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

If, therefore, both in the coast-lines of the Indian peninsula and in the oro-
graphical arrangement of the interior, the influence of Ptolemy has completely dis-
appeared on Gastaldi's map, we find still a last trace of his hydrography in the
topographical situation of the Indus and the Ganges, as well as their principal tribu-
taries. All the feeders come from the southern side of the Himalaya. Chesimur,
Kashmir, is situated on the upper course of the main Indus which comes from Naug-
racot, in the neighbourhood of which is also the source of the Ganges. It is diffi-
cult to identify the Satlej, unless it is the great tributary on the bank of which is a
town called Capelang. That Moltan is placed on the lower course of the same river
and Lahor on one of its tributaries signifies nothing, for such mistakes are very
common in much later years.

In the regions north of the Himalaya the greatest confusion prevails. There
is no sign of a Tibetan highland, nor of a country Tibet, though Fra Mauro had
entered it on his map a hundred years earlier. Tangvt Pro. is placed north of
Regno de Camvl, and Diserto de Lop north of Diserto de Camvl, on which a legend
speaks of the horrors of the desert. The »Stagno« between the two deserts may be
Lop-nor. But everything is upside down, and to find some more traces of Marco
Polo we have to leave the basin of Lop and enter the basin of Sir-darya. This river
is called Tahosca, or, on the Prima Pars Asiæ, Tachosca. It takes its rise in a
meridional range of mountains, at the foot of which is Marco Polo's »large town«
Lop. Proceeding westwards we find Ciarcian, Poin, Caschar, Cotan, Caschar, all well
known from Marco Polo. Kashgar has thus been marked twice. Acsu is also there,
on the same tributary as a second Lahor. All these towns are situated on the Sir-
darya and its tributaries. But we have no right to blame Gastaldi. He has certainly
done the best he could with the material existing at his time. Regarding Lop, for
instance, his map agrees with Marco Polo's text: »Lop is a large town at the edge
of the Desert, which is called the Desert Lop . . . On quitting this city they enter
the Desert.» ¹ And we must not forget that Marco Polo has hardly anything to say
of the mountains and rivers of these regions.

In opposition to Fra Mauro, Gastaldi has no lakes in or near the Himalaya.
Only Abia f., Ab-i-amu fluvius, comes from a lake further west. On one of the
Chinese rivers flowing eastwards we find the towns Turfan and Camul.

Taken as a whole Gastaldis map does not teach us anything new of the
countries north of the Himalaya, and it could not, for no new material had been
collected since Marco Polo. And still the general appearance and arrangement of