1778 Sartine Map of The Mouth of the Mississippi

French Charting the Mississippi Delta during the American Revolution.

This is a 1778 French naval chart of the Mississippi Delta and northern Gulf Coast, issued for the Neptune Americo-Septentrional under the orders of Antoine de Sartine. Compiled from manuscript plans by French navigators and engineers, it combines coastal soundings with a detailed account of the waterways, wetlands, settlements, and forts behind the shore. Its coverage connects New Orleans and the Mississippi's outlets with Mobile and Pensacola, bringing the principal Gulf Coast approaches together on one chart. This work was part of a broad mapping effort instigated by Sartine as part of his buildup of the French navy - significant in light of subsequent French assistance at the end of the American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783). If Sartine had not pushed for French naval modernization and buildup, France would not have been in a position to aid the Continental cause. Continuing with that thread, French intervention in the American Revolutionary War was one of the principal factors that pushed the French monarchy into the financial crisis that precipitated the French Revolution (1789 - 1799).

A Closer Look

The chart follows the coast from the wetlands west of the Mississippi Delta eastward through Mobile and Pensacola bays to Saint Joseph Bay, Cape San Blas, and the Apalachicola River near the right border. Inland, the Mississippi winds past New Orleans and Baton Rouge toward the Tunica settlement at Portage de la Croix, near present-day Angola, Louisiana. Lakes Pontchartrain, Maurepas, and Borgne establish the relationship between New Orleans, its hinterland, and the coastal passages east of the delta. The Pascagoula River extends northward to its junction with the Leaf River, here named Stapacha, while the branching waterways above Mobile Bay describe the Mobile-Tensaw Delta.

Closely worked engraving distinguishes extensive marshes from firmer ground, making the difficulty of approaching this low-lying coast immediately apparent. Soundings crowd the waters behind the barrier islands between Bay Saint Louis and Pascagoula, continue through the entrances to Mobile and Pensacola bays, and extend offshore toward Cape San Blas. Rhumb lines radiate across the Gulf from a point south of Mobile Bay, while a fleur-de-lis identifies north. Together, these features give the sheet its working character as a navigational chart rather than simply a regional map.

European settlements and forts appear alongside Native American communities. Four Biloxi settlement labels, including one marked abandoned, preserve distinctions a chart focused only on offshore navigation could easily omit. Along the Mississippi, named bends, settlements, and establishments make the river a continuous route between the coast and the interior. At its mouth, the several passes emphasize the problem of selecting an entrance through the delta. La Balise, the pilot settlement whose name came to serve as a broader designation for the Mississippi's mouth, linked these maritime approaches with the commerce of New Orleans.

French Chartmaking during the American Revolution

Antoine de Sartine (1729 - 1801) commissioned this chart as minister responsible for the French navy; the compilation itself was undertaken at the Dépôt Général des Cartes, Plans et Journaux de la Marine. France's alliance with the United States, signed on February 6, 1778, gave immediate military relevance to dependable charts of American waters. The Neptune Americo-Septentrional addressed this need alongside commercial publications such as Le Rouge's Pilote Americain. Its stated method combined French and foreign charts with corrections from authentic manuscript plans and astronomical observations. The present chart specifically credits manuscript surveys by French navigators and engineers.

The geography shown here soon became a theater of the wider war against Britain. After Spain entered the conflict in 1779, Louisiana governor Bernardo de Gálvez (1746 - 1786) captured British posts on the lower Mississippi, followed by Mobile in 1780 and Pensacola in 1781. The chart records the coastal approaches and interconnected waterways of this campaign, although no use of this particular impression in those operations is established.

Publication History and Census

Engraved by Petit and prepared at the Dépôt de la Marine, the chart bears the date 1778. It appeared in the Neptune Americo-Septentrional, whose charts were issued during 1778 - 1780. In the combined-sheet format, this chart occupied the lower portion beneath the Carte réduite des côtes et de l'intérieur de la presqu'île de la Floride, dated 1780. The outer borders continuing upward beyond the present chart's upper neatline are remnants of that arrangement. The two charts are frequently encountered separated, as here.

Approximately ten examples of the separated chart have been identified in OCLC, with a further five retaining the companion Florida chart. The separated chart appears on the market from time to time.

Cartographers

Antoine de Sartine (July 12, 1729 - September 7, 1801) was a competent, ruthless, and extravagant figure who dominated Paris for nearly 15 years. Formally Antoine Raymond Jean Gualbert Gabriel de Sartine, comte d'Alby, Sartine was born in Barcelona, Spain, to the French financier Antoine Sartine. Upon his mother's death, young Antoine was sent to Paris to study law. Following his studies, Sartine purchased the commission of Criminal Lieutenant of Police and was subsequently ennobled. A favorite of the King, he was soon appointed Lieutenant General of Police in 1759. This effectively made him the dominant local power in Paris. Despite his purchased commission, Sartine proved to be a competent and effective city administrator. Paris flourished under his care; he restored public buildings, founded schools, improved finances, and tempered police corruption. He was also head of the French Intelligence organization, at the time the envy of Europe, and reported daily to the King with all of the city's gossip and scandals. This earned him the 1775 commission of Secretary of State for the Navy and the honorific rank of Minister of State. Sartine proceeded to expand and advance the French navy in competition with England. His influence put the French in a position to aid the American Revolutionaries against the British at the close of the American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783). It was during his tenure as head of the French Navy that Sartine ordered the creation of numerous updated nautical charts. Sartine's expansion of the Navy was reconsidered and deplored for depleting the French national treasury. As a result, he was dismissed with honors in 1780. Following his dismissal, M. Sartine remained in Paris until the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789 - 1799). Unpopular with the French citizenry for his work as Police Lieutenant, he wisely fled to his childhood home of Barcelona, Spain. This no doubt saved his life, as his son, who chose to stay behind, was shortly thereafter arrested and condemned to execution. Antoine de Sartine died in Tarragona, Spain, in 1801.   Further Details...

Dépôt des Cartes et Plans de la Marine (fl. 1720 - present), often called the Dépôt Général de la Marine, was a French hydrographic mapping organization founded in 1720 under Charles-Hercule of Albert de Luynes (1674 - 1734). Much like the U.S. Coast Survey, the British Admiralty, and the Spanish Deposito Hydrografico, the Dépôt was initiated as a storehouse and distribution center of existing nautical and marine charts. Eventually the Dépôt initiated its own mapping activities in an attempt to improve and expand upon existing material. Some of the more prominent cartographers and hydrographers associated with the of Dépôt Générale des Cartes were, Philippe Buache, Jacques-Nicholas Bellin, Giovanni Rizzi-Zannoni, Rigobert Bonne, and Jean Nicolas Buache.   Further Details...

Source

Sartine, Antoine de, Neptune Americo-Septentrional, (Paris: Dépôt Général des Cartes, Plans et Journaux de la Marine, 1780).    

Condition

Excellent.

References

OCLC 5447075. Rumsey, 15933.027. Library of Congress, G3862.C6 1778 .F7. Bibliothèque nationale de France, GE SH 18 PF 138 DIV 1 P 7, P 7/1, and P 7/2. The Huntington Library, 105:099 M, combined sheet. Dellinger, Justin T., 'La Balise: A Transimperial Focal Point', The Portolan, Issue 89 (Spring 2014), pp. 8, 21, and 24. Biblioteca Virtual de Defensa, MN A-10042, Neptune Américo-Septentrional, 1778 - 1780.