There Is Nothing Else Worth Relating; So We Will Go On, And I Will Tell
You Of An Island Called Angamanain.
NOTE 1.
- The end of the last chapter and the commencement of this I have
taken from the G. Text. There has been some confusion in the notes of the
original dictation which that represents, and corrections have made it
worse. Thus Pauthier's text runs: "I will tell you of two small Islands,
one called Gauenispola and the other Necouran," and then: "You sail north
about 150 miles and find two Islands, one called Necouran and the other
Gauenispola." Ramusio does not mention Gauenispola, but says in the former
passage: "I will tell you of a small Island called Nocueran" - and then:
"You find two islands, one called Nocueran and the other Angaman."
Knowing the position of Gauenispola there is no difficulty in seeing how
the passage should be explained. Something has interrupted the dictation
after the last chapter. Polo asks Rusticiano, "Where were we?" "Leaving
the Great Island." Polo forgets the "very small Island called
Gauenispola," and passes to the north, where he has to tell us of two
islands, "one called Necuveran and the other Angamanain." So, I do not
doubt, the passage should run.
Let us observe that his point of departure in sailing north to the Nicobar
Islands was the Kingdom of Lambri. This seems to indicate that Lambri
included Achin Head or came very near it, an indication which we shall
presently see confirmed.
As regards Gauenispola, of which he promised to tell us and forgot his
promise, its name has disappeared from our modern maps, but it is easily
traced in the maps of the 16th and 17th centuries, and in the books of
navigators of that time. The latest in which I have observed it is the
Neptune Oriental, Paris 1775, which calls it Pulo Gommes. The name is
there applied to a small island off Achin Head, outside of which lie the
somewhat larger Islands of Pulo Nankai (or Nasi) and Pulo Bras, whilst
Pulo Wai lies further east.[1] I imagine, however, that the name was by
the older navigators applied to the larger Island of Pulo Bras, or to the
whole group. Thus Alexander Hamilton, who calls it Gomus and Pulo
Gomuis, says that "from the Island of Gomus and Pulo Wey ... the
southernmost of the Nicobars may be seen." Dampier most precisely applies
the name of Pulo Gomez to the larger island which modern charts call Pulo
Bras. So also Beaulieu couples the islands of "Gomispoda and Pulo Way"
in front of the roadstead of Achin. De Barros mentions that Gaspar
d'Acosta was lost on the Island of Gomispola. Linschoten, describing the
course from Cochin to Malacca, says: "You take your course towards the
small Isles of GOMESPOLA, which are in 6 deg., near the corner of Achin in
the Island of Sumatra." And the Turkish author of the Mohit, in speaking
of the same navigation, says: "If you wish to reach Malacca, guard against
seeing JAMISFULAH ([Arabic]), because the mountains of LAMRI advance into
the sea, and the flood is there very strong." The editor has misunderstood
the geography of this passage, which evidently means "Don't go near enough
to Achin Head to see even the islands in front of it." And here we see
again that Lambri is made to extend to Achin Head. The passage is
illustrated by the report of the first English Voyage to the Indies. Their
course was for the Nicobars, but "by the Master's fault in not duly
observing the South Star, they fell to the southward of them, within
sight of the Islands of Gomes Polo." (Nept. Orient. Charts 38 and 39,
and pp. 126-127; Hamilton, II. 66 and Map; Dampier, ed. 1699, II. 122;
H. Gen. des Voyages, XII. 310; Linschoten, Routier, p. 30; De
Barros, Dec. III. liv. iii. cap. 3; J.A.S.B. VI. 807; Astley, I.
238.)
The two islands (or rather groups of islands) Necuveran and Angamanain
are the Nicobar and Andaman groups. A nearer trace of the form Necuveran,
or Necouran as it stands in some MSS., is perhaps preserved in
Nancouri, the existing name of one of the islands. They are perhaps the
Nalo-kilo-cheu (Narikela-dvipa) or Coco-nut Islands of which Hiuen
Tsang speaks as existing some thousand li to the south of Ceylon. The
men, he had heard, were but 3 feet high, and had the beaks of birds. They
had no cultivation and lived on coco-nuts. The islands are also believed
to be the Lanja balus or Lankha balus of the old Arab navigators:
"These Islands support a numerous population. Both men and women go naked,
only the women wear a girdle of the leaves of trees. When a ship passes
near, the men come out in boats of various sizes and barter ambergris and
coco-nuts for iron," a description which has applied accurately for many
centuries. [Ibn Khordadhbeh says (De Goeje's transl., p. 45) that the
inhabitants of Nicobar (Alankabalous), an island situated at ten or
fifteen days from Serendib, are naked; they live on bananas, fresh fish,
and coco-nuts; the precious metal is iron in their country; they frequent
foreign merchants. - H.C.] Rashiduddin writes of them nearly in the same
terms under the name of Lakvaram, but read NAKAVARAM opposite LAMURI.
Odoric also has a chapter on the island of Nicoveran, but it is one full
of fable. (H. Tsang, III. 114 and 517; Relations, p. 8; Elliot, I.
p. 71; Cathay, p. 97.)
[Mr. G. Phillips writes (J.R.A.S., July 1895, P. 529) that the name
Tsui-lan given to the Nicobars by the Chinese is, he has but little doubt,
"a corruption of Nocueran, the name given by Marco Polo to the group. The
characters Tsui-lan are pronounced Ch'ui-lan in Amoy, out of which it is
easy to make Cueran. The Chinese omitted the initial syllable and called
them the Cueran Islands, while Marco Polo called them the Nocueran
Islands." - H.C.]
[The Nicobar Islands "are generally known by the Chinese under the name of
Rakchas or Demons who devour men, from the belief that their inhabitants
were anthropophagi.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 156 of 360
Words from 158221 to 159265
of 370046
