Editing Paracel Islands (section)

=== European ===
{{main|Placer (geography)}}
{{multiple image
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| image1            = 1771 Bonne Map of Tonkin and Cochinchina (Vietnam).jpg
| image2            = Composite Map East Indies (cropped).png
| footer            = Paracel Islands misidentified in 18th-19th century European maps
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Portuguese maps from the early 16th century marked a group of ''ilhas allagadas'' (<small>{{abbr|lit.|Literally}}</small> "alleged islands") in the area.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last=Ruano |first=Ângela |date=2021-01-01 |title=The Paracel Islands : Tracing their Presence on Western Maps in the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries |url=https://www.academia.edu/47754241/The_Paracel_Islands_Tracing_their_Presence_on_Western_Maps_in_the_Sixteenth_to_Eighteenth_Centuries |journal=IMCoS Journal}}</ref> They were later named ''y as del atabalero'' after the [[atabaque]] hand drum, due to the concial shape assigned to the entire group. The Paracels and the Spratlys were not distinguished separately at the time. From the mid-1500s Portuguese cartographers began referring to the group as ''Ilhas do Pracel'', although ''y as del atabalero'' was still used for some time.<ref name=":6" /> The word ''Paracel'' is likely a variant of ''pracel'' or ''parcel'', from the Spanish word ''placer''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/diccionariomart01navagoog|title=Diccionario marítimo español, que además de las definiciones de las voces con sus equivalentes en frances, inglés e italiano, contiene tres vocabularios de estos idiomas con las correspondencias castellanas. Redactado por orden del rey nuestro señor|date=September 8, 1831|publisher=Madrid, Imprenta real|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> used by [[Portuguese discoveries|Portuguese]] and Spanish navigators to designate shallow sandy seas or [[submerged bank]]s, such as the ''[[Placer de los Roques]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Parcel|url=http://www.dicio.com.br/parcel/ |access-date=March 2, 2016|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305133527/http://www.dicio.com.br/parcel/}}</ref><ref name="NDV2" />

Similar names entered Dutch and French maps, such as the 1617 ''Chart of Asia and eight city maps'' published by [[Willem Blaeu]]<ref name="NDV">Nguyễn Đại Việt, ''Paracel and Spratly Islands on Charts and Maps made by Westerners'', {{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20160305105235/http://www.nguyenthaihocfoundation.org/lichsuVN/haidotayphuong.htm Hoàng Sa và Trường Sa trên Bản đồ Tây Phương]}}, 2009.</ref><ref>Henry Yule, Arthur Coke Burnell, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rcjmiBm8hHQC&dq=%22cauchi-China%22&pg=PA227 Hobson-Jobson: The Anglo-Indian Dictionary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101102529/https://books.google.com/books?id=rcjmiBm8hHQC&lpg=PA226&dq=%22cauchi-China%22&pg=PA227#v=onepage&q=%22cauchi-China%22&f=false|date=January 1, 2016}}, Published by Wordsworth Editions, 1886. Retrieved on 7-7-2014.</ref> as well as the 1747 ''Kaart van de Kusten van Kochinchine, van Tunquin, en Gedeeltelyk van de Chineesse-kus'' ''/ Carte des Costes de Cochin chine, Tunquin, et Partie de celles de la Chine'' (<small>{{abbr|lit.|Literally}}</small> "Map of the coasts of [[Cochinchina]], [[Tonkin]], and part of the Chinese coast") published by Pieter de Hondt/Pierre d'Hondt.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1747 |title=Map of the coast of Tonquin and Cochinchina |url=https://www.atlasofmutualheritage.nl/page/4395/map-of-the-coast-of-tonquin-and-cochinchina |access-date=2025-04-23 |website=Atlas of Mutual Heritage |language=en}}</ref>[[File: ThienNamTuChiLoDo BaiCatVang 1741 reproduced Dumoutier.jpg|thumb|The 1634 ''Route through Quảng Nam'' map depicting Bãi Cát Vàng–the Golden Sandbank|234x234px]]Before the 19th century, the area was primarily known only as "dangerous grounds" in English sources.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Hancox |first=David J. |title=A geographical description of the Spratly Islands and an account of hydrographic surveys amongst those islands |last2=Prescott |first2=John R. V. |date=1995 |publisher=International Boundaries Research Unit, Univ. of Durham |isbn=978-1-897643-18-1 |series=Maritime briefing |location=Durham}}</ref> In the late 1700s and early 1800s, greater attention was paid to mapping the islands in detail, notably by hydrographers such as [[Alexander Dalrymple]] and [[James Horsburgh]],<ref name=":5" /> the latter of whom concluded that most of the Paracel islands indicated in earlier European maps were mistakes of sailors who really saw the tops of coastal mountains.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Horsburgh |first=James |author-link=James Horsburgh |title=Memoirs: Comprising the navigation to and from China, by the China Sea, and through the various straits and channels in the Indian archipelago; also, the navigation of Bombay harbour. |publisher=C. Mercier and Co. |year=1805 |location=London}}</ref> A better picture of the area emerged in British charts by the mid-1800s.<ref name=":5" />