Page:Further India; (IA furtherindia00clif).pdf/32

sailed eastward of south for a still longer period until the town of Cattigara was reached. The exact locality of Cattigara has been much disputed, Mannert placing it in Borneo, while Bunbury inclines to the belief that some point on the coast of Cochin China is indicated. On the other hand Marinus and Ptolemy both expressly state that Cattigara was a city of the Sinæ, or in other words a port of southern China, and a study of the route followed at a later period by Arabian and European travellers alike reveals the fact that few ever passed on a long voyage to the eastward of the Golden Chersonese unless they were bound for the Celestial Empire. Furthermore, it will be found that it is only by taking some port of southern China as our starting point—viz., as being the town of Cattigara—that Ptolemy's itinerary can be made to have any sequence or meaning. The Sinus Magnus, which is described as the first sea crossed after leaving Cattigara, would then be the China Sea; the Promontorium Magnum, dividing it from the Sinus Perimulicus, which is perhaps identical with Marinus's Zabæ, would be some point upon the shores of Indo-China, corresponding with Champa, the kingdom which at a later period was an invariable port of call for vessels making the China voyage. Similarly, the Sinus Perimulicus itself, which is described as washing the eastern shores of the Golden Chersonese, would be the Gulf of Siam; the Golden Chersonese would be, as it is usually agreed that it is, the Malay Peninsula; and the Sinus Sabaricus, on the western. shores of the Chersonese, would correspond to the Straits of Malacca from their southern portals to the Gulf of