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the island between them and the shapeshifting Spanish that caught the attention of
our armchair navigator, Zhang Xie. The earliest possible date for the label is thus
1607. So now we can match the
terminus ante quem
of 1609 with a
terminus post
quem
of 1607. I suggest we split the difference. Circa 1608, then. We have a date.
____________________
The search for the Selden map has been more convoluted and complicated than
I expected it to be when I started out, a circling maze rather than a straight path:
from John Selden forward to Thomas Hyde and Michael Shen; from John Selden
back through Samuel Purchas and Richard Hakluyt to John Saris; from the map it-
self forward to Zhang Xie and his study of routes, to William Laud and the rutter
he could not decipher; from the map back to Zhang Huang and his encyclopaedia,
andevenbackbeyondhimtoLuoHongxianandhisnationalatlas;withasideways
look from Selden to James I and the divine right of kings to connect him to the law
of the sea in the first place; plus John Speed and his world atlas thrown in to give
us a point of comparison.
But we have got there, to the origin of the map - well, more or less. With an
unsigned and undated document such as ours, this is not a bad showing. Many a
historical expedition gets lost at sea before reaching its destination. Perhaps ours
hasn'tquitemadeittohomeport,butattheveryleastwehaveachievedsomething:
we have given back to the Selden map some of the history it lost centuries ago.
And not just that; for in giving the map its history, we have written ourselves into
the story.