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Still the line continues on to the oddest route on the map: a zigzag leading from
the southern end of the Philippines to a place called Wanlaogao. Is there precision
to this line, or is it a random rendering of a connection that he knows is there but
doesn't have the compass bearings for and can't really locate? The latter, it seems.
Wanlaogao was for me the toughest puzzle on the map. Gao means 'lofty', and
wanlao means 'as old as ten thousand years'. The name suggests an old mountain,
but that doesn't much help. Insular South-East Asia is a volcanic zone; the moun-
tainsherearetoonumeroustocount.Fortunately,Wanlaogaomakesanappearance
in Zhang Xie's Study of the Eastern and Western Seas . There it is listed as one
of two topographical features of an even more mysteriously named place called
Meiluoju. Zhang says the place is also known as Miliuhe, although that doesn't
help in identifying this spot either. To explain Wanlaogao, this is the story Zhang
gives, more or less in his own words.
ThecountryhadpreviouslybeeninvadedbyapeopleknownastheFranks.This
was a generic term Chinese used for Europeans, borrowed originally from Arabic,
although in this case it means Spaniards. The indigenous people surrendered, and
the Franks extended an amnesty to the chief, ordering him to continue administer-
ing the country as before but to deliver to them a fixed quota of cloves annually.
The Franks did not impose direct military rule but left the country to defend itself.
Then another group of marauders crossed the ocean, the Red Hairs - the Dutch.
Once they arrived in the region, no place was secure. Their ships made a surprise
attack on the town and captured the chief.
'If you serve us well,' the Red Hairs told him, 'then we will make you the
master and drive out the White Throats.' Zhang then explains that Franks have
white throats, hence the name. The captured chief had no choice but to agree to
their terms. As soon as the White Throats got wind of this, they came back and ac-
cused him of double-dealing.
'You traitor of a slave,' they railed. 'We always regretted not putting you to the
sword, and now you rebel!' And so the White Throats attacked.
At this point Zhang weaves in another story. He writes that the king of Luzon,
with the baffling name of Old Langleishi Bilixi, levied Chinese working in Manila
to man the ship in which he put to sea to take back Meiluoju. Suffering under his
cruelcommand,theChineseattackedhiminhiscabinonenight.AsZhangtellsthe
storyingreaterdetailelsewhereinhisbook,theChineseringleader,PanHewu,de-
claredtohisfellowconscripts,'Ifwedon'tdieoftreasonorhangingorstabbingor
whatever, we will certainly die in battle. Better to kill the commander for mistreat-
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