近世初期におけるスマトラ近海航路の研究

「東西洋考」に記された航路の歴史地理学的考察

抄録

Tong-si-yang-Kao which was compiled in the Ming-dynasty (the latter part of the 16 th Cent.) is a landmark of great importance in the history of traffic and communications of the South Seas. It has, from time to time, been referred to by students of Oriental History both in the East and West and the navigation-routes and plate-names appearing in this document have been variously studied and discussed by them, but there are many questions to be solved, For instance, almost no geographic interpretation has been advanced as to why such and such a course was taken at such and such a period of time. Again the study of the place-names in the past are still controversial in many respects. From the standpoint of Historical Geography, I have re-examined the navigation routes by taking the geographical factors into consideration, on the basis of many large scale charts and the Pilot books which are indispensable to the study of navigation-routes. The navigation-routes which I have treated here are those in the western part of Malaysia recorded in the “Western route” (_??_) of this document.
In this thesis, I have tried to give the results of the study on the following three courses only.
(1) From eastern coast of Malay Peninsula to the ports of Eastern Sumatra.
(2) From Bangka Strait to West Java.
(3) From Malacca to northern Sumatra.
Studies on other routes in Malaysia were already published in my 1st report. (See “Shien” -the journal of historical Studies, St. Paul's University- Vol. 16. No. 2. 1955) Also a short report about the general characteristics of navigation technique recorded in this document, namely uses of wind, observation of weather and islets, means of soundings, or uses of scientific instruments is added here.