National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

provement on the map of Cantelli. His picture of the interior of Asia was less of
a success than the sketch made by Gastaldi. We notice especially that he lets the
Ganges take its origin from a lake which he calls Siba lacus. This is also to be
found in the map of de Witt, who in its neighbourhood has another mysterious lake,
called Bervan. To the same period belong the valuable descriptions left by the
prominent Missionaries Verbiest and Gerbillion. The latter in particular, who effected
a number of journeys through Mongolia between the years 1688 and 1698, describes
better than any earlier geographer the roads to Tibet, though he had never travelled
by them himself.
In the beginning of the 18th century, appeared Delisle as a pioneer and reformer
in cartography, which he treated in an entirely scientific manner. His map of 1705
shows that, with critical acuteness, he has made use of all material existing at that
time. Now, after 1600 years, Ptolemy is played out and disappears for ever. De-
lisle endeavours to interpret in pictures the description Andrade has made of his
journey, but, naturally enough, he has misunderstood him. He has given Tibet its
right position and lets it be separated from India by the mountain-range of M. de
Purbet ou de Naugracut. He does not yet suspect the existence of the Tsangpo-
Brahmaputra, though this river was crossed by Odoric, Grueber and Dorville. The
descriptions more than lean of their journeys, are over sufficient to explain this defect.
Yet it did not tarry any longer than till the year 1723, before Delisle could still
more improve his valuable map. One can read off, straight from the map, that he
has made use of informations, fetched from French Missionaries in Peking. Here
we even find Lassa located on the banks of a great river, the Bramanpoutre, which
is the upper course of the Bengal river Laquia. On this account, there is no longer
any room for the legendary lake Chiamay Lacus, which now disappears for ever
from the map of Asia. Still we must observe that the problem Tsangpo-Brahma-
putra, so difficult of solution even in our times, was already quite correctly elucidated
by Delisle. It was Klaproth who, more than a hundred years later, entirely spoilt
and distorted this hydrographical problem by his awkward belief, that the Irrawaddi
was the lower course of the Tsangpo. The masterly maps of Delisle seem un-
fortunately to have made no deeper impression on his time, and on the next follow-
ing era after him. His greatest merit was that he understood how to explain the
fundamental documents in an exact and critical manner. The same material had
been at the disposal of his predecessors 30 or 40 years earlier, but they had not
known how to make use of it.