1697 Louis Hennepin Map of North America: First State

First state of a groundbreaking map of North America.

This is the rare 1697 first state of Louis de Hennepin's map of North America. Wheat hailed this foundational work as 'an important cartographic stepping stone … the first made by a Frenchman from on-the-spot experience'. It is the first map to place Hennepin's firsthand mapping of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River in the broader context of the mapping of the continent, and it would exert a lasting impact on the next century's mapping of America. It also, bucking the era's conventions, presents California as a peninsula.

A Closer Look

The map covers America from Terra Firma in South America to the Arctic; it spans from the conjectural Terre de Iesso in the west to the British Isles in the east. Thus, it includes all of North America from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson's Bay. The elegantly engraved title cartouche dedicates the map to William III of England and is surmounted by the British Royal Arms. An inset at the upper left details the Terre de Iesso, believed to lie in the North Pacific between Japan and the Pacific Northwest, a fixture on late 17th-century maps.

The Core of Hennepin's Experience

The most essential, firsthand part of this map is comprised of Hennepin's depiction of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, drawn from his 1682 journey accompanying La Salle down that river (La Salle's disappointed hope was to find that the Mississippi might afford passage to the Pacific.) The expedition was the first European one to sail through Lakes Ontario, Erie, and Huron into Lake Michigan. After passing through the Great Lakes, the expedition followed the St. Joseph River to what is today South Bend, Indiana, where they constructed Fort Crevecoeur. (The fort is named on the map.) La Salle would go on to explore the length of the Mississippi, but Hennepin turned northwards in an effort to find the sources of the Mississippi, past St. Anthony Falls (marked on the map). When he tried to return to Fort Crevecoeur, a band of Sioux captured him and took him to the Mille Lacs region of Minnesota, near Lake Superior; the time he spent there before his ransom may have led to his detailed mapping of that lake.

Thus, the five Great Lakes are depicted and named, based on Hennepin's work: Lake Superior is particularly well defined. Lake Michigan, distorted east to west, is here named Lake Illinois. Lake Huron is somewhat stunted and, in addition to the familiar name, is also referred to here as 'Karegondi.' Lake Erie, drooping to the southwest, is both named Erie and Chat, the latter being the French term for the Erie People. Lake Ontario is thus named, with the additional term Lac Frontenac. Overall, the depiction of the lakes here is a marked improvement from the previous standard set by Sanson.

The Upper Mississippi is depicted according to Hennepin; the lower reaches of the river ought to be ascribed to La Salle. Hennepin, however, took the credit for himself, claiming that he had explored the full length of the Mississippi before La Salle (an impossibility given the time available). The two agreed that the Mississippi did indeed flow into the Gulf of Mexico. Hennepin, however, mapped the Mississippi far west of its actual course, placing its mouth near modern-day Corpus Christi. Having founded a colony on Matagorda Bay, La Salle knew better and correctly sought the Mississippi to the east. Nonetheless, Hennepin mapped the mouth of the Mississippi west of La Salle's colony, a decision that would ultimately expand French claims in Louisiana. Though Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville finally discovered the mouth of the Mississippi in 1699, the French maintained their claim to the enormous Louisiana. Over a hundred years later, when the fledgling United States acquired the vast Louisiana Territory from Napoleon Bonaparte, Hennepin's map and La Salle's claims led some to suggest that Louisiana included (or at least should have included) Texas, contributing to the Mexican-American War and the U.S. Annexation of Texas.

William's Cartouche

The Belgian Hennepin's exploration was conducted under the aegis of the King of France. His embroideries and self-aggrandizement at La Salle's expense caused him to fall out of favor with Louis XIV, who banished Hennepin from France and declared that he would be imprisoned should he return to America. Hennepin fled to England to seek the patronage of William III of England; consequently, the English monarch's arms appear here in the title cartouche. The effort succeeded: William III paid for the production of Hennepin's 1697 Nouvelle Découverte d'un tres grand Pays, in which this map appeared. La Salle, having been assassinated a decade prior, was not available to contradict Hennepin's claims of having beaten him to the Gulf.

Other Routes to the Pacific

The map does include an iteration of the tantalizing possibility of a Northwest Passage, through Hudson Bay and the Mer Glaciale, passing to the Pacific between the Terre de Iesso and California.

Peninsular California

The prevalent theory in the 17th century - starting in 1624 - was that California was the biggest island in the world. California's distinct, if exaggerated, peninsularity here is surprising, bucking the era's standard conventions. Overall, its coastline resembles the island as proposed by Sanson in the 1650s, including the Mar Vermeille ou Mer Rouge running as far north as the 45th parallel - at which point Sanson's island is connected to the rest of North America. This innovation proved short-lived, and the map was 'corrected' in the 1698 edition to show California's insularity.)

Publication History and Census

This map was first engraved for inclusion in the 1697 Broedelet edition of Nouvelle Découverte d'un tres grand Pays Situe dans L'Amerique. Burden records three subsequent states of the map: the second, published by Specht in 1698, presents California as an island among other changes. A third state that same year bore the imprint of Someren in Amsterdam; a fourth was published in Leiden under the imprint of Pierre van der Aa. We see perhaps 16 examples of this first state in OCLC; the map is scarce on the market.

Cartographer

Antoine Louis Hennepin (May 12, 1626 - December 5, 1704) was a Catholic priest and missionary of the Franciscan Recollect order. Born in 1626 in Ath in the Spanish Netherlands, the son of a butcher. He joined the Franciscan covenant of Béthune (Pas-de-Calais) at 17, where he studied under Father Gabriel de la Ribourde. Latter he transferred to the convent of Maontargis (Loriet), where he completed his religious studies under Father Paul Huet. He entered the priesthood immediacy after. He is best known as an explorer of the interior of North America. After entering the Catholic Church he was assigned to the coast of France, where he remained until 1675. The stories he heard from sailors returning from North America intrigued him to such degree that he himself made the journey across the Atlantic. Hennepin arrived in New France as a Recollect Missionary and was selected as the scribe and chronicler for Robert Cavelier La Salle's 1678 expedition from Fort Frontenac to the Great Lakes. Hennepin, who had a passion for 'pure and severe virtue' and La Salle, who had a passion for 'moral weaknesses' never quite saw eye to eye. Nonetheless, in 1680 La Salle sent Hennepin, along with two woodsmen, to search out the source of the Mississippi. Hennepin travelled down the Illinois River as far as the Mississippi, where he passed present-day Minneapolis. Among the many firsts on this journey was the discovery and naming of St. Anthony Falls, the only cataract on the Mississippi. Hennepin then traveled northwards to Lac des Issatis, or Leach Lake, which he asserted was the source of the Father of Rivers, a term he also claims (falsely) to have coined. Though Leach Lake is a source of the Mississippi it is not generally considered to be the source. On his return journey Hennepin was taken prisoner by a wandering band of Sioux Indians who took him into the Mille Lacs region of Minnesota. Hennepin remained in Sioux custody until September of 1680 when the adventurer Daneil Greysolon Delhut, who had negotiated a peace treaty with the Sioux, ransomed him. In 1681, Hennepin began writing his first book, Description de la Louisiane, which he dedicated to Louis XIV of France, and which described the achievements of the La Salle Expedition. Hennepin's book proved to be an enormous success that significantly impact on the cartographic history of America. It is also contains the first European image of Niagara Falls. Ten years later La Salle was assassinated in modern day Texas by Pierre Duhaut. Meanwhile, Hennepin, perhaps seeing an opportunity for self-aggrandizement, fled to England where he published another book, Nouvelle Decouverte d'un tres grand Pays Situe dans L'Amerique, dedicated to William III of England. This book reaffirmed, with some controversy, Hennepin's own contribution to the discovery of North America. The false claims in Decouverte include, among other absurdities, spurious assertion that Hennepin explored the entire length of the Mississippi River. Like the first, Hennepin's second book also proved enormously popular and was influential in the mis-mapping of the Mississippi far westward of its actual location for the next 50 years. Decouverte also earned Hennepin the enmity of the French Crown and Louis XIV ordered that he be arrested if he ever attempted to return to New France. He later published a third, less important work that reasserted some of the content of the first two. Louis Hennepin died in Rome in 1705.   Further Details...

Source

Hennepin, Louis, Nouvelle Découverte d'un très grand Pays, situé dans l'Amérique, entre le Nouveau Mexique et la Mer Glaciale, (Utrecht) 1697.    

Condition

Very good. Reinforced at junctures of folds, margins close but complete. Else excellent.

References

OCLC 48663140. Burden, P., The Mapping of North America, #738 State 1. McCorkle, B., New England in Early Printed Maps 1513-1800: An Illustrated Carto-Bibliography, 697.2. Goss, J., The Mapping of North America: Three Centuries of Map-Making 1500-1860, #47. Tooley, R. V., The Mapping of America, p. 125. Winsor, Justin, Narrative and Critical History of America, vol IV, pp. 247-256. Wheat, Carl Irving, Mapping the Transmississippi West, 1540-1861, #77. Cumming, W. P., The Exploration of North America, 1640 - 1776, pl. 79. Karpinski, L. C., Maps of Famous Cartographers Depicting North America, p.100. Kaufman, K., The Mapping of the Great Lakes in the Seventeenth Century: Twenty-Two Maps from the George S. and Nancy B. Parker Collection, #20.