The Dutch, the most successful European
traders in Asia in the seventeenth century, relied on navigation charts like
this one for vessels travelling to both Thailand and Cambodia.
At
the top of the map is the Thai capital Ayutthaya (called ‘ll Stad Siam’) and
below it, the Dutch settlement (‘Hollandsche
logie’). The location of Bangkok, then only a small town, is also marked.
In Cambodia the Dutch settlement is also prominently marked, upriver from Phnom
Penh (‘Pononipingh’). Apart from these few features the numerals on the
chart must indicate water depths. Continuous enmity betweea Siam and Cambodia
made it difficult for the Dutch to trade with both kingdoms.
