Carte des Possessions Angloises & Françoises du Continent de L'Amérique Septentrionale

Book Description

London: Nourse, Vaillant, Millar, Rocque & Sayer, 1755 (but 1757 or 1758). Copper-engraved map by Thomas Kitchin, with full original colour, with contemporary manuscript additions, lower centerfold strengthened outside of image area, in very good condition. 21 5/8 x 29 1/8 inches. A great French and Indian War map from Palairet's 'Atlas méthodique.' This is Palairet's most important map, a fascinating and artistically virtuous depiction of the political situation as it existed at the beginning of the French and Indian War (1756-63). The map colourfully depicts the British and French claims in North America and the unaligned territories in between. The map also includes the westward heading, parallel lines of each British colonies' right of expansion, as granted by one or another Stuart King, extending to the Pacific; all of which, of course, run through lands claimed by France , and presently inhabited by Native tribes. On a more tactical level, the map locates French forts from Nova Scotia to forts on the Missouri and Mississippi. In other words, it is a map that sets the scene for the war just beginning. Despite the French title, Palairet lived in Great Britain and worked for the Royal Family. The map is somewhat partial to Britain, which is shown to possess all of the eastern seaboard north of Spanish Florida up to the south bank of the St. Lawrence River - which in reality lay at the heart of New France. Southern Ontario and the region between the Appalachians and the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers is shown as disputed territory between Britain and France. These regions France considered her own. The map allows French Louisiana, comprising the land west of the Illinois and Mississippi, and the area from the Mississippi Delta to Mobile. As noted below the Explication, this issue of the map features a hand-drawn line in red ink from Bay Vert in Nova Scotia to Lake Ontario, a new 'line of control' that reflects French advances after victories in the first two years of the war. Cutting across Nova Scotia, Maine and New Hampshire, it turns south to include Lake George and Lake Champlain and most of the land ruled by the Iroquois Confederacy. All the French forts in North America have been circled as well in red ink. These revisions, made in the midst of war by one of the publishers, make this state of the map particularly intriguing. This map is based on John Mitchell's immensely influential A Map of the British Colonies in North America, published in 1755. The present map was engraved by Thomas Kitchin, one of London's most esteemed engravers and cartographers. It is adorned by an attractive rococo cartouche. The designation of states of this map will require future bibliographical clarification. The present map is an unrecorded state: dated 1755 and including "Sayer" as one of the publishers, but not including "par Palairet" (as in later states), nevertheless, reflecting events that took place in 1756 and 1757 (victories at Lake Ontario and the taking of Fort William Henry on Lake George). Jean Palairet was born in Montauban, France, but emigrated to England where he became a French tutor to the children of George II. He later wrote several informative books on arithmetic, language, arts and sciences, and geography. The present map is from the second edition of Palairet's greatest work, the Atlas méthodique, a magnificent cartographical demonstration, in which landmasses are shown in various stages of political definition. McCorkle, New England in Early Printed Maps, 755.22; Phillips, Atlases in the Library of Congress, 3503, map 14; Sellers & Van Ee, Maps & Charts of North America & West Indies, 56; Stevens & Tree, 'Comparative Cartography', 18; in Tooley, Mapping of America

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