Solo keris for comment.

[A. G. Maisey]

Gustav, in respect of early European contact with Jawa, it is important to understand the difference between the Island of Jawa and the Land of Jawa. Early Portuguese contact with people living on the Island of Jawa was in fact with Banten, a part of Sunda, not a part of the Land of Jawa.

The Portuguese assisted Banten in a military action (1522), against the Sultan of Demak, which is on the North Coast of Central Jawa, and subsequently set up a trading post at Panarukan in East Jawa, their first contact with Javanese, rather than Sundanese people was with the Muslim traders along the North Coast of Jawa, first in the military action against Demak, and then in trade with the established Muslim traders.

Since the Kingdom of Majapahit is central to this discussion we need to focus on the Land of Jawa, not the Island of Jawa.

In respect of Francis Drake, I have a vague memory that a Sumatran ruler gave Drake as keris as a gift to his queen. It may be in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Drake made it to Jawa about 1580, by which time Islam was well and truly on the way to domination of Jawa, and was certainly entrenched along the coastal ports of North Jawa by this time. (If searching for this keris, spellings of creese and kris might perhaps be useful)

There are quite a number of Javanese keris that date from the late 16th century forward in European collections, but from memory I cannot recall any of these earliest keris being accompanied by scabbards.

I do agree that the absence of something does not prove its non-existence, but I really do not hold a great deal of hope that a keris scabbard that we can positively identify as having a link to the Karaton of Majapahit, prior to 1525 is ever likely to appear. Probably all we will ever have are depictions in carvings.

That hilt carving is great evidence, but regrettably too late a date for any Majapahit association. The scabbard shown on the statue is really great, and is an echo of the one in the Panataran carvings, which inclines me to the opinion that perhaps what we now think of as Bugis style scabbards were once popular in East Jawa.

Actually, we probably would need a keris scabbard from the earlier years of Majapahit, as by the time that Demak set out to eliminate Majapahit as a commercial competitor --- yes, it was all about commerce and power, not religion --- the Majapahit court had a pretty considerable content of nobles and officials who followed the Islamic faith. It was a very tolerant court.

[Gustav]

Alan, there was almost none trade between Portuguese and Muslims from North Coast of Java. Portuguese as Catholics didn't officially trade with Muslims, unlike the Danish and Dutch. The official Portuguese trade contact was with Hindu Kingdom of Sunda.

In respect of Francis Drake, he never visited Sumatra. You probably mixed him up with Richard Swann, who was in Sumatra 60 years later and brought back to England a Keris, gift from Sultan of Indragiri.

Francis Drake visited Bali and a port in Eastern Java, not North Coast, and his contacts were explicitly with Hindu people, as were those of Thomas Cavendish.

There are three old Keris in Ashmolean Tradescant collection, yet their provenance is not clear before 1656 or perhaps 1637.

The Sheath at the back of the Bhima/Kertolo statue is almost identical to the one provenanced from 1607 in Vienna (very important - the carvings on Gambar, including Wideng Kasatriyan), and the hilt figure with Ladrangan is the hilt of this Keris.

There are quite a big number of Keris sheaths, which go back to the 17th cent., and at least three (including the one from Sendai), which perhaps could go back to the 16th cent. All of them are Gandar Iras Sunggingans. Also perhaps some more simple sheaths, like the one from Kopenhagen I mentioned, could be that old or even older.

[A. G. Maisey]

Gustav, thank you for your further comments.

Yes, the Portuguese did have trade contact with Banten, but that failed, and their major trade efforts were then in the Eastern Islands, however, their first contact with Javanese people was with the North Coast traders.

The Portuguese attempted to deal direct with the source of the spice trade, the local rulers of the Moluccas, but because of deceit and unfair dealing, the local rulers soon began to consider them as very undesirable trading partners, and they preferred to continue to deal with the Muslim traders, most of whom were based in Jawa.

From about 1507 Albuquerque was very active in trying to block the long established routes used by Muslim traders to transport the spices to consumers to the west, and in 1511 he conquered Malacca, following this he ramped up his efforts and soon had control of the sea routes that linked the Spice Islands to the Mediterranean and Western Europe.

Prior to this, the spice trade had been dominated by Arab peoples. Contrary to the belief that good Christians would not deal with Muslims, the good Christians of Europe were very eager to obtain cloves, pepper and other spices from whatever source they could, and this source was an Arab one, for hundreds of years.

The Portuguese in what is now Indonesia did have contact with Muslims and were not averse to engaging in trade with them when it suited their needs.

Yes, I agree, Francis Drake did not visit the Island of Sumatra, as I noted in my post #19, my memory was a vague one, and I do not doubt that the keris that was presented to Elizabeth was brought there by somebody other than Drake. Mostly I write my posts from memory, simply because I do not have time to check everything before writing, and it is certainly true that I can forget or confuse minor, non-critical details. Correction is always appreciated.

Francis Drake did not visit Bali.

There was book published a few years ago by a Canadian retired politician named Sam Bawlf, it has a title something along the lines of "Francis Drake's Secret Voyage". It was written for a popular readership and has a similar level of accuracy to that Gavin Menzies book "1421-- the year China discovered the world". In this book Bawlf makes some really outlandish claims and the book has been the recipient of a lot of academic criticism.

One of Bawlf's claims is that Drake visited Bali, but Drake in fact went nowhere near Bali, he crossed the Pacific, hit Palau, then sailed to Mindanao, the Moluccas ( where he loaded up with a cargo of cloves), Sulawesi, Timor, then along the South Coast of the Island of Java to Cilacap, where he took on water and provisions before heading home via the Cape of Good Hope.

Bawlf also claims that because Drake uses the word Gentile to describe the people he encounters at a place which is 7 degrees 13 minutes south, Drake is in fact talking about Hindus, because Bawlf believes that the word "gentile" at that time was used to describe Hindus, and only Hindus. This is part of Bawlf's evidence that Drake did in fact visit Bali --- even though the latitude quoted is not far enough south to be Bali.

Middle English was the vernacular in England from after the Norman Conquest up until the early 1500's, this was followed by a transitional period that lasted until about the middle of the 1600's, by which time the vernacular in most of England can be classified as "Early Modern English".

In Middle English the word "Gentile" meant either a person of any non-Jewish nation, or heathen or pagan, depending upon context.

The first appearance of the word "Gentile" given the sense of "a Hindu as distinct from a Muslim" was in 1727. (Oxford on Historical Principles).

Drake visited the Spice Islands in 1579.

Bawlf's claims and conspiracy theories make entertaining reading, but it is unwise to accept what he has written as accurate.

A far better source for Drake's circumnavigation of the world is "The World Encompassed", this was published in 1628 and was compiled from the notes of Francis Fletcher, who sailed with Drake. Drake's original journal was given to Queen Elizabeth 1, but it has been lost.

All of this has got precious little to do with Majapahit keris scabbards, but if we're going to quote history, it is probably just as well to try to get it as straight as we can, as Gustav has demonstrated.

[Gustav]

Actually the theory Francis Drake visited Bali goes back at least to 1724-27 (Franz Valentyn), according to Encyclopædia metropolitana (1845). It is possible, that Valentyn mixed up Drake and Houtman.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes, Cornelis de Houtman did visit Bali in 1597. By all accounts it was a disaster of a voyage, however, although a disaster, it is also considered by many to be the beginning of the Dutch colonisation of The Indies.

I suppose it is possible that Francis Drake may have visited Bali in 1597, but if so, in spirit only. He died of dysentery in 1596.

Prior to your post Gustav, I doubt that I had ever heard of Valentyn, or of the Encyclopedia Metropolitana, but I did read Bawlf, and am aware of the criticism that his work drew from many people --- but not from me:- accepted in the spirit of Gavin Menzies, or even Erich von Danniken, "Secret Voyage" is entertaining reading.