For some centuries after this time Siam was generally known to traders by
the Persian name of Shahr-i-nao, or New City. This seems to be the name
generally applied to it in the Shijarat Malayu (or Malay Chronicle), and
it is used also by Abdurrazzak. It appears among the early navigators of
the 16th century, as Da Gama, Varthema, Giovanni d'Empoli and Mendez
Pinto, in the shape of Sornau, Xarnau. Whether this name was applied to
the new city of Ayuthia, or was a translation of that of the older
Lophaburi (which appears to be the Sansk. or Pali Nava pura =
New-City) I do not know.
[Reinaud (Int. Abulfeda, p. CDXVI.) writes that, according to the
Christian monk of Nadjran, who crossed the Malayan Seas, about the year
980, at this time, the King of Lukyn had just invaded the kingdom of Sanf
and taken possession of it. According to Ibn Khordadhbeh (De Goeje, p.
49) Lukyn is the first port of China, 100 parasangs distant from Sanf by
land or sea; Chinese stone, Chinese silk, porcelain of excellent quality,
and rice are to be found at Lukyn. - H.C.]
(Bastian, I. 357, III. 433, and in J.A.S.B. XXXIV. Pt. I. p. 27
seqq.; Ramus. I. 318; Amyot, XIV. 266, 269; Pallegoix, I. 196;
Bowring, I. 41, 72; Phayre in J.A.S.B. XXXVII. Pt. I. p. 102;
Ain Akb. 80; Mouhot, I. 70; Roe and Fryer, reprint, 1873, p. 271.)
Some geographers of the 16th century, following the old editions which
carried the travellers south-east or south-west of Java to the land of
Boeach (for Locac), introduced in their maps a continent in that
situation. (See e.g. the map of the world by P. Plancius in Linschoten.)
And this has sometimes been adduced to prove an early knowledge of
Australia. Mr. Major has treated this question ably in his interesting
essay on the early notices of Australia.
[1] [From the Hsing-ch'a Sheng-lan, by Fei Hsin.]
[2] The extract of which this is the substance I owe to the kindness of
Professor J. Summers, formerly of King's College.
[3] I am happy to express my obligation to the remarks of my lamented
friend Lieutenant Garnier, for light on this subject, which has led to
an entire reform in the present note. (See his excellent Historical
Essay, forming ch. v. of the great "Voyage d'Exploration en
Indo-Chine," pp. 136-137).
[4] The Kakula of Ibn Batuta was probably on the coast of Locac.
The Kamarah Komar of the same traveller and other Arab writers,
I have elsewhere suggested to be Khmer, or Kamboja Proper.
