America Septentrionalis

Scarce map of North America based on the geography of the prominent French cartographer Guillaume De L'Isle.



California is once again shown as a peninsula rather than as an island.  This is a direct reference to the source map by de L'Isle who was sceptical of the concept of an insular California but in the minority of the tie. This correction to a peninsula was actually confirmed by the Jesuit missionary Eusebio Francisco Kino during his explorations in Baja California in 1701, though it was not always immediately adopted by cartographers. German mapmakers, in particular, often showed California as an island well into the 1750s. It is obvious that this is still relatively new information, as the cartographer has left the head of the Gulf of California unfinished. Northern California bears the name Nova Albion (New Britain), a name first applied by Sir Francis Drake in 1579 during his circumnavigation.



In the northeast there is also some uncertainty as one channel has been left unfinished in Hudson Bay, the final hope that a North West Passage might exist between Hudson Bay and the Pacific. The geography of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River is now much more accurate than on earlier maps. De L'Isle, who at the time was Royal Geographer to the King of France, had access to the official reports of French explorers and fur trappers operating in the area, a critical source of new information about this as-yet-unsettled region.



The names of French, English and Native American settlements appear on the map - with the French residing in Carolina and west to the Mississippi River, (coloured in yellow) and the English predominantly in the northeast (highlighted in pink on this map).



The map has two highly decorative cartouches depicting Native Americans alongside valuable commodities such as fruit, wildlife, tusks, and a hunted deer. These cartouches likely refer to the prosperous trading relationship fostered by the French crown between Native groups and French merchants.



Original hand-colour. [AMER2402]