A highly important MANUSCRIPT CHART of the APPROACH TO CANTON, the centre of the ‘China Trade’. Even more important is the chart’s English origin which is best dated to the period c.1730-1750. The region today is of great importance to the world as it is where present day Hong Kong is situated. The island itself does not appear as such but can be identified. It was not established until 1841 following the Opium Wars.

Background History
The Portuguese were the earliest European navigators in the region arriving by sea in 1514. Within three years they were trading from the settlements now known as Canton and were soon expelled. In exchange they were granted the use of Macao further south to trade with the city in 1557. They had a European monopoly on foreign trade with the region until the arrival of the Dutch in the early seventeenth century. The name Canton is of European origins being derived from the Portuguese Cantão, a transcription of Guandong the Chinese name of the region.

The English East India Company was founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1600. In 1637 a Captain Weddell successfully navigated his way past the Portuguese and up the Pearl River to Canton. He started negotiating with the Chinese but met strong resistance and was turned away. His ship was wrecked on the return journey. It was not until Charles II in 1670 that the Company’s powers were expanded to allow it to acquire territory in its own right, to build forts and man them with its own forces, mint money and form their own alliances. They were even empowered to make war and peace. China was, by the end of the seventeenth century, under the Qing government opening its doors to trade and the Canton region quickly became one of the busiest ports for international trade. Before long it was attracting ships from all over the world. Along with the Portuguese the Spanish, Armenian and Indians were soon followed by the French and English. The English established a factory at Amoy on the mainland near Formosa in 1676. A survey was undertaken of the region in the same year. It was from here that annual voyages were made along the coast to the north to Chushan and west to trade with Canton. A Captain John Kempthorne undertook a survey in 1686 which is entitled ‘A Chart of Macao and the Ladrone Islands, with the soundings drawn by Capt. John Kempthorne’ (BL Sloane MS. 3665.62).

Some of the earliest detailed English charts of the region are from ‘atlases’ displaying the results of the experiences of Captain Bartholomew Sharpe, the notorious pirate on various expeditions to the South Sea. Three examples survive, two in the British Library and one in the Library of Congress. They were compiled by William Hacke, a notorious chart maker in London. The official chart maker to the East India Company was John Thornton whose own charts of the region cover a larger territory and can be dated to 1699 and 1701. From about 1700 the Chinese began to restrict its foreign trade to Canton. A significant portion of trade from the East India Company was in tea from China, so in 1711 the Company moved its key trading post to Canton to trade the tea for silver. The Chinese restricted this trade to the port area of Canton known as Whampoa, now known as the Huangpu District. Business was conducted through local agents known as Hong’s.

Features of this chart
The map is a plane chart characteristic of the Thames School of Chart makers in London. A large central compass rose from which a series of rhumb lines are drawn. An interesting feature of the compass rose is its decoration which is not the usual divided circle. It appears to be some kind of wasp or bee orientated with its sting to the north. Both Peter Barber and Andrew Cook of the British Library were inclined to believe this was more the design of the cartographer than any reference to a ship or Company. Numerous depth soundings and anchorages can be found. There are two latitude scales each numbered in half degrees. A scale of English Leagues is near the bottom. Notable features include the profile rendering of coastal mountains and the use of the early Portuguese names for many of the islands. The early English chart makers closely followed the long-standing medieval tradition of portolans. Usually drawn on vellum they were on a relatively small scale, decorated and coloured. Around the turn of the seventeenth century there were stylistic changes. There was a greater need for larger scaled pilot charts which by definition were more functional and paper increasingly became the medium on which they were drawn. Decoration and colour were largely dismissed.

Working our way from left to right across the chart or west to east we first note ‘Sanishoam Falso’ and ‘Sanishoam Verdadero’, now Shangchuan Island. ‘Falso’ is Portuguese for false and ‘Verdadero’, true. The next island facing the China Sea is ‘I de Viado’ now Hebao Island followed by ‘Colonge’ or ‘Isle de Meru’, now Gaolan Island. Next is ‘Sancho’ more familiarly named now as Sanzao, known at the time as the ‘Isle de Pecheurs’. The next major group of islands is to the south of the Portuguese colony of ‘Maccoa’ (Macao) which is clearly identified including buildings, forts and flags. Just to its north is the ‘Porto Sora’ or the Portas do Cerco, the official border between China and the Portuguese colony. Above this is the ‘Bocca Tigris’ which translates from the Portuguese literally as the tiger’s mouth, or the entrance to the Pearl River. This important strait controlling the river was fortified as noted on the map. One of the famous Pagoda’s that helped navigation is marked in the west side of the river. They would lend themselves to the famous ‘Pagoda Anchorage’. The jewel of the river ‘Canton’ is marked with its trading port of ‘Vampoo’ (Whampoa) just downriver, the anchorage for which is shown just offshore.

South of Macao is the ‘Ladrones’ Islands which in Spanish or Portuguese means Thieves Islands. These islands were so noted that the title even refers to them. They were the frequent of pirates who harassed trade in the region. To their east is the chain of Lema Islands now the Dangan Islands. The ‘mainland’ coast to their north contains three place-names: ‘Lemtoa Verdadero’, ‘Lem Tem’ and ‘Lemtoa Falso’. ‘Verdadero and Falso translate as true and false. The former is now known as Lantau Island and ‘Lem Tem’ we believe is Tai Tam on Hong Kong Island. This is supported by the little island to its south named ‘I de Furado’. On the 1794 Laurie and Whittle chart of the region just south of Hong Kong Island is another entitled ‘Furado or Poo Toy’. Similar analysis drawn from other contemporary printed charts supports this. Namely Gerard van Keulen’s of 1753, Alexander Dalrymple in 1771, D’Apres de Mannevillette in 1775and as already mentioned Laurie and Whittle in 1794.

An exceedingly rare example of a manuscript sea chart relating to the future Hong Kong from the Thames School, with many fascinating early place-names. It depicts Hong Kong albeit not so recognisable some thirty or more years before the first recognisable cartographic representation of it on Dalrymple’s chart of 1771. The presence of a large number of Portuguese words indicates that countries long presence in the region at Macao. The use of two inks and two apparently different draftsmen might appear to indicate later additions until we recognise that they are confined to different sides of the map and were more likely applied by two different people with two more localised areas of knowledge. As for dating the work the paper is dated by Churchill to 1733 and the cartography clearly pre-dates the English surveys of the 1750s.

Provenance: A private collection in the United States. It was acquired in Austria in the late 1960s. Campbell (1973); Chang (2003); Churchill (1935) no. 406; Empson (1992); Howse & Sanderson (1973) pp. 96-7; Jourdin & Ronciere (1984) pp. 272-3; Smith (1978).