Afonso de Albuquerque, during the Portuguese conquest of Malacca writes to his king that he seized a map from a Javanese pilot near Malacca. The map had details of areas almost till Antarctica(1000 km south of Tasmania) and even parts of Americas.
This begs one to pose a much bigger question. What do we know of the sea exploits of these thalassocracies, especially Srivijaya, Mataram and Majapahit, and the Indians, Chinese and Japanese. Clearly, their achievements are not mean -
Srivijaya invaded Zanzibar and populated Madagascar, Maldives is as good as a part of India, Chandravasi is the name for the Papuan Bird of Paradise in Indonesian. There are hints, but do we have information?
There are hints that the earliest Portuguese maps copied directly from Indian Ocean Area maps and even their their copying was imperfect.
What happened to the existing maps? Destroyed or left to rot to ensure that Portuguese monopoly on seas stays so!! Wonder how much such information is destroyed by these Abrahamics and on what and all subjects.
Very rare specimens exist but are generally out of reach.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the original map in Portuguese hands was lost in a shipwreck and all the Portuguese king got was a partial and imperfect copy of the original.
So, what do the Javanese know? Almost till Papua and Australia.
Wow!! As like in Africa, a local ship guided the Portuguese in Indonesia. And even the Portuguese ships had local guides.
By the way, did the local ship saw a window and scooted away, leaving the Portuguese to their own devices in a horror show?
Another question would be, how much did the Javanese know. Varthema writes around 1505, they have four to five stars besides the Pole Star for navigation.
There are two important bits of information in this
1. There are sea faring people even in Australia or some island in that area
2. The day is no more than four hours and is the coldest place known to mankind - this climate is almost 1000 km south of Tasmania.
Someone writes a century after Varthema of the Southern Cross,
All this makes one wonder what information the Javanese and Sumatrans had over Australia, and how much of it is permanently lost.
A few points more. You are prohibited to travel farther ahead. Add the legend of Nyai Roro Kidul to this as well.
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