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

220

TTIE CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES ON THE UPPER TSANGPO.

with the name Tamchok as d'Anville has it, although I never heard of any such

mountain.

Therefore the obvious mistake on d'Anville's map consists in the fact that he

has placed the name Yarou Dsancpou at the river which is in reality Chema-yundung, whereas its first tributary from the right or south, and which has no name on the map, comes from MM. Tamtchouc. This nameless river is in reality the Kubi-tsangpo or source of the Brahmaputra, coming from Tamchok-kabab. If d'Anville had only placed the name Yarou Dsancpou along this last-mentioned branch, his map would have been correct in this point.

After the publication of du Halde's work the knowledge of Europe regarding the upper Tsangpo cannot be said to have been improved by those who took interest in the problem. We have seen (Vol. I, Pl. LII) that Father TIEFFENTHALER made both the Satlej and the Brahmaputra issue direct from the Manasarovar. ANQUETIL DU PERRON is more careful as to its origin:

»Le pays d'Ascham est traversé par divers fleuves dont le principal est le Brehmapoutar, qui selon l'écrivain des faits arrivés sous Aurengzebe, a sa source dans la Chine septentrionale: mais il est plus probable qu'elle est dans le royaume de Tibet, vu qu'il y a un passage de ce fleuve à 4 journées de distance de Lassa, Capitale du Tibet, vers Neipål. Son cours est rapide, quoique son lit ait un demimille en largeur. De là il entre dans le pays d'Ascham, & force ses eaux par un espace resserré entre deux hautes montagnes. Son rivage est bordé par des forêts épaisses, le limon & la fange en rendent le trajet difficile. Son cours se dirige ensuite vers le Bengale; il passe à 2 milles de Rangamaty. Enfin il se mêle avec le Gange.»I

If he had had sufficient confidence in d'Anville's map, published fifty years earlier, he would not have founded his supposition on the passage of the river between Nepal and Lhasa only, for even above this passage d'Anville has twice entered on his map the name of the ri ver and its course from the very source. It is amusing to see how simply he solves the intricate problem of the lower course of the river, which, later on, was to become the object of such interminable controversies.

Anquetil du Perron has a special chapter 2 with regard to STEWART's 3 letter which confirms what he has said about the Tsangpo and Brahmaputra. He relates the events in 1774, which resulted in WARREN HASTINGS sending BOGLE to Tashi Lama. Stewart quotes du Halde's views of the Tsangpo »from its origin in the Cassimirian Mountains (probably from the same spring which gives rise to the Ganges) through the great valley of Thibet» and his supposition that it reaches the Indian Sea somewhere in Pegu or Aracan. In the edition of du Halde, which I have at my disposal, he has treated the problem in a much clearer and more correct way

I Description historique et géographique de l'Inde etc. ... publiée par M. Jean Bernouilli. Berlin 1786. Tome I, p. 468.

2 Op. cit. Tome II, p. 46o.

3 Account of the Kingdom of Thibet in a letter from John Stewart Esqr. F. R. S. to Sir John Pringle, Bart. P. R. S.; from the Philosophical Transactions. Annual Register 1778. The letter is translated in Parraud et Billecoq: »Voyages au Thibet», Paris L'an IV, p. 73 et seq.