India Orientalis – India, Southeast Asia, The Philippines 2

Hondius and Southeast Asia

The map showing mainland Southeast Asia, was first published in the Mercator-Hondius Atlas of 1606, and also a product of Jodocus Hondius. It followed a traditional misconception and shows a large Asian lake. The ‘existence’ of the illusory more Chiama lacus, just outside China Pars, comes from Marco Polo’s  travel information and then lived a life of its own. The literature took it for centuries, cartography followed. This imaginary lake would also be the source of five rivers, including the Ganges, the Red River and three Burmese rivers, which would lead to the river Chao Phraya and Mekong. Fair to say that in Iunnan three rivers run paralle: the Yangtze, the Mekong and the Salween. If one would take the Irrawaddy in nearby Myanmar (Burma)one counts four majestic rivers flow in a width of a few hundred kilometer together.

One also notices to the west of Burma the crystallized Merguiarchipel and to the southeast of India  the Maldives. Located in the northeast lies I. Formosa, already visited by the Portuguese in 1583; so called thanks to its splendor. In 1624 the VOC built Fort Zeelandia on the island. On the Chinese mainland Hondius names Macao and Cantoa. A few Dutch VOC settlements such as  Crangagor, Coulam en Iaffanapatanare also named.