Roteiros e rotas portuguesas no Oriente nos seculos XVI e XVII

摘要

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 Tong-king 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 西沙群島, 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.