1739 De l'Isle / Covens and Mortier Map of the Western Hemisphere

This is an attractive example of Guillaume De l'Isle's map of America in its first Amsterdam issue. De l'Isle, as Geographer to the King, was considered authoritative throughout Europe, and his maps found an eager audience in Amsterdam and beyond throughout the 18th century.

A Closer Look

De l'Isle's map covers North and South America, the West Indies, the Atlantic Ocean, and parts of Africa and Europe, including England, Ireland, France, Italy, and Spain. The inclusion of the coasts of the Old World and Africa emphasizes the importance of the Atlantic trade routes. De l'Isle includes the Treaty of Tordesillas Line running vertically through the Grand Banks and South America. This line, drawn in 1494 by Pope Alexandre VI, was intended to divide the New World between Portugal and Spain. Despite the antiquity of that ruling, the line had relevance, at least to explain why Brazil should have been appended to the Portuguese Empire, whilst Newfoundland would pass to the French and the British.

The American Pacific coast presents California emphatically as part of the mainland - De l'Isle having disavowed an insular California. North of Cap Mendocino is a passage attributed to Martin Aguilar, possibly an early report of the Columbia River. Beyond this, De l'Isle declines to speculate.

Golden Cities

While De l'Isle was notable for a refusal to present information unsupported by exploration at the limits of his knowledge in the American Northwest, he includes the legendary golden cities of Quivira and Teguaio; the former situated in a mountain valley northwest of Sante Fe, and the latter near the speculative Great River of the West reported by Lahontan.

In South America, Delisle maps the Laguna de Xarayes as the source of the Paraguay River. The Xarayes, a corruption of 'Xaraies' meaning 'Masters of the River,' were an indigenous people occupying what are today parts of Brazil's Matte Grosso and the Pantanal. When Spanish and Portuguese explorers first navigated up the Paraguay River, as always in search of El Dorado, they encountered the vast Pantanal flood plain at the height of its annual inundation. Understandably misinterpreting the flood plain as a gigantic inland sea, they named it after the local inhabitants, the Xaraies. The Laguna de los Xarayes almost immediately began to appear on early maps of the region and, at the same time, almost immediately took on a legendary aspect. Later missionaries and chroniclers, particularly Díaz de Guzman, imagined an island in this lake and curiously identified it as an 'Island of Paradise.'

Beware Rocks and Whirlpools

This map also contains a number of navigational threats - predominantly rocks, some of which are noted to lie beneath the ocean surface. Some of these, such as those near Cape Verde marked Abrolhos, derive from Portuguese reports. ('Abrolhos' means 'keep your eyes open.') A notable inclusion is the maelstrom situated in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. We have identified no earlier map than De l'Isle's to show this curious whirlpool, and De l'Isle's source is obscure; this feature would appear on several other maps during the 18th century in imitation of this map, but by 1800, even De l'Isle's successor Dezauche would be moved to append the word 'doubtful' to this note on his updated version of this map. As it happens, modern scientists have identified two massive whirlpools in the South Atlantic. While not permanent, these whirlpools are known to last several months before dissipating. It may well be that a report of one of these ephemeral wonders had reached De l'Isle's desk.

Publication History and Census

Guillaume De l'Isle's map of the Western Hemisphere was long-lived. It first appeared in 1722, printed for De l'Isle in Paris; a second plate was engraved by Covens and Mortier in Amsterdam in 1739, essentially unchanged but with the Covens and Mortier imprint and distinctive, florid lettering for the title's 'd'Amerique.' This plate would be replaced in 1755 to include the novel 'Sea of the West' cartography; further plates would be produced throughout the 18th century. The present example is of the 1739 second plate, making it a comparatively early issue of the map.