When did Singapore become an island? Part II

In a previous entry, we talked about an 'island' feature at the southern end of the Malay peninsula that appeared in many maps dating from the mid 1500s to 1620s. This 'island' is evidently not the island of Singapore. So what is it?

On closer look at some of these maps, the 'strait' that separates the island from the peninsula is more like a river or canal. One good example is the Willem Lodewycksz's 1598 map (Fig. 1). The waterway has its western and eastern termini at Muar and Paham, respectively. The town of Muar in the Malaysian state of Johor is still around and Paham is synonymous to Pahang a state in present day  Malaysia. 

On the northern and southern banks of the waterway are written R Fermoso and Muar R. R has to mean either 'rivier' or 'rio' (dutch and portuguese for river). Obviously the mapmaker believes that a river links the Straits of Malacca to the South China Sea. But what is the basis of this feature?   

Figure1. Close up look at Willem Lodewycksz's 1598 map. Full picture link.

This waterway is attributed to the presence of an ancient trans-peninsular route [1]. This route was used and known by the locals since ancient times.  This route connects the Muar river system that flows into the Malacca Straits in the west coast of the peninsular, and the Pahang river system that flows into the South China Sea on the east coast of the peninsular. On Fig. 2 is the trace of this trade route.  

One can access this route from the mouth of the Sungei Muar. Following the river upstream, one eventually reached the fork where Sungei Muar meets one of its tributary, Sungei Jempol. This place is near to present day Bahau, Negri Sembilan. At a point a few hundred metres upstream on Sungei Jempol, one can land on the northern bank and follow a dragway or portage of less than one kilometre to reach another river, Sungei Serting. Sungei Serting then winds its way through Negri Sembilan into Pahang state, joins Sungei Bara, which eventually flows into the large river of Sungei Pahang. The town at the mouth of Pahang River is presently known as Pekan, and is probably the old Paham on Lodewycksz's map (Fig. 1). 

Figure 2. The  southern part of the Malay Peninsula from Google map. The red line denotes Sungei Muar-Sungei Jempol river system, while the blue line denotes the Sungei Serting-Sungei Bara-Sungei Pahang river system. Zoom in at the red balloon where the red and blue line meet to find the Jalan Penarikan.

This dragway that connects Sungei Jempol with Sungei Serting is the famous Jalan Penarikan. Penarikan is derived from the word 'tarik', which is the Malay word for 'pull' [2]. The Portuguese who  were in control of Malacca from 1511 to 1641 knew of this dragway, as evidenced by a 1602 map by Godinha de Eredia. Near the top right corner of the map is written Panarican which connects Jompol and Sertin (See Fig. 3).

Name: Nova tavoa geographica da tera do sertam de Malaca (New Geographic Map of the Interior of Malaca)
Year Published: 16o2
Map Maker: Godinho de Eredia
Manuscript map location: Biblioteca Nacional do Brasil

Figure 3. Nova tavoa geographica da tera do sertam de Malaca (New Geographic Map of the Interior of Malaca), dated to 1602, by Godinho de Eredia. This may be the oldest extant map of Malacca territory. Shown within the black square is a Panarican that connects Jompol and Sertin. Picture source file.  

From the map (Fig. 2) that traces the route, it is not difficult to imagine how the travelers and map makers extrapolate this route, which is mainly a river system with a few hundred meter overland journey, into a major water way. This thereby creates the 'island' feature on the many old maps of the Malay Peninsula. 

So back to question of when did Singapore really appear as an island on maps? This will be answered in the next entry.

References

[1] P. Wheatley, The Golden Khersonese (University of Malaya Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1961). 

[2] Check out this video to see how the Penarikan looks like today: