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.
