asia is concerned, re- edition and analysis of the available Archipel 18 (SPAFA1985). The mained in manuscript from and 15th to 17th century sailing instruc- latter author provides a somehow are now dispersed in public and tions, and the subsequent prepara- sketchy outline translation of these private collections all over the tion of an historical atlas of South- Chinese texts. One may also refers world. A few of them, mostly east Asian sea-routes, help the to Mills' edition of Ma Huan's Ying 16th century texts, have been historian of Southeast Asia? Yai shenglan (Mills 1970), where published in Portugal by Brito Rebello (1903), Fontoura da Costa further comments on these texts (1940) and by Cortesao (1944; sailing instructions... are given, together with a complete together with the famous Suma translation of these famous 'Mao Oriental by Tome Pires). The most normally help in the Kun map' (which contains sailing interesting of these manuscripts, instructions) and a gazeteer of most as far as Southeast Asia is con- location of otherwise of the place names that are to be cerned, is that known as the Codex Castelll Melhor (after the name of unreported or found in these texts. the family who owns it; the present unidentified place The third category, which is that author is preparing a Portuguese of the European — mostly Portu- edition of this text). This is an names with consider- guese — texts, is so far the least original mid-seventeenth century known. The Portuguese, as soon compilation of about one hundred ably more accuracy as they started sailing in South- different 'roteiros', ranging from east Asian waters in 1511, transcrib- India to Japan, with abut two-thirds than the usual ed in their'roteiros' (or sea- of them dealing with Southeast rutters) the information they at Asia. This kind of manuscript non-technical sources first got from local pilots (sem- volume, as may be gathered from the ingly Malay for the most part) wide variety of papers and water- would allow for. and later on they acquired by them marks, of hand-writings, and from selves during a century and a half of the many water stains, would have Historical geography has obvous- continuous presence in the area. been passed from hand to hand by ly the most to gain from such a Spanish 'roteiro' literature, to the Portuguese pilots plying the study. To start with, the bare, the best of my knowledge, has Asian waters, each one of them ad- factual statements about routes 14 CORTESÃO, A. (ed.) 1944 The Suma Oriental of Tome Pires ... and the Book of Francisco Rodrigues. — (Hakluyt Sailing instructions are precise Society), London, 2vols. FERRAND, G. enough to provide information on the 1913-14 Relations de voyages et positon of a coastline at a certain period textes geographiques arabes, per sans et turks relatifs a /.Extreme- of time, and thus to compare it with that Orient. -Paris, 2 vols. 1918 "A propos d'une carte of modern times. javanaise du 15e siecle", Journal Asiatique, 1918: 158-170. FONTOURA DA COSTA, A. (ed.) 1940 Roteiros portugueses ine- ditos da carreira da India do seculo leading from one named place to Careful extrapolations into XVI'- Lisbon. another do provide concrete data earlier times, again with the help of MANGUIN, P.-Y. on toponyms. As sailing instruc- other historical sources may thus be 1972 Les Portugais sur les tions are usually precise enough made possible as noted by Mrs. S. cotes du Viet-nam et du Campa. — to plot the actual sea-route on a Suleiman in her paper, the mere (Public. EFEO), Paris. nautical chart, this will normally fact that|the South China Sea could 1976 "La traversee de la Mer de help in the location of otherwise not be crossed in a straight line Chine Meridionale, des Detroits a unreported or unidentified place from the Straits of Singapore to Canton, Jusqu'au XVLLe siecle names with considerably more Canton-- a fact established through (la question des Iles Paracels)", accuracy than the usual non- the analysis of sailing instructions in: Actes du XIXe Congres inter- technical sources would allow for.

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