Pierre Marie François de Pagés, Carte d’une Partie de l’Amérique Séptentrionale…, 1782

The French naval officer Pagés published this important map of Texas, the Southwest, and Mexico as an illustration for the first edition of his Voyages autour du monde, an account of his nine-year voyage around the world. His historic overland crossing of Texas in 1767 is considered the most significant area of his travels. Pagés’ account of his Texas journey and the accompanying map hold great importance as the eighteenth century’s best source of firsthand information on the region.

A line on the map indicates Pagés’ overland exploration from the point where he made port in New Orleans, then traveled up the Mississippi and Red Rivers to Nachitoches before heading west on horseback across the “Province de los Texas” (also referred to here as “Tegas”). From San Antonio, his party turned south, traveling to Mexico City and on to Acapulco. The map key contains 15 designations for towns, bishoprics, missions, and native settlements, including areas referenced as “policed” and “non-policed.” Topographical features are beautifully indicated with tiny mountains, vegetation, and detailed river systems. A handsome compass rose is centered in the Gulf of Mexico, and highlights the Tropic of Cancer.

Pagés’ journey made him intimately familiar with the terrain. He wrote:

It is difficult to imagine the fatigues and hardships we experienced in passing the larger rivulets of this country. In order to approach them, as their deep channels are generally situated between borders of morass, we were frequently under the necessity of either covering the quagmire with different strata of earth and faggot, or of opening ourselves a passage with the spade. . . . I have seen us spend several days in extricating ourselves from the embarrassment of one miserable little brook. . . .

Despite these and other difficulties, Pagés qualifies the experience as highly rewarding:

. . . the gratification I derived from the rural scenes through which we were constantly passing, was the chief but very satisfactory reward of my toils. I will not pretend to describe the impressions I received in those situations, for nothing less than experience can make my reader understand the various pleasing emotions which simple and unperverted nature is formed to create in the mind.