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

MANASAROVAR CONFUSED WITH THE KOKO-NOR.

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rade's journeys, where Grueber had been interviewed, and where certainly a good deal of information from different missionaries was brought together, of which not an echo has been preserved to our time.

Cantelli's map shows us Lago Chimai and Kokonor o Mar grande side by side, as two great lakes. WITSEN, on his map of 1687, (Pl. XXXIV), makes only one lake of both, and calls his new creation Coconor, vel Chimoi Lacus, sive Zim.

The lake has now, in its adventurous existence, come so far as to serve as a vicar for Koko-nor! There is no Tsing-hai on Witsen's map. Hwangho does not come from Koko-nor, as on Cantelli's map. The source of the Hwangho is shown as a comparatively small lake. As Witsen probably found it indecent to let the rivers of Caor, Ava, Martaban and Siam take their origin in Koko-nor, he has preferred to deprive the lake of all sorts of effluents, and does not care a bit for the origin of the Indo-Chinese rivers.

Father CORONELLI's map of 1695, (Pl. XXXVI), shows us a new retrograde step. The Padre Maestro denies the existence of Koko-nor altogether, and restores Lago di Chiamay 6 Cunabetee to its previous dignity as a Madre dell' ague.

F. de WITT's map, (Pl. XXXV), bears no date, but is based on Witsen and other draughtsmen. Therefore our lake is called »Coconor at Chiamay Lacus».

Again, Lassa or Barantola is to the east of the lake. But on the shores of the lake we find old and new names together, as Tolema, Aczu, Socheu, and others, while Radoc, our Rudok, has been removed an enormous distance to the N.N-W. The Burmese Mesopotamia is a mixtum compositum, surpassing everything we have seen hitherto. All the rivers and their branches have names: Caor, Cosmin, Chaberis, Pegu, Ava, and Menan. Necbal, our Nepal, is caught as a fly in this cobweb of rivers, and has Ava as its next neighbour. As all the previous draughtsmen the author of this map is sure of the existence of the lake. The rivers are well known to exist. The space between the Ganges and China is narrow, and everything has to be entertained within this narrow strip of land.

The situation is therefore the following: the Coconor, from which Grueber went viâ Lassa to Necbal, gives birth to the Indo-Chinese rivers. The lake, also called Chiamay, is, as shall be shown hereafter, probably the Manasarovar. The Koko-nor, far away to the north, has therefore been confused with the Manasarovar, still further west. Or, these two lakes, which are separated from each other by 1,13o miles, have been represented by a third lake which does not exist!

Compared with de Witt, Martini was indeed a clever man. For he had a Cinghai or Koko-nor, and a Kia Lacus or Chiamay, quite independent of each other, and several years before Grueber's discoveries were made known to the world.

Witsen seems to be the father of Siba lacus. Perhaps he had heard some rumour that the Ganges came from a lake. Father Martini had positively asserted that the river came from Kia or Chiamay lacus. For Witsen the Siba lacus was therefore at least a surrogate. ISBRANTS IDES, on his map of 1704, (Pl. XXXVIII), goes

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