The Malay and Sulawesi texts offer only sketchy or fantastic ideas of the western seas; this clearly shows that at the time they were composed they had only indirect knowledge of these parts. In these texts the western seas are portrayed as an immense expanse of water where travelers are at risk from dangerous whirlpools and sea monsters. In the far west lay the island of the Pao Jengki (the mango tree from Jengki). The Bugis (of Sulawesi) name Jengki, like the Javanese and Malay Janggi, corresponds to the Arabic Zanj, which points to the lands west of the Indian Ocean. This giant tree is said to be full of gigantic beings and to reach the sky; stones supposed to come from its giant fruit are still kept as betel boxes and prized as treasures by princely Bugis families. · They are in fact shells from the Seychelles double coconut (Lodoicea maldivica), which grows only in the small island of Praslin and is thus indeed a product of Zanj.

 

Denys Lombard (1980) argues that because they are given the name Jengki that it looks like this were objects brought by ships from longtime ago when traveling from the western islands in the Indian Ocean.

 

The name surely dates from way before the arrival of the Portuguese as we find by Pigafetta (travelling with Magellan) in 1522: They also related to us that beyond Java Major, towards the north in the Gulf of China, which the ancients named Sinus Magnus, there is an enormous tree named Campanganghi, in which dwell certain birds named Garuda, so large that they take with their claws, and carry away flying, a buffalo, and even an elephant, to the place of the tree, which place is named Puzathaer. The fruit of this tree is called Buapanganghi, and is larger than a water melon.  

Bua (fruit) Pan (Pau=wild mango) Ganghi (Janggi = African)

 

However: Voyages to Africa-Madagascar still went on in the 15^th-16^th century and that out of Sumatra and Java. Examples:

 

Taken from: Ma Huan: Ying-Yai Sheng-Lan: 'The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores' (1433)

The country of Liu Mountain (Maldive and Lacadive Islands)

Setting sail from Su-men-ta-la, after passing Hsiao mao mountain, you go towards the south-west; (and) with a fair wind you can reach (Maldives) in 10 days.

Taken from: Maokun's map (about the same period)

Sailing directions: one starts from Male (Maldives) to Mogadishu; it reads:

From Kuan hsu liu (Male Island) steer 255 deg-270 deg ; after 150 watches the ship makes Mu-ku-tu (Mogadishu).

 

Taken from: Ahmad ibn Majid al-Najid (1462): Kitab al-Fawa'id fi usul al-bahr wa'l-qawa'id. (the book of profitable things concerning the first principles and rules of navigation) from Julfar (Oman)

From the East Indies to Africa and back

Know the occurrences of all the seasons and winds. (The season for sailing) from Manaqabuh and Fansur and the ocean side of Sumarta to the African coast begins on the 60th day of the year (21th jan) and is not good at any other time.(because at this date the NE monsoon reaches its furthest southern extension and will remain there till the monsoon change off Zanzibar in March)  The same applies from Sunda bari and Lasem in Java.

 

Taken from: The Suma oriental of Tomé Pires (1515) : an account of the East…..

The Gujaratees dispose of all this merchandise because it is made up of goods consumed in the country, and the people are many, and it goes from there to Sunda and to the Maldive (Diva) Islands, — because the Maldive Islands reach to opposite Sunda, and go on along the whole of Sumatra on the western side up to Gamispola and up to Cannanore, and from these parts they go to the Maldive Islands in five days, according to the statements of the merchants who sail from the Maldives……

 

Taken from: Barros: Décadas da Ásia 1 (1552) but talking about 40 years earlier.

Carrying on his exploration with great care, since the coast was full of islands and reefs, Diogo Lopes finally arrived at the Kingdom of Matatana (in Madagascar), where, according to the information he had received, he hoped to find cloves and ginger. However, he could find none, but the natives gave him a good reception. He came to know that the cloves which had been spoken of there had come from a Javanese junk, which a storm had sent adrift and almost shipwrecked. Then he arrived at another port in an island close by, and there too were cloves which had been brought by the junk. This was that what deceived Tristao da Cunha.