Front Cover:
Cover design: Sophia Varcados, Northern Illinois University
Cover: Port et bourg de Mergui (Port and Town of Mergui), Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703–1772), Map, 1764, 22x18 cm. Burma Art Collection, Rare Books and Special Collectionsat Northern Illinois University, Founders Memorial Library. G7724.M41764.B45
This black and white image was originally a rendering of a beautiful hand coloredengraved maritime chart of the port and city of Mergui (now Myeik), located inSouthern Myanmar in Tanintharyi Region. This chart, drawn by Jacques Nicolas Bellin(1703–1772), was initially a component of Le Petit Atlas Maritime: Recueil de Carteset Plans des Quatre Parties du Monde en Cinq Volumes, published in Paris in 1764.
Bellin was a renowned cartographer and hydrographer. He trained at a very youngage at the famous Dépôt des Cartes et Plans de la Marine (also known as Dépôt de laMarine, where navigational charts were made and kept in France under royal patronage).He produced numerous maritime atlases; especially the Petit Atlas Maritime,which comprised 580 individual prints. He was well-known for taking extreme careto render the finest details with the highest accuracy. Much of his work was morewidely distributed and reproduced in numerous other atlases and travelogues, suchas Histoire Générale des Voyages d’Antoine Prévost, which assembled numerous smallformat maps and charts, and was published in fifteen volumes.
Myeik (Mergui) is located in Southern Myanmar on the Bay of Bengal. Its port iswell-protected by Kadan Island. Ancient Ptolemaic maps indicated Regnum Mursulior Mergui (Tenasserim). It was visited in the 1420s by Nicolo de Conti, who, whileentering the river called Tenaserin, noted the presence of numerous elephants (Suarez1999: 122). But, the oldest description of the actual city of Mergui, where “. . . one canfind silk-making, cockfights, Brazilwood and benzoin,” is attributed to Varthema.In the first decade of the sixteenth century, he elaborated, “(t)he city of Tarnassari issituated near the sea. It is a level place and well-watered, and has a good port that isa river on the side toward the north . . . The houses of this city are well-surroundedby walls (Suarez 1999: 123).”
Mergui later became an important port for European traders, particularly for thePortuguese, as they could source merchandise from Pegu and Siam, including winestored in the famous Martaban jars. From there, such products could be exported toIndia.
By the 18th century, when this chart was originally surveyed, France and Englandwere in competition. Mergui was considered by the British officer Alexander Hamiltonas being an area “infested by the pirates,” hence not as desirable an entrepôt asRangoon. That explains—as indicated here—the presence of a French fort and alsoplaces where the French could build boats and careen their ships. As a French settlement,it did not last long. In 1824-26, under King Bagyidaw, the first Anglo-Burmesewar ensued and Tenasserim, along with Arakan, were annexed by the British.
Today, centuries later, the recent interest of Mergui Archipelago is moving toward acompletely new development. It is appropriate to consider it in our ratiocinations of“Progress from Whom? And for What?”
—Catherine Raymond, curator of the Burma Art Collectionat Northern Illinois University
Reference:
Suarez, Thomas. Early Mapping of Southeast Asia. Indonesia: Periplus Editions, 1999.
