CATALAN WORLD MAPS 43 



d'Oro. An inscription records the departure of the Catalan, 

 Jacome Ferrer, on a voyage to this 'river of gold' in 1346, and 

 some knowledge of the gold-producing region of the middle 

 Niger is displayed. The regional name Guinea (Ginuia), the 

 Kingdom of Melli, and stages on the routes from IVIorocco to 

 the Niger, e.g. Sigilmessa, Tebelt, Tagaza and Tenbuch 

 (Timbuktu), are marked.^ In north-east Africa, a knowledge 

 of the Nile valley as far south as Dongala, where there was a 

 Catholic mission early in the century, is apparent. The delinea- 

 tion of the Nile system is vitiated, however, by the conception 

 that it flowed from a great lake in the Guinea region. This lake 

 may reflect rumours about the flood areas of the Niger, but 

 the whole idea is very much older. 



It is however in its representation of Asia that the greatest 

 interest of the Catalan map lies. For the first time in medieval 

 cartography, the continent assumes a recognizable form, with 

 one or two notable exceptions. From the Caspian Sea in the 

 west, with a fairly accurate outline in the style of the portolan 

 charts, the Mongol domains stretch away eastwards to the 

 coast of Cathay. This makes a sweep from east to south with 

 an approach to its actual form, and along it appear several of 

 the great medieval ports and trading centres, frequented by 

 Arab merchants. In the interior are correctly placed the main 

 divisions of the Mongol territory; from west to east, the 'Empire 

 of Sarra' (the Kipchak khanate), 'the Empire of Medeia' (the 

 Chagtai khanate of the middle), and the suzerain empire of the 

 Great Khan, Catayo with its capital at Cambaluc (Peking). 



If the map is stripped of its legends and drawings of the 

 older tradition, it is apparent that the main interest of the 

 compiler is concentrated in a central strip across the continent. 

 Herein lies a succession of physical features — mountain, river, 

 and lake — and of towns with corrupt but recognizable forms of 

 their medieval names as given in the narratives of the great 

 travellers of the thirteenth century. These are jumbled together 

 in a manner sometimes diflicult to understand, but with the 

 help of Marco Polo's narrative, it is possible to disentangle the 



^On this traffic see Taylor, E. G. R., Tactolus, river of gold' (Scottish 

 Geogr. Mag., 44, 1928, 129) and 'The Voyages of Cadamosto', Hakluyt Soc, 

 2nd series, vol. 80, 1937. 



