26 SINGAPORE OLD STRAITS AND NEW HARBOUR 
ea which lie much too far away for the second quotation and I 
suggest that it is the New Harbour. The western entrance to this 
harbour has been altered since old times, as is evident from the 
quotation below from “Prisoners their own Warders.” I suggest 
that owing to the similarity of names the Chinese accounts confuse 
the island of Lingga with the dragon-teeth passage. 
A. D. 1598 
Linschoten. I translate from a French translation “Le grand 
Routie de Mer,’ Amsterdam 1619 pp. 40-42. 
In Chapter XX. Linschoten gives sailing-directions from 
Malacca to Macau. Having brought his mariner down to Pulau 
Pisang and Tanjong Bulus he says :— 
“At a league from this Cape is a river [ Sungei Pulai | and a 
short league further another river [Sélat Tébrau] with a large 
mouth in which lies a little island called Sincapura [a mistake 
for Merambong | where the bottom is good and clean. This 
river empties itself at the port of Iantana [ Ujong Tanah, 
Johore | the place where Antonio de Meno went once by mis- 
take with a ship of eight hundred ‘casses,’ each ‘easse’ being 
three and a half quintals Portuguese weight, and got out again. 
From this river the land trends to a point to the South and at 
this point begins the entrance to the first straits |Selat Sembi- 
lan | through which you must pass. On the North of this bay 
the land lies higher than on the South, where it is low and uneven, 
with a tree covered hill showing above its surroundings. This 
is the end of the land. For on the East you find islands and 
rocks stretching first to the South and then to the East in the 
form of a bay. From the above mentioned Cape of Tanjamburo 
[ Tanjong Bulus | to the entrance to these straits the course is 
due East and the depth seven or eight fathoms. 
“ Any one wishing to sail to China by Sincapura [Singapore] 
should if he comes by Pulo Picon | Pulau Pisang | at the begin- 
ning of July keep close to the island of Carimon; for the Java 
monsoon which is on then always blows from the coast of 
Sumatra. Also if you keep on the Carimon side when you 
leave it you come right on to the entrance of the straits. The 
depths differ on this course and when you come from the Tan- 
jong Bulus side the country at the entrance of the strait 
‘a Vapparence d’un trone’ which is a certain sign of the said 
entrance. Here you should tack (tiendrez vostre course en 
louvant) so as to make the entrance easier. 
“These first straits | Sélat Sembilan | have at their entrance 
two shoals | Basses | which come from the Cape one on each 
side. On the South side at the beginning of the straits is a 
long range of islands stretching to the East which forms the 
straits. To enter you must all the time keep closer to the 
South side than tothe other. At first entrance you will find 
twelve ten and nine fathoms and when you have got so far in 
that the land to the South, that is the islands mentioned, are in 
Jour. Straits Branch 
———_— > 
