The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World

by Paine, Lincoln

  60. “We faced each other”: Goitein, “Two Eyewitness Reports,” 256; Goitein and Friedman, “India Book,” 342, 337–47.

  61. “told me that”: In Stern, “Ramisht of Siraf,” 10.

  62. twenty-four dinars a year: Goitein, Mediterranean Society, 1:359.

  63. The freedman of a governor: Goitein, “Two Eyewitness Reports,” 247.

  64. the caprice of political rulers: Goitein, “Beginnings,” 351; Serjeant, “Yemeni Merchants,” 69; and Goitein and Friedman, “India Book,” 260n6.

  65. “dispensed unaccustomed justice”: In Serjeant, “Yemeni Merchants,” 70.

  66. pilgrimage by sea: Chakravarti, “Nakhudas and Nauvittakas,” 42–43.

  67. “The reason why”: Al-Biruni, in ibid., 52.

  68. Jain merchants and Siddharaja: Wink, Al-Hind, 2:273–75.

  69. “great and respected chief”: In Chakravarti, “Nakhudas and Nauvittakas,” 53–55.

  70. supplier of pepper: Hall, Maritime Trade, 225.

  71. “moment of incandescence”: Johns, “Islam in Southeast Asia,” 39.

  72. the religion flowed easily: Hall, “Upstream and Downstream Unification,” 202–3.

  73. emergent state of Ayutthaya: Hall, Maritime Trade, 226.

  74. new port of Melaka: Taylor, “Early Kingdoms,” 175–76; Hall, Maritime Trade, 227–28.

  75. The commercial character of Melaka: Subrahmanyam, “Of Imarat and Tijarat,” 756–57.

  76. Melaka maritime code: Winstedt and Josselin De Jong, “Maritime Laws of Malacca,” 27; Reid, Expansion and Crisis, 110; and Hall, “Economic History of Early Southeast Asia,” 190–91.

  77. women in trade: Reid, The Lands Below the Winds, 146–53, 163–65; Reid, Expansion and Crisis, 49, 91–93, 124.

  78. Ming Taizu, as he is known, installed: Fairbank, Reischauer, and Craig, East Asia, 180–82.

  79. “not even a little plank”: In Blussé, Visible Cities, 15.

  80. Neo-Confucian cast: Wang, “ ‘Public’ and ‘Private’ Overseas Trade,” 138–39.

  81. “To repel them at sea”: Lo, “Decline of Early Ming Navy,” 149–50, 157–63.

  82. Chengzu’s motives: Dreyer, Zheng He, 33–34.

  83. “the great country”: Ma Huan, Overall Survey, 137.

  84. Ma Huan, visited Mecca: Ibid., 173–78; Dreyer, Zheng He, 158.

  85. “the arrival of the vessels”: Chronicle of the Rasulid Dynasty, in Serjeant, “Yemeni Merchants,” 74–75. The mithqal was a gold dinar with a standard weight of 4.231 grams. Storax is an aromatic resin used as incense.

  86. “had an audience”: Ibn al-Dayba, Bughyat al-mustafid fi tarikh Madinat Zabid, in Serjeant, “Yemeni Merchants,” 75.

  87. generally pacific nature: Dreyer, Zheng He, 28–30.

  88. a Chinese renegade: Ibid., 55–60, 66–73, 79–81.

  89. Domestically, the empire endured: Lo, “Termination of the Ming Naval Expeditions,” 129–31; Lo, “Decline of Early Ming Navy,” 163.

  90. “deceitful exaggerations”: Gu Qiyuan, Kezuo Zhuiyu, in Duyvendak, “True Dates,” 395–96. See Dreyer, Zheng He, 173–75.

  91. “from Guangdong [Province] and Zhangzhou”: Ma Huan, Overall Survey, 93. See Reid, Expansion and Crisis, 204–7; Wang, “Merchants Without Empires,” 404–5.

  92. Sam Poh Kong Temple: Needham et al., Science and Civilisation, vol. 4, pt. 3:494.

  93. “cowrie shells and qanbar”: Ibn Battuta, Travels, 4:827.

  94. “in the mountains”: Zhao Rugua, On the Chinese and Arab Trade, 133.

  95. “ten thousand horses”: Wassaf Abdullah, Tazjiyatu-l Amsar Wa Tajriyatu-l Asar (A Ramble Through the Regions and the Passing of Ages), 33.

  96. “the merchants of Hormuz and Kais”: Polo, Travels, 264.

  97. “We had two tarides”: Ibn Battuta, Travels, 4:820. In place of “tartan” in the original translation, I have used “taride.” But note Agius, Classic Ships of Islam, 342: “I am not sure how accurate Ibn Battuta is in recording the name for this ship-type in the Indian Ocean context. No doubt the tarida he witnessed must have looked identical in structure to the Mediterranean one.”

  98. “they build ships”: Wang Ta-yuan, Tao-I Chih lio [Wang Dayuan, Daoyi Zhilue], in Rockhill, “Notes” (1915), 623–24. See Chakravarti, “Overseas Trade in Horses,” 351–52; and Deng, Maritime Sector, 112–13.

  99. no more than forty horses: Agius, Classic Ships of Islam, 340–41. Horses require between 18 and 45 liters of water per day, depending on the conditions. Pryor estimates that a horse being carried in the Mediterranean during the summer would need about 36 liters, or 1.1 metric tons, for 30 days. Pryor and Jeffreys, Age of the Dromon, 327–29; air circulation: 330–31.

  100. from Oman to the Malabar coast: Sulayman, Account of China and India, 14 (p. 38).

  101. “endures all the strain”: Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama (1869), 239–40, in Agius, Classic Ships of Islam, 163–64. On the advantages of sewn-plank construction, see chap. 2 and note on “The inherent flexibility,” p. 604 above.

  102. “carry a much bigger cargo”: Polo, Travels, 242.

  103. Quanzhou wreck: Green, “Song Dynasty Shipwreck”; Keith and Buys, “New Light on Ship Construction;” Li Guo-Qing, “Use of Chu-Nam”; and Merwin, “Excavation of a Sung Dynasty Seagoing Vessel.”

  104. Sinan (Shinan) wreck: Green and Kim, “Shinan and Wando Sites”; Kim and Keith, “14th-Century Cargo.”

  105. “The Chinese vessels”: Ibn Battuta, Travels, 4:813. Chinese texts first discuss the flamethrower, or a device for “dispersing fierce incendiary oil,” in the Song Dynasty.

  106. 60 meters: Sleeswyk, “Liao and Displacement,” 12. The Chinese were apparently not alone in building such monumental ships, and the French traveler Augustin de Beaulieu described how “in 1629 the Acehnese built a grandiose galley about a hundred metres long.” See Reid, Expansion and Crisis, 42, citing Mémoires d’un voyage aux Indes orientales, 1619–1622: un marchand normand à Sumatra. The Chinese use of multiple planking—in effect creating a laminated hull—would have made a significant difference in the longitudinal strength, and therefore length, of the hull.

  107. Less contested: Ma Huan, Overall Survey, 10; Dreyer, Zheng He, 104–5. Zheng He organized but did not accompany the second expedition.

  14. The World Encompassed

  1. Some of the islands: Abulafia, “Neolithic Meets Medieval,” 255, 259.

  2. evidence of human habitation: Pliny, Natural History, 6.37.202–5 (vol. 2:489–91).

  3. Almoravid expedition: Picard, L’Océan Atlantique Musulman, 34.

  4. ousted by Castilian rivals: Fernández-Armesto, “Medieval Atlantic Exploration,” 46–51.

  5. prevailing northeast winds: Fernández-Armesto, Before Columbus, 153.

  6. Isola de Legname: Verlinden, “European Participation,” 73; the map is by Nicolo de Pasqualin. According to Cadamosto, the first settlers cleared the land on Madeira by burning the trees. “So great was the first conflagration, that this [governor] Zuanconzales … was forced, with all the men, women, and children, to flee its fury and take refuge in the sea, where they remained, up to their necks in water, and without food or drink, for two days and two nights” (Crone, Voyages of Cadamosto, 9).

  7. Genoese mariners: Epstein, Genoa and the Genoese, 202; Fernández-Armesto, “Spanish Atlantic Voyages and Conquests,” 138.

  8. Pessagno and his heirs: Verlinden, “European Participation,” 71–73.

  9. Catalan Atlas: Woodward, “Medieval Mappaemundi,” 315. See Fernández-Armesto, Before Columbus, 156–57.

  10. “As for his skill”: Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, “Prologue,” ll. 401–10 (p. 30).

  11. first printed sailing directions: Jonkers, “Sailing Directions,” 460.

  12. Lo Compasso da Navigare: Campbell, “Portolan Charts,” 382.

  13. northern European instructions: Unger, Ship in the Medieval Economy, 175.

  14. “An [when] ye come”: In Taylor, Haven-Finding Art, 135; “2
parts over the sea” means two-thirds of the way.

  15. “If it should happen”: Jados, Consulate of the Sea, §251 (p. 157). See The Customs of the Sea, in Twiss, Black Book, 3:433–34.

  16. “if a ship is lost”: Black Book, in Twiss, Black Book, 1:129. The Black Book is believed to have been compiled between the reigns of Edward III (1327–77) and Henry VI (1422–61).

  17. dead reckoning: This expression, as written, dates from the seventeenth century; the idea that it comes from “deduced reckoning” is a mid-twentieth-century fiction.

  18. “[S]ailors, as they sail over the sea”: Neckham, De Naturis Rerum, book 2, chap. 98, in C.N.B., “Alexander on the Compass Needle,” 64.

  19. “When clouds prevent sailors”: Vincent of Beauvais, in Taylor, Haven-Finding Art, 94.

  20. “half winds”: Taylor, Haven-Finding Art, 100, 111.

  21. portolan, or sea chart: Campbell, “Portolan Charts.”

  22. mariner’s astrolabe: Paselk, “Navigational Instruments.”

  23. A Genoese contract: Friel, “Carrack,” 78.

  24. “ships”—naves: Ibid., 79.

  25. caravel: Elbl, “Caravel”; Phillips, “Iberian Ships,” 220–28.

  26. qarib: Agius, Classic Ships of Islam, 271–74. Ibn Battuta uses qarib as a generic term for fishing and pearling boats in the Persian Gulf.

  27. “the Navigator”: Russell, Prince Henry, 8–9.

  28. capture of Ceuta: Ibid., 31–34.

  29. exploitation of the Madeira Islands: Ibid., 88–99.

  30. Cape Bojador—the Bulging Cape: “A wise pilot will … pass Bojador eight leagues out at sea.… Because Cape Bojador is most dangerous, as a reef of rock juts out in the sea more than four or five leagues, several ships have already been lost. This cape is very low and covered with sand … in ten fathoms you cannot see the land because it is so low.” Duarte Pacheco Pereira, Esmeralda de situ orbis: (1506–1508), in Diffie and Winius, Foundations, 69.

  31. “Portuguese caravels are coming”: In Crone, Voyages of Cadamosto, 17–18.

  32. the Southern Cross: Cadamosto’s reference to six stars probably refers to the four main stars in Crux and two from the constellation Centaur.

  33. Cape Verde Islands: Diffie and Winius, Foundations, 103–7; Crone, Voyages of Cadamosto, xxxvi–xlii. Distance covered: Russell, Prince Henry, 342.

  34. inability to communicate: Ibid., 314.

  35. no one considered: Winius, “Enterprise Focused on India,” 90–92.

  36. These brutal campaigns: Diffie and Winius, Foundations, 110, 144–45, 213–14.

  37. contemporary legal interpretation: Perruso, “Development of the Doctrine of Res Communes,” 74–85.

  38. “justly and lawfully”: Romanus Pontifex, in Davenport, European Treaties, 23.

  39. “equipped or provisioned”: Treaty of Alcáçovas, in Davenport, European Treaties, 44.

  40. circumnavigating Africa: Verlinden, “Big Leap Under Dom João II,” 70.

  41. “which enters the sea”: Barros, Asia, dec. 1, book 3, chap. 3, in Diffie and Winius, Foundations, 155.

  42. “the Guinea Sea”: Barros, Asia, dec. 1, book 3, chap. 5, in Diffie and Winius, Foundations, 164.

  43. Domestic problems: Subrahmanyam, Career and Legend, 43–57.

  44. “that he would sail”: Las Casas, Las Casas on Columbus, 43. On the direction of Columbus’s voyages, see Wey Gómez, The Tropics of Empire, 37–45.

  45. he failed: Fernández-Armesto, Columbus, 192.

  46. Columbus served his apprenticeship: Phillips and Phillips, Worlds of Christopher Columbus, 87–99; Fernández-Armesto, Columbus, 18–19.

  47. “the world was buzzing”: Las Casas, Las Casas on Columbus, 31.

  48. northern voyages took him: Fernández-Armesto, Columbus, 6, 18.

  49. especially its great size: Fernández-Armesto, “Medieval Atlantic Exploration,” 65.

  50. Shortly before the start: Phillips and Phillips, Worlds of Christopher Columbus, 140. The Sargasso Sea is a large area of the Atlantic Ocean bounded by a number of currents but within which there is virtually no current and often no wind. Passage through it is further complicated by the presence of masses of sargassum weed. It lies roughly between 20º–35ºN and 30º–70ºW.

  51. “Men of Cathay”: In ibid., 105.

  52. “On the island of Flores”: Colón, Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus, 24. Cape Verga is on the coast of Africa, 10ºN.

  53. “the perimeter of the earth”: Phillips and Phillips, Worlds of Christopher Columbus, 110.

  54. excessive compensation: Nader, Rights of Discovery, 63–64.

  55. normally earned: Phillips and Phillips, Worlds of Christopher Columbus, 143.

  56. Luis de Santángel: Ibid., 132.

  57. “a central figure”: Fernández-Armesto, Amerigo, 52.

  58. the caravels Niña and Pinta: Experts’ conjectures on the linear measurements of Columbus’s ships differ widely. The minimum dimensions proposed are: Niña, 15m by 5m; Pinta, 17m by 5m; and Santa María, 18m by 6m. See Elbl, “Caravel”; Pastor, Ships of Christopher Columbus; and Phillips, “Iberian Ships.”

  59. Taino island of Guanahaní: The exact location of Columbus’s first landing is based on educated guesswork. Prevailing opinion favors San Salvador; other claimants—all in the Bahamas and within 250 nautical miles of each other—are the Caicos Islands, Semana Cay, and Cat Island. The English called San Salvador Watlings Island until the island’s strong claim to an historical pedigree was established.

  60. “which I believe”: In Phillips and Phillips, Worlds of Christopher Columbus, 163.

  61. “I am not taking much pains”: In ibid., 163.

  62. “hearing the news”: Barros, Asia, dec. 1, book 3, chap. 11, in Diffie and Winius, Foundations, 171.

  63. a hundred leagues west: Inter Caetera, in Davenport, European Treaties, 74n18, 76. On the broader implications of dividing the ocean, see Mancke, “Early Modern Expansion.” On dates of the bulls, see Linden, “Alexander VI,” 3–8.

  64. “found or to be found”: “The Bull Dudum Siquidem,” in Davenport, European Treaties, 82.

  65. stealing gold and women: Phillips and Phillips, Worlds of Christopher Columbus, 199; Fernández-Armesto, Columbus, 104.

  66. “earthly paradise”: Columbus, “Letter of Columbus to Their Majesties,” in Jane, Select Documents, 2:34. The rivers in Genesis 2.11–14 are the Pison (thought to be the Ganga or Indus), Gihon (Nile), Hiddekel (Tigris), and Euphrates.

  67. in chains: Fernández-Armesto, Columbus, 153.

  68. the last two years of his life: Ibid., 177–84.

  69. his writings implausibly suggest: Fernández-Armesto, Amerigo, 67.

  70. Martin Waldseemüller: Ibid., 185–91; Meurer, “Cartography in the German Lands,” 1204–7.

  71. “named Vasco da Gama”: Barros, Asia, dec. 1, book 4, chap. 1, in Subrahmanyam, Career and Legend, 54.

  72. “a youth who”: In Subrahmanyam, Career and Legend, 93.

  73. hired a pilot: This was long believed to be the navigator Ibn Majid, but this has been proved false. See Winius, “Enterprise Focused on India,” 115.

  74. second-rate offerings: Subrahmanyam, Career and Legend, 136, 142.

  75. “Lord of the Conquest”: In Radulet, “Vasco da Gama,” 137.

  76. Pedro Álvares Cabral: Subrahmanyam, Career and Legend, 174–84; Greenlee, Voyage of Pedro Alvares Cabral.

  77. Cabral bombarded the city: Winius, “Estado da India on the Subcontinent,” 193.

  78. São Thomé de Meliapur: Winius, “Portugal’s Shadow Empire,” 248.

  79. Francisco Serrão: Barbosa, Magalhães, and Dames, The Book of Duarte Barbosa, 200.

  80. “Please God the Almighty”: Sebastian Alvarez to Dom Manuel, in Stanley, First Voyage Round the World, pp. xliv–xlv. Credited with discovering Newfoundland for Portugal, the brothers Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Reals were lost at sea in 1501 and 1502, respectively.

  81. “We ate biscuit”: Pi
gafetta, Magellan’s Voyage Around the World, 1:83–85.

  82. “a true Portuguese”: Camoens, Lusiads, book 10 (p. 246).

  83. Portuguese and Spanish experts: Bourne, “Demarcation Line of Pope Alexander VI,” 209.

  84. “discovery, conquest and colonization”: In Schurz, Manila Galleon, 21.

  85. “to establish a route”: In Schurz, Manila Galleon, 21.

  86. “With this the foundation”: Martin de Zuñiga, in Schurz, Manila Galleon, 27. See Spate, Spanish Lake, 161.

  87. agreed to annul the boundaries: Davenport, European Treaties, 170–71.

  15. The Birth of Global Trade

  1. “they crawled like lice”: Blussé and Fernández-Armesto, Shifting Communities and Identity Formation, 2.

  2. “make a royal model map”: In Fernández-Armesto, Amerigo, 180.

  3. Jews and unconverted Muslims: Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World, 51.

  4. The New Spain fleet: Phillips, Six Galleons, 11–13; Pérez-Mallaína, Spain’s Men of the Sea, 9–11.

  5. “neither house, hut”: Hernando de Castro, writing from Santiago de Cuba to his partner in Seville, in Lockhart and Otte, Letters and People of the Spanish Indies, 26.

  6. four hundred Spanish households: Pérez-Mallaína, Spain’s Men of the Sea, 13.

  7. “These two towns”: Juan Cristóbal Calvete des Estrella, in Cook, Born to Die, 105–6.

  8. Buenos Aires: Rocca, “Buenos Aires,” 323–24.

  9. Realejo (Corinto, Nicaragua): Radell and Parsons, “Realejo.”

  10. five or six months: Spate, Spanish Lake, 106.

  11. “Put all the Guinea countries”: In Thomas, Slave Trade, 110. “The peça [piece] de Indias was a prime young male slave; all other slaves of both sexes counted less than a peça. This term might, therefore, include two or even three individuals” (Boxer, Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 100).

  12. fifty thousand more Africans: Thomas, Slave Trade, 134; Boxer, Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 104.

  13. number of ships: Boxer, Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 104.

  14. diplomacy and aggression: Russell-Wood, World on the Move, 15, 21–22.

  15. “the more fortresses”: In Earle and Villiers, Albuquerque, 10.

  16. Afonso de Albuquerque: Ibid., 1–3.