When did Singapore become an island? Part IV

Peter Borschberg has written an excellent article on the early mapping of Singapore [1]. This article is part of the book published in conjunction with the recently concluded Geo|Graphic: Celebrating maps and their stories exhibition at the National Library of Singapore. I learnt a great deal from the article.

Although the earliest known maps that clearly labels the present island of Singapore with a name, only came about at the beginning of 1600s (See earlier post), there are several manuscript maps in the 1500s covering the Malay peninsula, that already features what is very likely to be present day Singapore island, albeit unnamed [1]. 

One of the earliest of such maps, according to Borschberg [1], is a 1537 portolan map by Portuguese Gaspar Viegas.

Name: Carta nautica dell'Estremo Oriente
Year: 1537
Mapmaker: Gaspar Viegas
Manuscript location: Bibloteca Riccardiana, Florence, Italy

Figure 1. Carta nautica dell'Estremo Oriente, by Gaspar Viegas, 1537. One of the earliest charts that features an island (painted in gold and unnamed. Circled in blue) that is probably the island of Singapore. Image source: Biblioteca Riccardiana.

Interestingly, simultaneous with the appearance of Singapore island on these maps, is the appearance of the Muar-Pahang trans-peninsula river-penarikan system [2]. You can clearly see it in the Viegas map above as the sinusoidal waterway that cuts across the Malay peninsular. 

References

[1] P. Borschberg "Singapore in Early Modern Cartography: A Sea of Challenge", Visualising Space: Maps of Singapore and the Region, (National  Library Board, Singapore, 2015), pp 6-33.
[2] P. Wheatley "A curious feature on early maps of Malaya", Imago Mundi, 11 (1954), pp. 67-72.