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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

rade's journeys, where Grueber had been interviewed, and where certainly a good
deal of information from different missionaries was brought together, of which not
an echo has been preserved to our time.

Cantelli's map shows us Lago Chimai and Kokonor o Mar grande side by
side, as two great lakes. WITSEN, on his map of 1687, (Pl. XXXIV), makes only
one lake of both, and calls his new creation Coconor, vel Chimoi Lacus, sive Zim.
The lake has now, in its adventurous existence, come so far as to serve as a vicar
for Koko-nor! There is no Tsing-hai on Witsen's map. Hwangho does not come
from Koko-nor, as on Cantelli's map. The source of the Hwangho is shown as a
comparatively small lake. As Witsen probably found it indecent to let the rivers of
Caor, Ava, Martaban and Siam take their origin in Koko-nor, he has preferred to
deprive the lake of all sorts of effluents, and does not care a bit for the origin of
the Indo-Chinese rivers.

Father CORONELLI's map of 1695, (Pl. XXXVI), shows us a new retrograde
step. The Padre Maestro denies the existence of Koko-nor altogether, and restores
Lago di Chiamay ò Cunabetee to its previous dignity as a Madre dell' aque.

F. de WITT's map, (Pl. XXXV), bears no date, but is based on Witsen and
other draughtsmen. Therefore our lake is called »Coconor at Chiamay Lacus».

Again, Lassa or Barantola is to the east of the lake. But on the shores of
the lake we find old and new names together, as Tolema, Aczu, Socheu, and others,
while Radoc, our Rudok, has been removed an enormous distance to the N.N-W.
The Burmese Mesopotamia is a mixtum compositum, surpassing everything we have
seen hitherto. All the rivers and their branches have names: Caor, Cosmin, Cha-
beris, Pegu, Ava, and Menan. Necbal, our Nepal, is caught as a fly in this cobweb
of rivers, and has Ava as its next neighbour. As all the previous draughtsmen the
author of this map is sure of the existence of the lake. The rivers are well known
to exist. The space between the Ganges and China is narrow, and everything has
to be entertained within this narrow strip of land.

The situation is therefore the following: the Coconor, from which Grueber
went viâ Lassa to Necbal, gives birth to the Indo-Chinese rivers. The lake, also
called Chiamay, is, as shall be shown hereafter, probably the Manasarovar. The
Koko-nor, far away to the north, has therefore been confused with the Manasa-
rovar, still further west. Or, these two lakes, which are separated from each other
by 1,130 miles, have been represented by a third lake which does not exist!

Compared with de Witt, Martini was indeed a clever man. For he had a
Cinghai or Koko-nor, and a Kia Lacus or Chiamay, quite independent of each other,
and several years before Grueber's discoveries were made known to the world.

Witsen seems to be the father of Siba lacus. Perhaps he had heard some
rumour that the Ganges came from a lake. Father Martini had positively asserted that
the river came from Kia or Chiamay lacus. For Witsen the Siba lacus was there-
fore at least a surrogate. ISBRANTS IDES, on his map of 1704, (Pl. XXXVIII), goes