TO
The earliest map representing Siam and the Gulf
of Siam, according to M. FOURNEREAU, was the one
prepared by PERO REINEL about 1517. About 1520,
we get another map by some unknown Portuguese
sailor of the same type as that of REINEL, It is quite
natural that the earliest mnps or accounts of travels
relating to Siam should be by the Portuguese sailors.
Through out the i6th. century, we find the Portu-
guese busy in exploring the unknown seas of the East.
In 1529, we get many other charts from DIEGO
RIBEIRO, who was cosmographe royal at Seville.
Other early charts relating to Siam have been des-
cribed by M. FOURNEREAU in his Le Siam Ancien.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century, we find
a Portuguese traveller—JAN HUYGEN VAN LINSCHOTEN
who travelled through the East in 1596. His book is
known as—Itinerario, voyage ofte Schipvaert, van jan
Huygen van Linschoten naer oost ofte Portugaels
Indian,
The Dutch followed the Portuguese in sharing
the vast wealth of the East. In the chart of EVERT
GIJSBERTS SOON, a geographe hollandais, we find only
a few places like Odia, Siam, Iliam and Bancaya indi-
cated. In another chart of MERCATOR, published by
HONDIUS in 1613, we find Siam in the centre of a
great island formed by the delta of Me-nam. Here
Ayuthia was called Diam or Odia.
In 1609, ANTONIO DE MORGA visited Siam among
other countries and wrote a book in Spanish called—