1635 / c.1642 Willem Blaeu map of the East Indies

This is a sumptuous example of Willem Blaeu's 1635/1642 map of India, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan, including some of the earliest mapped portions of Australia.

A Closer Look

The map is beautifully engraved with eight sailing ships, a sea monster, compass roses, and rhumb lines. Its cartouches are dramatically embellished with figures and putti. Coverage embraces India and Southeast Asia, from the Indus River and Mariana Islands to the East Indies. The mapping of India is largely consistent with that of Linschoten. The Philippines are shown in sharp detail, although exaggerated in size, reflecting their significance. New Guinea is shown according to Le Maire's charting.

Early Glimpses of Australia

This map is among the earliest to depict any parts of Australia based on documented discovery. G. F. de Wits Land marks the 1628 site where the Dutch vessel Vianen, under Captain Gerrit Frederikszoon de Witt, ran aground. De Witt went on to chart the northwest coast of Australia about as far as present-day Port Hedland. The map also shows the lands charted in 1605 - 06 on the western coast of Queensland by Willem Janszoon (no relation to the mapmaker).

Tracing the Sources

The China coast corresponds with Luis Jorge de Barbuda's place names as found on Ortelius' 1584 map. (The interior lakes of China shown here are drawn from Blaeu's specific map of China, as this area was obscured by the title cartouche on Blaeu's map of Southeast Asia.) The southern Korean coast and the whole southern coast of Japan was based on a 1621 manuscript chart by Hessel Gerritz, produced while he was the first exclusive cartographer of the Dutch East India Company. The Blaeu family's long connection with this accomplished chartmaker bore fruit for many years. Interestingly, Gerritz's chart made no reference to the insularity of Korea - though Blaeu named 'Corea Insul' on his map to make it consistent with his other maps of the region, and Merian copied this. Another key contribution of Gerrtitz was from his 1627 Caert van't Landt van d'Eendracht. This appears at the bottom center, where there is a portion of the coast of Western Australia, along with the place name, 'Willems Revier.' Gerritz reported that this river had been visited by the crew of the Dutch ship Mauritius in July 1618. (The identity of this river is unknown; it may be the Ashburton River.) Further to the west, also drawn from the same source, are a small group of islands marked 'Trial.' These represent one of the earliest appearances on a map of the Tryal Rocks, so named because of the June 1622 shipwreck of the English ship Trial.

Proliferation of 'Thieves'

Several locations bear variations on the place name 'Ladrones.' In the southeast corner are the Insulae Ladrones, now understood as the Mariana Islands. A further I. de Ladrones appears on the southern coast of Korea, corresponding with Jeju Island. In both cases, the name is derived from the Spanish and Portuguese word for 'Thieves.' The appellation of 'Ladrones' in the Marianas dates back to Magellan's reception in Guam by the Chamorros, who boarded the ship and stole whatever could be taken. As for Korea, the archipelago, inclusive of Jeju and Tsushima, long maintained a reputation for piracy - at the least, the passive piracy of stripping wrecks. The name appears on maps of Korea going back to the 1595 Ortelius and the 1596 Linschoten, so it is unsurprising to see it surviving here.

Apocryphal Lake Chiamay

The mythical Lake of Chiamay appears at the western extreme of the map, roughly in what is today Assam, India. Early cartographers postulated that such a lake must exist to source the four important Southeast Asian river systems: the Irrawaddy, the Dharla, the Chao Phraya, and the Brahmaputra. This lake began to appear in maps of Asia as early as the 16th-century and persisted well into the mid-18th century. Its origins are unknown but may originate in a lost 16th-century geography prepared by the Portuguese scholar Jao de Barros. It was also heavily discussed in the journals of Sven Hedin, who believed it to be associated with the Indian legend that a sacred lake, Mansarovar, linked several of the holy subcontinent river systems. There are even records that the King of Siam led an invasion force to take control of the lake in the 16th century. Nonetheless, the theory of Lake Chiamay was ultimately disproved, and it disappeared from maps entirely by the 1760s.

Allegorical Decoration

The central title cartouche is flanked by soldiers in Mogul garb. In the lower left is a magnificent dedicatory cartouche to Laurens Reael (1583 - 1637), a Dutch commander, diplomat and former Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. The arms are surmounted by a caduceus - a symbol of commerce - but the cartouche is flanked by Athena (goddess of wisdom in war) and an armored warrior bearing a rod of command. At his feet are two putti, one displaying an armillary sphere while the other - wearing Ares' helmet - beats a war-drum. In the lower right corner, the scales are further embellished with putti playing with navigational tools and a globe. Two more wonder at a magnetic compass. Thus, the tools of navigation and cartography are placed in the service of both war and commerce.

Publication History and Census

This map was executed in 1634 for inclusion in Blaeu's atlases. There are two known proof states, lacking cartouches, prior to the inclusion of the map in any book. It first appeared in the 1635 German edition of the Blaeu Novus Atlas, and was included in all of Willem and Joan Blaeu's atlases thereafter, with no further state changes. The present example conforms typographically to examples found in Dutch editions of the Novus Atlas (1642 - 1658). Separate examples of the map are well represented in institutional collections and appear on the market from time to time.