Chatelain, New Map of North America, ca. 1720-1735

Henri A. Chatelain illustrates the relationships of the French, English, and Spanish claims in 18^th century North America, as well as Mexico and Central America. This detailed map of the inhabited parts of the Americas is based on Delisle’s landmark map L’Amerique Septentrionale…first published in 1700 in Atlas de Géographie.  Chatelain’s Nouvelle Carte de L’Amerique… is a superb example of his cartographic skills, and his attention to historical and cultural observations.

Here Chatelain shows the extent of North America from Baffin Bay to northern South America by way of peninsular California and the Caribbean. The Great Lakes are depicted with remarkable accuracy for the time, and shows French strong points such as Tadousac, Quebec, Fort Sorel, Montreal and Fort Frontenac. The English settlements, here defined as Nouv. Angleterre, are confined to the east of the Alleghenies, with Fort and River Kinibeki [Kennebec] as the border between New England and Acadia. The Mississippi valley area is shown well developed with the recent French settlement of d’Iberville at Bilochy and forts at Bon Secours and St. Louis. The Spanish territories in the southwest are named “Nouveau Mexique.” These areas are clearly separated from Nouvelle Espagne, which is the area of present-day Mexico and Central America. The present-day states of Texas and Oklahoma are here identified as a French possession called Floride, a name that would soon change to Louisiane. This map also includes many fascinating tiny vignettes of Native American villages, mythical locations like Quivera and Cibola, as well as the routes of European discoverers along the Pacific coast.

This map was first published in Chatelain’s famous Atlas Historique in Amsterdam from 1705 to 1720.  The Atlas Historique was one of the most expansive encyclopedias of its time, which focused on geography as well as textual historical, political, and genealogical information.  This ambitious atlas was intended for the general public who would have been fascinated by recently conquered colonies and far distant countries such as the subject of this map, the Americas.

Refs.: French, Josephine, Tooley’s Dictionary of Mapmakers (Revised Edition A-D), p.258; Rumsey, no. 4764.095 and no. 4638.093; Phillips, Atlases, 548 & 579.