Portuguese cartography at Museum Sejarah

By Boy de Waart

JAKARTA (JP): Looking for a piece of history? Go and check out the exhibition currently on at the Museum Sejarah Jakarta.

The exhibition, Cartography of the West-East Encounter, will run until July 26 and is the fruit of cooperation between the Instituto Portugues de Oriene in Macau, the Portuguese foreign affairs ministry, Fundacao Oriente, the Portuguese embassy in Jakarta and the Museum Sejarah Jakarta.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum has organized two lectures titled The Portuguese Cartography of the 15th and 16th Centuries: Oriental Dreams and Asiatic Fascination by Dr. Ivo Carneiro de Sousa, a professor in history at the University of Porto, Lisbon; and Portuguese Influence in the Mapping of the Spice Islands by David Parry and Heru Sajuto -- both map collectors.

The exhibition features many old and original maps and manuscripts created by early explorers on journeys to Indonesia. Also on show are some of the spices that were so sought after hundreds of years ago.

The maps are mainly of the Indonesian islands, but some are of the Southeast Asian region, and others display individual islands and regions. Most of the material has been provided by private collectors.

Sixteenth and seventeenth-century Portuguese nautical cartography constitutes one of the most important advances in the history of geography.

Portuguese sailors in the 1500s set out to find a way to the East by an eastward sea route. Up until Vasco Da Gama rounded what is now known as the Cape of Good Hope, people thought that the Indian Ocean was landlocked. This prompted more explorers, mainly from Portugal, to continue to explore an eastward sea- route. Maps have been found of the some of the Indonesian islands dating back from as early as 1522.

In the following years, one can see the map's detail increasing at an amazing rate. Outlines of the Spice Islands became more and more detailed and unexplored areas would be left blank rather than filled in with inaccurate speculations.

It was thanks to Portugal's geographical location, the push by Prince Henry the "Navigator", and its unique exposure to Arab science, that it was able to spearhead the search for an eastward route.

The Dutch are often credited with having mapped most of the islands of Indonesia, including their inland areas. But all Dutch explorers and seafarers used Portuguese cartography as a reference to their own maps. The Portuguese mainly outlined the islands because they had to get from port A to port B, whereas the Dutch were the ones who explored inland, but again, using the Portuguese maps for reference.

David Parry branded these 16th and 17th-century Portuguese seafarers as being brave beyond measure.

"The men going to the Moon, at least knew where they were going, and that they could safely round its dark side. These guys didn't know at all where they were going. Nor if they would ever come back," he said.

A convoy of ships, with a combined crew of several hundreds of men, would set out not knowing what sea monsters they would encounter (this was still the Middle Ages and superstition was part of daily life). They would be at sea for two or maybe three years, and would return in a single ship manned by only a handful of crew members.

Heroes indeed.