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

narrative we read: ¹ ›The first town they passed in returning was Gourtche, the last
town dependent upon Kachemire, and four days' journey from the city of Kache-
mire: from Gourtche, they were eight days in reaching Eskerdou, the capital of
Little Tibet; and in two days more they came to a small town called Cheker, also
within the territory of Little Tibet . . . In fifteen days they came to a large forest,
on the confines of Little Tibet, and in fifteen days more they arrived at Kacheguer, a
small town which was formerly the royal residence, though now the King of Kacheguer
resides at Iourkend, a little more to the north, and ten days' journey from Kacheguer.‹

There is no room for a doubt; all the names mentioned by Bernier are entered
on Visscher's map. Visscher's Kachaure is simply a carelessness for Kachemire, and
in Gourtche the c has been read as e. If Visscher had recognised Bernier's Kache-
guer and Iourkend as Marco Polo's Cascar and Yarkan, he would not have placed
these cities on the Ganges, though, after all, he is less to be blamed than Sanson
d'Abbeville who, on another of his maps (Pl. XXX), has them on the Sir-darya.
And Visscher was justified in following Bernier's text: ›They say that Kachguer lies
to the east of Kachemire inclining somewhat to the northward.‹ The route in ques-
tion is not the ordinary Kara-korum road, which starts from Leh and not from
Skardo or Iskardo, and which first reaches Yarkand and then Kashgar; it is a more
westerly road Bernier has heard of, which does not touch Yarkand at all.

As Bernier's narrative was published for the first time in 1670,² Visscher's map
cannot possibly have been published before that year.³

Now, as Kircher's map is from 1667, and Visscher's from at least three years
later, Visscher has not needed to read China Illustrata, for he has found all
the material of Grueber ready on Kircher's map. All the names he uses appear
on the latter: Lassa, Cuthi, Cadmendu, Hedonda, Mutgari, Battana, Benares, Cadam-
por, and Agra. His Belor Mons and Consagni Mons Lapideus are directly copied
from Kircher, even the horizontal perspective and the shadows, as well as the Mon-
tes Tibetici. He has followed Kircher's example in adopting Martini's source of the
Hwangho, origo flu. Crocei, but retained, between it and Lassa, the mysterious lake
of Chiamay. The Mongol name for Lassa, Burantola, which probably appears for
the first time on Kircher's map, he has regarded as superfluous. Kircher is also the
first to mention and to represent the name of Nepal on a map.

Pl. XXXIII shows us a reproduction from Cantelli's map of 1683, published
by V. Kordt.⁴ The sources of the Indus and Ganges are as usual, the Satlej is rudi-