f 



OLDEST EECORDS OF SEA-ROUTE TO CHINA FROM WESTERN ASIA. 355 



3. The province in question was then known as Ji-nan (or Zhi-nan, 

 French /) ; whence possibly the name Sinae, that has travelled so far and 

 spread over such libraries of literature. The Chinese annalist, who men- 

 tions the Roman Embassy, adds : ' The people of that kingdom (Ta-t'sin, 

 or the Roman Empire) come in numbers for ti'ading purposes to Fu-nan, 

 Ji-nan, and Kiau-chi.' Funan, w^e have seen, was Champa or Zabai. In 

 Jinan, with its chief port Kiau-chi, we may recognise with assurance 

 ' Kattigara, partus Smarum.' ' 



Mr. Bunbury, in his most able and valuable 'History of Ancient 

 Geography,' whilst admitting the force of my argument as to the identity 

 of the ancient names /Sinae and Thin with China, observes : ' It does not 

 appear to me necessary, therefore, to assume that the land so called was 

 actually a part of the modern China. How easily the name might be 

 extended to other regions in that part of Asia is sufficiently shown by the 

 modern appellation of Cochin China, applied to the very country ' in which, 

 he is inclined to locate the Sinae. 



But neither he, nor I in my former consideration of this subject, had 

 taken account of the facts adduced by Richthofen as to the incorporation 

 at that time of Tongking with the Chinese Empire, and as to the recogni- 

 tion at that time of Kiauchi alone (as far as is known) as a gate of access 

 for Western trade to the Empire. Richthofen's solution has the advantages 

 of preserving the true meaning of Sinae as ' the Chinese,' and of locating 

 the Partus Sinarum in what was then politically a part of China, whilst 

 the remote metropolis Thiyiae remains unequivocally the capital of the 

 Empire, whether Si-ngan-fu in Shensi, or Loyang in Honan, be meant. 



I will only add that though we find Katighara in Edrisi's Geography, 

 I apprehend this to be a mere adoption from the geography of Ptolemy, 

 founded on no recent authority. It must have kept its place also on the 

 later mediaeval maps ; for Pigafetta, in that part of the circumnavigation 

 where the crew of the Victoria began to look out for the Asiatic coast, 

 says that Magellan ' changed the course . . . until in 13° of K Latitude, 

 in order to approach the land of Cn^oe Gaticara, which cape (under correc- 

 tion of those who have made cosmography, for they have never seen it) 

 is not placed where they think, but is towards the north, in 12° or there- 

 abouts.2 It is probable that, as Richthofen points out, Kattigara, or 

 at any rate, Kiau-chi, was the LuJcin or Al-Wdkin of the early Arab 

 geographers. But the terminus of the Arab voyagers of the ninth century 

 was no longer in Tongking; it was Khdnfu — apparently the Kanpu of 



' The name {Kattigara) seems (in form) Indian, like so many others on the route 

 to the Sinae,^e.g., Sobaiia, Pagrasa, Smnarade, R. Sohaims, Tijionobasti, Zaha, 

 Tagora, Balonga, Sindc, Aganagara, iirama. It. Ambastus, Itabana, B. Kottiaris, 

 Kohlwronagara, etc. 



' At first sight the identification of some of these names with names still adhering, 

 or traditionally preserved, seems hazardous. But note that most of the names just 

 recited are unquestionably Hindu. Hence it is a fact that Hindu names attached to 

 places in Indo-China before the time of rtolemy. It is another fact that many Hindu 

 names attach now — e.g., Singajmre, Patani, Ligor, Tuthia, Clmmi)a, Suphana, 

 Chantibon (probably). Why should not the same name in some cases have survived ? 

 — ' Sources and Authorities for India,' in Dr. Smith's Atlas. 



^ The First Voyage round the World (Hak. Soc.) translated by Lord Stanley of 

 Alderley, p. 68. The translator too hastily (as elsewhere) explains : ' Cattigara. Cape 

 Comorin in 8° 27' 1" North Lat.' The cape looked for was evidently the extreme S.E. 

 point of Asia, actually represented by Cape Varela, or Cape St. James, on the coast of 

 Cochin China. 



A A 2 



