This article discusses various early sources on the Indonesian archipelago. It
starts with the status of knowledge before the first voyage of the Portuguese
to the Moluccas from accounts of travellers to insular Southeast Asia in the
Middle Ages and the picture on world maps European cartographers produced.
Comparing that view with text sources and the resulting geographic material of
the first expeditions by the Portuguese provides an insight into contemporary
mechanisms of knowledge transfer. Certain effects can be traced and are repeated
on different levels of access to the original facts mainly because most maps were
drawn up in Europe but based on the geographic description provided by text
accounts. An abundance and multiplication of failures and mistakes is evident
and is partly related to the scarcity of sources and due to reproduction techniques.
