国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

238

LAGO DE CHIAMAY.

knows that Samarkand is not far from the Caspian Sea.' This compression of the continent has, of course, nothing to do with the Lago de Chiamay.

As a rule the travellers avoid as much as possible mentioning the lake, of which nobody except Barros had ever heard. And if they mention it in connection with the Indo-Chinese rivers it is always with the same words as in the first narrative. The original work of MANDELSLO, 1658, keeps silence, while the French edition, 1727, has taken the lake to grace. WALTER SCHOUTEN, who travelled 1658 to 1665, has found that Arakan, Pegu and Bengal were crossed by a great number of rivers. 'Ganges and the great river of Aracan are, by way of branches, joint at several points.» He does not say which the latter river is nor from where it comes, but as no other river but the Brahmaputra joins the Ganges, this river must be meant. Further he says : »The Dutch ships, & those of Merchants from other nations. enter usually on the great river that is called Menam, & which goes out of a great lake or an interior Sea called Chiammai, which is at more than two hundred leagues northward, — & that flows southwards, traversing the Kingdom of Siam for reaching the sea of this same name.» Menam is the only river for which he takes the responsibility of its starting from Chiamay. He has probably seen the Brahmaputra but has nothing to say of its source : »Afterwards we saw the great river of Calcula, which comes also from the East from the Kingdom of Aracan. Here the river Ganges begins to get more narrow.» He is far from clear, but a river joining the Ganges, and coming from the east can only be the Brahmaputra, the Caor river of Gastaldi.

NICOLOSI, I 66o, follows Sanson rather closely, though he has managed to complicate the rivers of the Burmese Mesopotamia a little more. In the text of the gigantic Geograj5hie Blaviane Vol. XI, 1663, an honourable attention is paid to our lake, but there is nothing new, it is word for word the same story which was told by Barros.2

I Of Samarcanda he says (Ibidem p. 23): »Est, cur credam hasce terras non multum à mari Caspio remotas esse, ab iisque Alexandriam Bactrianam ab Alexandro Magno in Bactris olim conditam haud longe abesse.»

2 »Mais le lac de Chiamay, qui est du costé du Nord vers la Tartarie, est comme le pere de six grandes rivieres, dont trois s'unissent avec d'autres, & font le grand fleuve qui passe par le milieu du Royaume de Sian; & aussi les trois autres rivieres se vont rendre dans le Golfe de Bengala. L'une traverse le Royaume de Caor, dont elle porte le nom, & celuy de Comotay; puis celuy de Cirote, où se font tous les Eunuques qu'on emmene du Levant, & se va décharger au dessus de Chatigan, en ce renommé bras du Gange, contre le milieu de l'Isle de Sornagan ; l'autre qui prend le nom de Pegu, pource qu'il partage ce Royaume en deux, passe par le Royaume d'Ava, puis par le Pegu, & finalement fait un grand Golfe pres de Tavay; & le troisieme se rend dans la Mer à Martaban entre Tavay & Pegu; quelques Geographes nomment cette riviere Martaban.

Au reste, passant du Cap de Nigraes à Tavay, il y a un grand Golfe plein de plusieurs Isles & bancs de sable, que fait à la façon du Gange, un autre grand fleuve qui partage tout le Pegu, venant du lac de Chiamay ou Chiantay, qui est du costé du Nord, au dedans de la terre ferme, éloigné de deux cens lieues. Avant qu'arriver à la Mer elle court l'espace de cent cinquante lieues.

Quant à la rivière de Sian, que ceux du pays appellent Menam, c'est à dire mere des eaux, à cause de la grande abondance qu'elle en a, elle vient du grand lac de Chiamay du costé du Nord, où trois rivieres qui partent du mesme lac s'assemblent pour faire ce grand fleuve ...», Op. cit. p. 198.