The palawan passage
Navigation to the Philippines in the 15th century

Under the Song dynasty, and even more so under the Yuan dynasty, trading with distant ports was encouraged by the authorities. Borneo was an important crossroads for the great sea trading routes and a favourite stopping place for junks during the Song dynasty.

In fact it would appear that regular trading relations had been established between China and the Philippines archipelago from the late twelfth century. One of the main navigation routes ran between China and Borneo, via the internal sea of the Philippine archipelago. Chinese merchants could not neglect bartering activity with the islands they visited. There is also much archaeological evidence of trading between the Empire and the archipelago, starting during the Tang dynasty.

Although Palawan has not yet been mentioned by name, the archaeological evidence now shows that navigators sailed the length of this large island during the Song dynasty. During the Ming dynasty, trade between China and the Philippines expanded considerably. There are several original Chinese writings that attest to the navigational routes, the countries to which Chinese products were exported and the possibility of exchanging them for locally-made goods.

It is interesting to note, however, that nowhere is there any mention of a route along the west coast of Palawan – where the Lena Shoal junk was found – neither among the main routes nor even their numerous secondary variations. The “Palawan Passage”, as it is now called on maps and charts, does not seem to have been mentioned until the late sixteenth century. Pedro Fidalgo’s voyage on a junk, illustrated by a map produced by Fernando Vaz Dourado in 1571, alludes to the Passage, but supplies no specific topographical information. The Passage was not familiar to Europeans even in the late eighteenth century. The route is indeed dangerous due to the shoals and hidden reefs alongside it, coupled with the rarity of safe havens in which a ship could anchor in order to ride out a storm during the monsoon. It would be a mistake, however, to draw the conclusion that the route to the west of Palawan was unknown in the fifteenth century. Since 1988, we have postulated the existence of a route westwards along this large island, following the discovery in these waters of a late sixteenth century Chinese junk. An archaeological excavation of the wreck, conducted by the European Institute of Underwater Archaeology, revealed that this ship had sunk with its cargo of Chinese export merchandise, indicating that it had been on a route which had started in China. This sole example is obviously insufficient evidence for a claim to be made as to the existence of a known commercial route. We therefore concluded in our report to the excavation, “If discoveries of similar wrecks are made in future in the area of the Palawan Passage, the theory that the western route along Palawan was in use for traditional Nanhai trading would be reinforced”. In fact, since that date, the European Institute of Underwater Archaeology has made finds and conducted archaeological excavations on four wrecks dating back from the eleventh century to the fifteenth century, which still contained their cargo from China and which lie close to the reefs beside the Passage.

We can therefore be fairly certain today that this route was known and in use from the eleventh century onwards. Furthermore, it would appear that it had been used quite frequently. The fact that the route is not clearly mentioned in any Chinese seafaring manual known hitherto remains a mystery.