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

A COMPLICATED HYDROGRAPHICAL PROBLEM.   285

reality is meant to be the source of the Indus, though not nearly so carefully and correctly represented as the sources of the Satlej and the Tsangpo. But in spite of this, Anquetil du Perron finds the identity of the names, the sources, and the courses of the rivers surprising, and owing to the very meagre knowledge of these regions in his time it is easy to understand his mistake.

He remarks that in the opinion of the natives the Brahmaputra begins from the Manasarovar. On the map of the Lamas (d'Anville) he finds that a great river starts from the mountains situated near lake Mapama, turns to the east, S.E. and south and discharges at Ava. It is called Tsanpou. On the Indian map, again, the Manasarovar is the source of a great river running to the east, north of Nepal. 1Le Tsanpou de la Carte Chinoise, & le Brahmapoutren de la Carte Indienne .. . sont donc un seul & même fleuve.»

Having proceeded so far, Anquetil du Perron goes on to examine »whether it is really the Ganges that issues from Lake Lanken as the Chinese map remarks» and one hopes that he will prove that the Chinese (d'Anville's) Ganges is in reality the Satlej ; but, hélas, he proves that it is the Gagra, a mistake for which, of course, only Tieffenthaler is responsible.

In a detailed way he shows how and why the Lama explorers are incorrect. And he thinks it is quite sufficient to relate the way in which the map was made in order to be justified in the conclusion : »that the discovery of the source of the Ganges by the Chinese Lamas is nothing less than certain». The imperial explorers. had just arrived at the source, — or what they wished should be the source of the Ganges, when their fright of Tseringdondob cut short their work and hindered them from taking the necessary observations on the place. They asked the natives with the result that the same errors that made the map of 1711 insufficient returned once more. r Anquetil du Perron's opinion is, that a map such as d'Anville's which was based on no other authority than that of the Lamas cannot be compared with an original map made on the place by the people of the country. Here comes in the great mistake of Anquetil du Perron: that he has greater. confidence in the maps sent to him by Tieffenthaler, than in the Lamas' map, sent to d'Anville by the Jesuits. And still he finds a good deal of accordance between the Chinese and Indian maps. The most important exception is that while the Chinese map makes the Ganges issue from the Lanken, the Indian map makes the Gagra issue from that lake. Instead of one mistake another is introduced. Anquetil du Perron believes that the exploring Lamas obtained their information from the village and monastery at the southern shore of Mansaroar (i. e. Tugugompa), And Tieffenthaler knew that pilgrims came from Hindustan to Man-

I Bientôt les Cartes des Lainas disparoissent. La Carte du Tibet n'est plus qu'un travail fait sur des comparaisons de routes, d'après l'évaluation des mesures itinéraires des Chinois, sur le rapport

des voyageurs. Ce travail, je le veux,présententsera plus critique: mais ceux qui le font n'ont pas été à la

source du   p Gange, & cependant nous la    comme connue. Op.cit. p• 362.