1788 Bowen / D'Anville Map of the Gulf Coast and Mississippi River Delta

This is a handsome example of the scarce 1788 English edition of Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville's map of the Gulf coast and Lower Mississippi River Valley, engraved by Thomas Bowen for John Harrison. This is the best obtainable map of the Lower Mississippi at the time of publication - here in an exceptional English editon.

A Closer Look

The map covers from Sabine Pass (Cabo del Norte), Texas, past the Mississippi River Delta, Mobile Bay, and Pensacola Bay, to the Apalachicola River in Florida. Coverage extends northwards along the Mississippi River as far as, roughly, Lake Providence, and northwards along the Alabama River (Riviere des Alibamons) as far as Fort Toulouse (modern day Wetumpka, Alabama). An inset in the upper right traces the upper Mississippi River Valley and includes much of the lower Missouri River as far as the Kansas River (Kansaz). Mountains are sketched in pictorially, but the region's river courses, including the lower Mississippi, the Red, the Osage, and the lower Missouri are depicted in detail. Depth soundings are noted along the Gulf Coast and in the adjacent bays.

Valentin Devin

Cartographically much of the coastal information presented here is derived from manuscript work compiled by French Royal Engineer Valentin Devin between 1720 and 1732. Devin's work was incorporated into this map, as well as into others by competing French cartographers Philippe Buache, Nicholas Bellin, and Guillaume De L'Isle. Another Royal Engineer, Ignace François Broutin, is responsible for much of the inland cartography, particularly around Natchitoches and Natchez.

Historical Context

D'Anville had drawn this map following the 1730 French siege, and subsequent destruction, of the Grand Village of Natchez. The attack was a retaliatory move on the part of the French following the 1728 Natchez Massacre, in which 229 French colonists in nearby Fort Rosalie (depicted) were slain. The war ultimately dispersed the once powerful Natchez Nation. Many of the Natchez diaspora were subsequently absorbed into the Creek and Chickasaw. The Grand Village of Natchez itself re-emerged as a European trading center on the Mississippi.

A Detailed Mississippi Valley

D'Anville's map is most richly detailed along the Mississippi River, especially the lower Mississippi in the vicinity of New Orleans, on which the map is loosely centered. Throughout numerous towns and villages, both European and American Indian, are identified alongside fortifications, both actively occupied and abandoned. Some depth soundings are indicated in Lake Pontchartrain. The Chandeleur Sound is noted as having many little-known islands. The mouth of the Mississippi, with its complex network of channels, is, for the period, well mapped.

The French-Mexican Frontier

The map extends westward along the Red River (Riviere Rouge) as far as Tecas (Texas), the limit of French dominion. Here the French Fort of Natchitoches stands but seven leagues from the Spanish Presidio de San Miguel Arcangel de Linares de Adayes, noted as 'Adayes, a Spanish garrison of the Province of Tecas'.

The French-English Frontier

At the opposite extreme of the map is Fort Toulouse at the conjunction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers, in the country of the Alibamons (from which the state name Alabama is derived). The French established Fort Toulouse in 1717 as a bastion against English incursion into French territory. Records suggest that the Alabama Indians invited the French, who they perceived as the lesser of two evils, during the Yamasee War (1715 - 1717). The Yamasee War was fought between English settlers in South Carolina and various American Indian Nations. The French abandoned Fort Toulouse in 1763.

The Inset

The inset map in the upper right, though small, is significant in that it offers an interesting perspective on the Upper Mississippi and Lower Missouri Rivers. Here D'Anville has confused the Ohio and Wabash Rivers, presenting them as a single river - an error that D'Anville would correct in his later map Amerique Septentrionale

Publication History

This map was engraved by Thomas Bowen in 1788 for inclusion in John Harrison's D'Anville's Atlas Containing a Map of the World. We see thirteen examples of the separate map catalogued in OCLC. The complete atlas is listed in only two collections, Harvard and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.