This voluminous monograph, based on the author's doctoral dissertation (Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Letras, 2015; last accessed 23 October 2018 under http://repositorio.ul.pt/handle/10451/23631), discusses the sea routes east of Melaka used by Portuguese ships in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The book contains a general introduction, four chapters and a long documentary appendix. The four chapters deal with the following subjects: Chapter One summarises Portugal's conquest of Melaka and also outlines the meteorological conditions prevailing in the different maritime spaces from Japan down to the Malay world. Although the entire region is subject to the regime of seasonal winds, there are certain variations in wind patterns from one area to the next. Similarly, surface currents are quite distinct in each space. The author considers all this from the bird's-eye view. Chapter Two presents the sailing corridors between Melaka and the so-called Spice Islands. The Banda Islands offered nutmeg; various locations in the North Moluccas sold cloves. In order to reach these destinations, ships could either sail via Java or proceed by way of Brunei / Sabah and the Celebes Sea. The route via Java, we learn, often implied going through the Berhala and Bangka Straits. Besides providing an account of these two major trade alleys, including the complicated North-South link between Banda and the North Moluccas via Ambon, this chapter also examines the routes in the Makassar-Timor-Solor cluster. Chapter Three looks at the South China Sea. There are different segments. These concern the itineraries from the area of modern Singapore to Cape Varella (on the coast of modern Vietnam); from there to Shangchuan 上川 (called São João in Portuguese sources, near Macau), via the west side of the Paracel Islands (or Xisha qundao 西沙群島); the alternative course along the east side of the Paracel Islands; the short connection between Shangchuan and Macau; the voyage from Macau to Melaka. Furthermore, there is a section on sailing through the Gulf of Tongking and the Gulf of Siam, as well as a section that describes the Macau-Manila axis. Chapter Four is comparatively short: It deals with the route from Central Guangdong, or the mouth of the Pearl River, to the Zhoushan Islands 舟山群島, and with the itinerary to Japan. Naturally, the route to the Zhoushan Islands involved stopovers in Nan'ao 南澳 (usually called Lamau in Portuguese texts) and Liampó, normally identified with the old anchorage called Shuangyugang 雙嶼港 (second character also xu) in Ming works. The four chapters are followed by a conclusion, a short glossary and a very reliable bibliography.
The documentary appendix, more than two hundred pages in all, presents important roteiros (rutters) related to the regions east of Melaka. Essentially these works tell readers which course a ship would take in order to reach its destinations. We also learn something about currents, measurements of water depth, the position of hidden reefs and sandbanks, tides, weather phenomena and other relevant factors. Most of these roteiros are short pieces. When transcribing them, Matos added modern punctuation marks, spelled out abbreviated words and names, and standardised small and capital letters. Clearly, these adjustments make it easier to understand the texts.
The different pieces selected for the appendix appear in four collections: (a) a long work by André Pires (kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France), (b) the Livro de Marinha de la Real Academia de la Historia de Madrid, (c) the Advertençias para a navegação da Índia (or Códice Cadaval), (d) the Códice Castelo Melhor (the last two in Portugal). Most specialists interested in the nautical history of East and Southeast Asia know these collections; indeed, several roteiros included in them have also come out in other publications, but modern authors usually presented the old texts without entering points and commas and without altering the original abbreviations. Matos mentions many earlier studies pertaining to his field of research, notably those by Luís Albuquerque, Abel Fontoura da Costa, Carlos Francisco Moura and Pierre-Yves Manguin. One may add: There are some overlaps between these works – as, for example, between Matos's book and Manguin's Les Portugais sur les côtes du Vi ệt-nam et du Campā. Étude sur les routes maritimes et les relations commerciales, d'après les sources portugaises (XVIe, XVIIe, XVIIIe siècles) (Paris, 1972), which also contains various roteiros from the Códice Cadaval – but Matos’ monograph is certainly the most comprehensive item of its kind, especially in terms of the number of original documents used and in terms of the regions covered.
We may now look at some details. By comparing different roteiros related to the same route, or maritime space, Matos is able to show the strong and weak points of these texts. He also detects minor errors and/or observations incompatible with reality. Regarding old toponyms, he identified nearly all of them, thanks to dictionaries, maps and other tools, but some ancient names, then used by Portuguese mariners, still raise questions. The author, perfectly aware of this, discusses several examples. Besides that, he tells readers that the Portuguese Crown and the authorities of the early Estado da Índia invested in trade between Europe and India and across the Arabian Sea, while they were less interested in the Far East and Southeast Asia (with the exception of the Moluccan Islands). In fact, Portuguese trade in these regions was mostly in private hands. That may also explain why it often took a long time to “lay down” a particular “eastern” route in the form of a roteiro (pp. 52-53). Furthermore, Matos thinks that several descriptions contained in the Cadaval codex go back to material included in the Castelo Melhor collection (first described by Manguin; pp. 319-320). However, dating these and other texts to individual years remains difficult. For instance, in one case Albuquerque suggested the year 1573, whereas Matos argues quite convincingly that an earlier date should apply (p. 259).
Matos’ careful analysis of the “eastern” routes reveals many new details. Clearly, we should not downgrade Linschoten, but the latter's recordings bear certain limitations and many Portuguese texts are simply older, or pertain to earlier periods. Moreover, Matos’ investigations and the material presented in the appendix of his book will be very useful for research with a comparative dimension, especially if one wishes to combine Portuguese and Chinese data related to individual regions. Several publications that have recently appeared in China are equally important in that regard. Here I just mention the impressive collection Zhongguo lidai hailu zhenjing 中國歷代海路針經, edited by Chen Jiarong 陳佳榮 et al. (Guangzhou, 2016), and Zhou Yunzhong's 周運中 monograph Zhongguo Nanyang gudai jiaotong shi 中國南洋古代交通史 (Xiamen, 2015). Zhou's book is mostly on Chinese routes in Song and Yuan times.
Several regions and routes merit attention. One case is the “corridor” between Pulau Tioman / P. Aur (both near the east coast of the Malayan Peninsula) and Sunda. This traffic alley appears in Portuguese roteiros; it bypassed the east side of Bintan and the Lingga Islands, from there it led through the Bangka Strait and, via the east coast of Sumatra, to the northern entrance of the Sunda Strait (pp. 112-115). We know that this route was connected to the early pepper trade. Surprisingly, the famous Zheng He map (usually Zheng He hanghai tu 鄭和航海圖 in Chinese) does not seem to mention it. There the route that runs through the Bangka Strait is connected to Melaka, via the Berhala and Kampar Straits (for a similar Portuguese route, see pp. 66 of Matos’ book). However, the Zheng He map records an “official island” (guanyu 管嶼) in the Singkep region. What does all this mean? – Clearly, my comments go much beyond the intentions of Matos’ book, but I mention this constellation of seaways to show that we need to conduct comparative research in order to establish a balanced picture of the past. If one adds Zhou Yunzhong's findings to this panorama (especially on p. 336 in the book cited above), things become even more complex, as that links us to the role of Srivijaya / Palembang.
A second case involves P. Condor (on which there is an old study by Gabriel Ferrand) and the long route near the coast of modern Vietnam. The Lingwai dai da 嶺外代答 (1178), Hai yu 海語 (1536) and other sources allude to the dangers associated with sailing through these waters. Han Zhenhua 韓振華 in particular has published extensively on this subject. Early texts tell us that ships would easily disappear on account of strong currents. Clearly, this is in line with what we learn from Portuguese roteiros (pp. 157, 158), which provide precise information on the route between P. Condor and Shangchuan / Macau. Finally, a third example, exposes the question of direct trade between the mouth of the Pearl River and Luzon, especially the Manila region. When was this route first explored? How important were the Pratas Islands (Dongsha qundao 東沙群島) in this context ? And how can we link the connection Manila-Nan'ao to the Manila-Macau axis? Recently Zhou Xin 周鑫 published an interesting article on the early Pratas Islands, to mention just one study on that subject. Zhou's contribution came out in Xueshu yanjiu 學術研究 12 (2015). It would be a wonderful thing to link his findings to the analysis presented by Matos.
These comments may show how encouraging I find Matos’ work. It is a very useful book – an item that will help students and scholars to understand the nature of communication and trade in different parts of maritime Southeast Asia, along the coasts of South China and in the East China Sea. One may add, the book has a clear structure. There are no superfluous additions and the author never gets lost in unnecessary comments as he uses very transparent and precise language. In short, Matos’ study is a most welcome work that comes at a fortuitous time because scholars in Europe and China now are getting more and more interested in the history of early modern navigation through the eastern seas.
