From the Atlas Vallard (1547) to d'Anville's 18th Century Maps: Cartographers and Sailors

I

INITIAL FRENCH ENCOUNTER wITH THE ISLES PHILIPPINES From the Atlas Vallard (1547) to d’Anville's 18th Century Maps: Cartographers and Sailors

Centuries before the formal establishment of its diplomatic relations with the Philippines in 1947, as early as a few decades after the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama’s successful circumnavigation of Africa, and more than half a century even before the British1 sailed the world, France had long already been engaged in developing trade opportunities with the New World and the Far East.

The ports of Normandy were the first in France to engage in long distance oceanic trade due to their strategic location along the Atlantic coast and mouth of the river Seine, as well as their long-standing tradition of trade with Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain. France’s King Francis I ordered the construction of the port of Le Havre2 in 1517. His decision defied the Treaty of Tordesillas signed in 1494 that divided lands “discovered” by European explorers between the Portuguese and Spanish crowns along the meridian between the Cape Verde Islands and the West Indies.

When Ferdinand Magellan set off for the Far East, his crew included seventeen Frenchmen. Unfortunately, none of them completed the circumnavigation. Throughout this period, the old ports of Dieppe in Normandy gained prominence, thanks to the business activities of Jean Ango,3 who was then the wealthiest French ship owner with a fleet of twenty-one ships. Three of the ships in his fleet were Spanish caravels captured from the command of conquistador Hernán Cortés. The vessels were transporting treasures of the last Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc, en route to the Spanish King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, when Ango’s Captain Jean Fleury intercepted them.

Apart from funding numerous voyages to the New World, Aztec gold enabled several expeditions to East Asia. Jean and Raoul Parmentier4 were the first Frenchmen to pass the Cape of Good Hope and reach Southeast Asia by their own means. The brothers died in 1529 along the western coast of Sumatra.

Portolan navigational charts and itineraries (roteiros in Portuguese) —navigational maps highly prized by traders, admirals, and most importantly, kings—were strategic items regarded as state secrets by both ship owners and political authorities. When France was at war with Spain between 1521 and 1559, French navigators obtained data from privateers licensed to attack enemy ships, Portuguese travelers, and tavern gossip5 to create the first French portolan charts6 in the port town of Dieppe.

The first three quarters of the 16th century witnessed the height of the French school of cartography. Taking into account the number and scope of dissemination of maps and charts, France ranked only after Portugal and Germany in terms of importance in cartography. To date, around fifteen 16th century maps survived. Except for those made by Oronce Fine, professor at the prestigious and then newly founded Collège de France in Paris, cartographers from Normandy produced most of the French world maps. Jean Mallard of Rouen and Guillaume Le Testu of Le Havre were two of the renowned cartographers from the Normandy region.

A.

THE APPEARANCE OF THE PHILIPPINE ARCHIPELAGO IN FRENCH CARTOGRAPHY

The first French portolan chart that depicted the west coast of Borneo and parts of Mindanao’s south coast, including what could be interpreted as Palawan’s east coast, was drawn by Nicolas Desliens in 1541 (Figure 1). Although with a less accurate sketching than Deslien’s, Jean Roze7 of Dieppe mentioned—for the first time—the toponyms of Mindanao, Negros, and Sulu, in his 1542 atlas8 (Figure 2) which was dedicated to King Henry VIII of Britain, one of the main rivals of King Francis I.

Due to the difficulties of communication and the resilience of the Ptolemaic imago mundi, 9 French knowledge of Southeast Asia did not progress in a consistent manner. Guillaume Brouscon’s 1543 map, omitted the Philippines entirely, as did Jean Cossin’s10 1570 atlas. In

Figure 1. Nicolas Desliens, Planisphère, 1541, extract. The North being at the bottom of the map (following ancient Arabic cartography).

Figure 2. Jean Roze, Boke of Idrography [Book of Hydrography], 1542-46 (f. 9v°-101), extract. Here the North is shown at the bottom of the map. Toponyms mentioned in the legend are written on the map.

Figure 3. Extract of Atlas Vallard (1547). According to the original map, the North is at the bottom of the map.

1547, the beautifully illustrated Atlas Vallard,11 attributed to French navigator and cartographer Nicolas Vallard (Figure 3) included to the north of Borneo, a quadrangular island with several toponyms including ‘Balanpecan’ (Balambangan?), located next to a huge island called the Archipelago of San Lazaro—the name given by Magellan. The Atlas Vallard did not use the appellative ‘Filipinas’ given by Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos in 1544 to Samar or Leyte to honor the Crown Prince of Spain, the future Philip II. On the other hand, Pierre Desceliers’ nautical planispheres of 1546 and 1550,12 dedicated to King Henry II and the heads of the French army and navy,13 mentioned Mindanao, Sulu, and parts of Visayas.

The ports of Normandy declined after 1570 and ceded their prominence to the ports of Brittany and La Rochelle, which then dominated oceanic trade. As a result, Paris became the center of French nautical science. Closer to the royal court and to intellectual Parisian networks, the French cartographers improved their knowledge of the Philippine archipelago. The 1575 map of François de Belleforest and the 1582 atlas of Lancelot Voisin de la Popelinière in 1582 only mentioned “Palohan”14 (Palawan), Mindanao and “Pauvodas”.15 However, it was the Franciscan priest and explorer Father André Thevet,16 Franciscan priest and explorer, who published in 1584 a planisphere that placed an island ‘Philipines’ (sic) in the middle of the Archipelago of ‘Saint Lazare’ (Figure 4). Following Thevet’s

work, the cosmographic research ceased, with the publication of only three minor works between 1585 and 1601. The exhausting religious wars between Protestants and Catholics (1562-1598) and the war with Spain (1595-1598) drained most of the resources of the French elite that financed cartographic works.

B.

17TH CENTURY: THE NAMING OF THE PHILIPPINES

The 17th century ushered in a new era for navigation following the return of peace in the French kingdom and the creation of the short-lived Compagnie française des mers orientales (French Eastern Seas Company) in 1600. Friendly relations with the United Provinces (today the Netherlands) allowed the French cartographers to collaborate with the new masters of the art, the Dutch—who benefited from German scientific expertise and who founded the Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (Dutch East-India Company or VOC) in 1601.

Despite these developments, French cosmography did not keep abreast of the times. In 1561, Italy’s Giacomo Gastaldi became the first geographer to have included a ‘Luzon’ island in his cartography. In 1592, Dutch scholars, such as Petrus Plancius,17 designated ‘Philipinae’ and ‘Luconia’ (Luzon) with Latin appellations in their

Figure 4. André Thevet, Carte des provinces de la grande et petite Asie (excerpt), 1584 (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

maps. However, the two maps created for French publisher Jean Le Clerc in 1602 by the Dutch Jodocus Hondius18 had no reference to Luzon at all.

Moreover, between 1603 and 1626, the French were unable to produce proper world maps. King Louis XIII’s19 young age and recurring conflicts with the Hapsburg monarchs who blockaded France between its Northeastern (Flemish) and southwestern (Spanish) borders were major factors.

Dutch scholars eventually revived and revitalized French cartography, which had the support of the Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu. The Cardinal, who was also Prime Minister, signed the Treaty of Compiègne with The Netherlands in 1624, advocated free trade with both the West and East Indies, and who later formed a professional royal navy. Between 1627 and 1630, half a dozen atlases and planispheres were published in Paris in collaboration with Dutchtrained scientists such as Petrus Bertius,20 Cornelis Danckerts, and Jodocus Hondius. Thanks to their contributions, the toponym Luzon (as Luconia) finally entered French cartography, along with three dozen more toponyms, including Manila (Figure 5, Petrus Bertius, 1627).

While the Philippines21 was now marked distinctly from the Archipelago San Lazaro (L’archipelage de S. Lazare, the future Marianas Islands, Figure 5), and the Paracel Islands were correctly placed, the shapes of its two main islands, Luzon and Mindanao, remained incorrect. Luzon lacked the contemporary provinces of Quezon and Camarines Norte, which were depicted instead as two distinct islands cut off from Luzon by an imaginary ‘Strait of Manila’. Meanwhile, Mindanao was drawn too close to Luzon on its eastern side. Moreover, the cartographer had used the name Solor instead of Solo (Sulu), confusing it with an island named Solor located in present-day eastern Indonesia. He also confused Samar (then called Achan22) with the southern part of Luzon.

Driven by the European competition for long-distance trade, French cartographic production flourished well into the last years of Louis XIV’s reign. Twenty-seven world maps and atlases were created between 1631 and 1660; eighteen between 1661 and 1690; and twenty-two between 1691 and 1715—or an average of one publication per year. The 1659 Treaty of the Pyrénées, which heralded the peace between France and Spain, contributed to the foundation of the Compagnie des Indes orientales (East India Company) in 1664 and generated high demand for charts.

Figure 5. Petrus Bertius, Carte de l’Asie corrigée, et augmentée, dessus toutes les autres cy devant faictes par P. Bertius – Melchior Tavernier, 1627 [Corrected and increased map of Asia, which supersedes all previous maps made by P. Bertius], extract, 1627.

Figure 6. Pierre du Val, Carte universelle du commerce (1674), extract, showing Philippines as part of East Asia maritime roads.

Also in 1664, the scientist Melchisédech Thévenot23 published accounts of his travels in French. His second volume included four accounts relating to the Isles Philippines, 24 which he translated from Spanish. Thanks to Thévenot, stories about the islands found their way into French travel literature, reaching a much broader audience than plain cartographic works.

The Philippines inevitably became part of the Bourbons’ commercial ambition. Pierre du Val’s Carte universelle du commerce (Universal Map for Trade), published in 1674 (Figure 6), traced the sea lanes from the French ports to Manila. A few years later, Alain Manesson Mallet included the archipelago in his Description de l’Univers (1683), devoting several pages to his descriptions of the country,25 a map (Figure 7), and a sketch of Manila Bay (Figure 8).

Although the French elite became increasingly interested in Eastern Asia, French mapping of the Philippines remained imprecise. Most cartographers either copied or completed the works of their predecessors, without updating their research. As an example, Alexis-Hubert Jaillot reproduced 40 years later in 1692, most of Nicolas Sanson’s 1652 Asia map in his L’Asie Divisée en ses Principales Régions (Main Regions of Asia).

Figure 7. Map of the ‘Isles Philippines’(1682) A. Manesson-Mallet, Description de l’Univers (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

Figure 8. Sketch of the Manila Bay showing present-day Intramuros (id.) A. Manesson-Mallet, Description de l’Univers (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

THE PHILIPPINES AND 18TH CENTURY FRENCH EXPLORATION OF THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

The works of Jean-Dominique Cassini,26 an astronomer and mathematician of the Royal Observatory and the Academy of Sciences, and his father Jacques,27 introduced advances in geodetic calculations. Because of their scientific legacy, the quality of French cartographic works improved during the first half of the 18th century.

The return of the first cargoes sent by the Compagnie des Indes from Canton (present-day Guangzhou, China) inspired in France a renewed interest in the South China Sea. In 1705, Noël Danycan de l’Épine, the wealthiest trader and privateer from Brittany, implored the Navy Minister—albeit without success—to send three ships to “Mindanao and other islands uncontrolled by European powers”.28

The 1705 Carte des Indes & de la Chine [Map of Indies and China] (Figure 9), published by Guillaume de l’Isle, a follower of JeanDominique Cassini, a member of the Académie des Sciences, and the King’s first geographer, displayed progress in the French knowledge of the Philippines. In de l’Isle’s map, the layout of the Visayas islands (in particular, that of Samar and Leyte), and the western part of Mindanao proved remarkably accurate. However, the size and location of the “Nouvelles Philippines” (Caroline Islands) remained a mere product of the imagination. The illustrated islands were smaller and farther to the east than their approximate location. The Manila Galleons, which remained the sole link between Spain and the Philippines until 1762, nurtured French ambitions, as illustrated by Nicolas de Fer’s 1713 map (Figure 10), presenting various routes between Manila and Acapulco.

Capturing the fabulous galleons remained an elusive dream for the French. Not only did France forge an alliance with Spain and a Bourbon king, Philip V, ascended the Spanish throne in 1700, but also the cost of thirteen years of war with England, Austria, and the Netherlands drained the French treasury. Moreover, the Treaty of Utrecht ending the hostilities in 1713 forbade foreign ships from entering ports controlled by the Spanish crown.29

Figure 9. Guillaume de l’Isle, Carte des Indes & de la Chine [Map of the Indies and China], extract, 1705 (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

Figure 10. Nicolas de Fer (1713) Carte de la Mer du Sud et des costes d’Amerque [sic] et d’Asie, situées sur cette mer [Maps of the Southern Sea and coast from America and Asia, located along this ocean …], extract showing sea lanes (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

Yet, despite the various setbacks, the French cartographic school in the 18th century eventually took precedence in Europe largely due to the work of three great cartographers. The first one, Jean-Baptiste d’Anville,30 was appointed as king’s geographer in 1718 and revolutionized French cartographic production by systematically collecting available maps and documentation, and eventually assembled the biggest geographical database of the century. His collection included some 67 maps relating to the Philippines alone. In 1752, he published a detailed map of the archipelago (Figure 11) in his Seconde partie de la carte d’Asie… (Second part of the map of Asia…).

Figure 11. Jean-Baptiste d’Anville (1752), Seconde partie de la carte d’Asie … [Second part of the map of Asia...] (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

The second world-renowned cartographer was Jean-Baptiste d’Après de Mannevillette.31 J. B. d’Après, who trained in mathematics and studied geography under Guillaume de l’Isle, worked as an officer for the Compagnie des Indes in India and South China. Using an octant, a navigational instrument first developed by the British that allowed for a more accurate measurement of longitudes, J.B. d’Après methodically created new nautical maps of the coastal regions that he had visited, which he gathered in 1745 into Neptune Oriental, a navigational atlas containing twenty-two charts. In 1762, J.B. d’Après became the director of l’Orient, a repository of maps and charts founded by the Compagnie des Indes in its main port, Lorient.

In February 1763, the Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years’ War,32 where the French and Spanish colonial establishments were pillaged by the British. Manila fell to Britain in 1762. Alexander Dalrymple,who was then the hydrographer of the East India Company stayed in Manila until the dissolution of the company. On his way back to London, Dalrymple visited Sulu. Elected as a fellow of the Royal Society in 1765, Dalrymple started working on nautical charts, and published a first set thereof in 1772.

During this period, Dalrymple and J.B. d’Après nurtured their scientific collaboration.33 J.B. d’Après’ Neptune Oriental34 was reprinted in 1775,35 having been updated and expanded to include sixty three maps. Four of the sixty-three maps were reproductions of A. Dalrymple’s works on the Philippines: “Chart of the China Sea inscribed to Monsieur d’Après de Mannevillette, the ingenious author of Neptune Oriental as a tribute due to his labours to the benefit of Navigation and in acknowledgment of his many signal favours to A. Dalrymple” (No. 52);36 “Maps of the Ports of Borneo and the Soloo Archipelago” (No. 54); “Chart of Felicia and the Plan of the Island of Balambangan” (No. 55); and “The Soloo Archipelago” (No. 56).

Among J.B. d’Après’ own works included in the second Neptune Oriental were several maps of Philippines ports: “Plan de la baie de Manille [Chart of Manila Bay]” (No. 58); “Plan des principaux ports de la côte d’Illocos en l’isle de Luçon [Chart of the main ports of Ilocos coast on Luzon Island]” (No. 57); and “Plan du port de Subec [Chart of Subic port]” (No. 59, reproduced Figure 12), the latter having been first published separately.

Figure 12. J.B. d’Après de Mannevillette (1766), Plan du port de Subec [Map of Subic Port] (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

Figure 13. Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1764), Carte des isles Philippines 2e feuille [Map of Philippine Islands, f. 2], Petit Atlas Maritime, vol. III n°66 (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

Figure 14. Map of the port of Zamboanga, manuscript, unpublished, January 1772, Collection d’Anville (Bibliothèque nationale de France)

J.B. d’Après' main competitor was the French king’s hydrographer, Jacques-Nicolas Bellin. In 1751, Bellin edited J.B. d’Après’ first chart of the ‘Oriental Ocean’ in the former’s Atlas Maritime. Bellin’s Petit Atlas Maritime (1764, with 580 charts spread in five volumes) presented two detailed maps on the Philippines (North and South, Figure 13). These maps were based on Father Murillo Velarde’s cartographs, which appeared in inferior quality than those of J.B. d’Après' charts because of their less accurate measurements of the longitudes.37

Although Spain lifted in 1766 the prohibition for foreign ships to dock in Spanish colonies, trade with the Philippines remained a Spanish monopoly. However, détente with Britain provided the impetus for a number of major French scientific expeditions to the Pacific. For instance, Guillaume Le Gentil de la Galaisière, an astronomer and a member of the French Academy of Sciences, stayed in Manila from August 1766 to February 1768.38

While the first French circumnavigation of the world occurred between 1766 and 1769 under the helm of Count Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, this expedition did not anchor in the Philippines. Its success, however, paved the way for the launching of smaller ventures, one of which reached the Philippines in 1771. The aim of the voyage was to collect spices and cultivate them in the Isle-de-France (present-day Mauritius) in order to put an end to Dutch monopoly on highly valued spices like cloves and nutmegs. During the ship’s brief sojourn in Manila and its neighboring regions, naturalist Pierre Sonnerat39 collected plants and animals of various species. Thereafter, the expedition embarked on a journey to Mindanao. The hydrographer on board the ship Le Nécessaire drew the maps of Zamboanga (Figure 14) and Sulu, and presented them to Jean-Baptiste d’Anville. Thus, the French elite who read the writings of Sonnerat finally became familiar with the Philippines while a few French traders, such as Gilles and Hippolyte Sébire,40 moved from Macau to settle in Manila at the end of 1784.