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XXXI. Some Unidentified Toponyms in the Travels of Pedro Teixeira and Tavernier

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

While going over Messrs. Sinclair and Ferguson's able translation of the “Travels of Pedro Teixeira,” recently (1902) published by the Hakluyt Society, I have noticed that several names of places on the Indo-Chinese Peninsula have been left unidentified. As they all are important for historical geography, I venture to hope that the following short notes on them may prove acceptable to those who take an interest in the subject.

Type
Original Communications
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1904

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References

page 719 note 1 “Decada 13 da Historia da India” in “Colleccão de Monumentos Ineditos,' etc., p. 117.

page 719 note 2 E.g., Marini, “Delle Missioni,” etc., Rome, 1663, p. 448.

page 719 note 3 See Yule, & Burnell's, Hobson-Jobson,” 2nd ed., London, 1903, p. 503.Google Scholar

page 720 note 1 Not to be confounded with the other kingdom (or seaport) of Pate alluded to in the same book, Introduction, pp. v, xiv, about the location of which nothing is said. This is the same as the Patta of Hamilton and other writers, which was a place on the east coast of Africa, near Mombassa. Another Pate or Paté, frequently mentioned in Portuguese works, was a town and seaport on the coast of Kambāy, at twelve leagues from Diu (see Correa's, Lendas da India,” t. ii, Lisbon, 1860, p. 461)Google Scholar. Neither toponym has, strange to say, been noticed in “Hobson-Jobson,” and, as regards the first, no explanation is offered in Danvers' “Portuguese in India” (see vol. ii, pp. 14, 62, 69 ; and Index, p. 534), thus leaving the reader greatly perplexed.

page 720 note 2 See Ball's, V.Travels in India by Jean Baptiste Tavernier,” London, 1889, vol. ii, p. 162.Google Scholar

page 720 note 3 This took place in 1648, so that the discovery of the tin-mines in question may be put down to about 1640.

page 721 note 1 For these the translator suggests the queer and absolutely impossible equivalents: “Delli (?), Salangor, Billiton, and Banka(?).” Suffice it to point out that—(1) tin is so far unknown in Deli, although worked lower down the east coast of Sumatra, in the Kampar district; (2) the Bangka mines were discovered, as Marsden informs us, as late as 1710, i.e., a good many years after the first edition of Tavernier's travels, wherein the names in question appear (A.D. 1676); (3) that Bordelon is the form occurring in most early writers for P‘hattalung; and (4) that Sangore is evidently Singora, and not Selangor.

page 721 note 2 A place called Bataon is marked on the map appended to Valentijn's work (1726) immediately south of Patāni, and within the homonymous landspit terminating at Cape Patāni; but from its position to the south of Patāni it cannot evidently be Teixeira's Pate.

page 721 note 3 Patanor occurs in Du-Val's, Carte du Royaume de Siam,” Paris, 1686Google Scholar, above Ligor, in 10° N. lat.; also in Van der Aa's, map of “Les Indes Orientales” attached to Mandelslo's work (Amsterdam, 1727), pp. 89Google Scholar, in the same position. On the above-cited map in Valentijn it is marked Palanor, a little distance above Cornena (Carnom Point) and facing Pulo Sangori (Sancori or P‘hangi Island, now known as Koḥ P‘hang-ngan), in 9° 30’ N. lat. There can thus be no doubt that Patanor refers either to Bāà-Dōn or to its river-mouth, known as Pā˜k-thāng-Khūhā. Less likely it may mean Pᾱ˜ak-thāà-rüa, a little further up the coast (9° 35′ N. lat.). As final k is not pronounced by the Siāmese of the Malay Peninsula just like the Malays, and the aspirates are never taken notice of by foreign travellers, Pā˜k-thāng-Khūhā may easily assume with these latter the forms Pa-tang-kua or Patang, whence Patano, Patanor. So may Pā˜k-thāà-rüa become Pa-ta-rua, or simply Pata. As regards the form Bata, I might refer to Patāni, spelled Battani by John Coen, 1623 (Anderson's “Engl. Interc. with Siam,” p. 86); and Patan by Floris, Schouten, and others.

page 721 note 4 Bardia is the seemingly Malay corruption of Mattrā, the name of an islet (Koḥ Mattrā) lying E.S.E. of C‘hum-p‘hōn Bay; but formerly misapplied by foreign navigators also to Samet (Koḥ Samet) islet, just opposite to the mouth of the C‘hump‘hōn River, as well as to the river itself and to the district (of C‘humphōn) through which it flows. See, e.g., the map attached to Prévost'a “Histoire générale des Voyages,” t. ix, Paris, 1751, p. 62, where there are marked an island Bardia, a Bardia city on the coast opposite, and a river Bardia flowing past it. The name I. Bardia appears a little earlier on Bellin's map in t. ii of the same work, Paris, 1746, p. 102. The islet is still spoken of as Bardia (Pulo Bardia) as late as 1842 in Neale's “Narrative of a Residence in Siām,” London, 1852, pp. 119–120.

page 722 note 1 Patyu appears, for the first time I believe, in John Walker's map of Siām and Cochin-China appended to Crawfurd's, Embassy to Siam and Cochin-China,” London, 1830, vol. i.Google Scholar

page 722 note 2 See Anderson's “English Intercourse with Siam,” pp. 124–125. Tin at Legoor (Ligor) is mentioned on p. 428 of the same work in (George White's), ‘Report on the Trade of Siam written in 1678.” There can thus be no doubt as to the location of the tin-mining districts mentioned by Tavernier and identified by myself above.

page 722 note 3 See Ma Tuan-lin, in Hervey de Saint-Denys' translation, t. ii, “Méridionaux,” pp. 506, 508.

page 723 note 1 See, for instance, “Tombo do Estado da India” (A.D. 1632), in “Collecçāo de Monumentos Ineditos,” etc., t. v, Lisbon, 1868, P. 105: “estreitos. … de çinquaapura [Singapore] e sabāo.”

page 723 note 2 Pulo Sckupong is the name still applied in some maps and marine charts to the group formed by Pāpan and Belat islands, but this does not seem to have any connection with Sābung. This last may have been a former name for Kundur Island, adopted from some hamlet on its west coast.