In the greater part of these Islands
plenty of corn grows. This gulf is so great, and inhabited by so many
people, that it seems like a world in itself."
This passage is translated by Marsden with much forcing, so as to describe
the China Sea, embracing the Philippine Islands, etc.; but, as a matter
of fact, it seems clearly to indicate the writer's conception as of a
great gulf running up into the continent between Southern China and
Tong-king for a length equal to two months' journey.
The name of the gulf, Cheinan, i.e. Heinan, may either be that of the
Island so called, or, as I rather incline to suppose, 'An-nan, i.e.
Tong-king. But even by Camoens, writing at Macao in 1559-1560, the Gulf of
Hainan is styled an unknown sea (though this perhaps is only appropriate to
the prophetic speaker): -
"Ves, corre a costa, que Champa se chama,
Cuja mata he do pao cheiroso ornada:
Ves, Cauchichina esta de escura fama,
E de Ainao ve a incognita enseada" (X. 129).
And in Sir Robert Dudley's Arcano del Mare (Firenze, 1647), we find a
great bottle-necked gulf, of some 5-1/2 deg.
