The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. XXXII, 1940 - Khamkoo

26 Dn. JoAQUTl\I DE CAMPOK f.VOL. XXXII
trated into the interior of Bmma l1Ud rrlmilnllCl, had HeOlll'P(1 M:dttysia,
had visited Canton and knew the geneml outli11e of tlw coast of
China, Ribeiro's map does not give any details 11Lont the Penimmla.
This map marks the kingdom of Sittm in large letters but WB lmvu
few place-names and no rivers marked between the Ynugt1.ekinug
and the Ganges or the Brahmaputra. Neither is the Gnlf of Sian1 well
shown nor the cmtst of China properly dmwn. However, these e:trly
maps of the PortuO"uese like the oneR of the two Heinels, fathet· twtl Hou,
in the Bibliotheque
"'
Nationale
'
11nd of Lopo Homem and his son Diogo
Homem in the British Museum are magnificently illuminated with
gold and vivid colours, with ships in the sea and animalH aml trccH
painted in colours, and rivers the waters o:f which actually Hecm to be
flowing. Some of these maps of the sixteenth century can l1e :-1een
in London, Mad.rid and Munich. This art o:f map-rnakil1g found its
greatest expression in the maps of Ferntto V IMI Dourado.
By the middle of the sixteenth century the PortugneHo ll111p!'l uml
Linschoten's map, based on Portuguese exploration, Hhow an improvement
in geogruphical detail and mark the impOl'tant couHtal towuH
and ports o:f the time. The principal rivers of the lncloehineHc
Peninsula are shown, but their extent into the interior WHH
not marked from a.ctual observation or explomtion up to tlteil'
sources. Hence the Menam according to the old legend is prolonged
up to the Lake of Ohiamai, north of Ava, while the Mekhong
is very much shortened and appears to rise where reu,lly tbe Monam
rises. On the whole it is the coastal towns and riverine portH,
where the Portuguese traded, that are carefully warkecl. 'l'lte
configmation of the Indochinese Peninsula assumes a corrcet shape,
but the interior, where there were no trading establishments, is
still le:ft blank, but for some important places. 'l'his abseuce of
detail with regn,t·d to the interior also charactet'ises the Dutch and
French maps of the seventeenth centmy, hut much improvement. m11y
he noticed in the eighteenth century maps, though D'Anville and Dt:Llrymple
perpetuated many old mistakes. 'l'he sixteenth century
Portuguese maps must be taken as marking only the beginnings o£
the cartography of rrhailaml and the Indochinese Peninsula, which
became fully understood only in the nineteenth century as a result
o:f the famous explomtions o£ men like Macleod, Hichardson and
McCarthy in Burma and Thailand and those of De Lagree, Garnier,
Pavie and Harmand in Indochina.