Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Take a good look at this bit of the map and you will discover that just offshore,
right where the sea route veers into port, the surface has been abraded more than
any other place on the map. The label for Johor is still legible, but the shipping
routes have been almost entirely worn down to the bare paper. Is this damage
simply random wear and tear? Or might it be a tell-tale sign that this was the loc-
ation that most interested its owner, who liked to point it out to friends? Is this the
one mark that Selden - unwittingly, like his glasses - placed on his map?
AsforreadingChinese,Seldenwasn'tflustered.Itdidn'tmatter.Fornowitwas
important just to collect manuscripts, to add materials in whatever languages to
England's reservoir of knowledge so that future generations might discover what
the present generation could not yet learn. Some day someone would be able to
read them and unlock the secrets they contained. That was what mattered. It would
take twenty-eight years after the map was deposited in Oxford before someone ar-
rived who could read Chinese.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search