A Rare Geographical Work - With Six Maps of America, Published in Prague
Published on the eve of the Adams Onis Treaty, the work includes an excellent map of Louisiana Territory and the United States, and a map of the West Coast of North America, from just south of Monterey, California to Kodiak Island (Russian Alaska), centered on Vancouver Island and the Inside Passage.
The inclusion of the West Coast map coincides with the brief moment in time when the Russians, British, Spanish and Americans were all vying for control of the area between San Francisco and Alaska. The Adams Onis Treaty would reduce the Spanish claims to the area south of the modern California-Oregon border, while the Convention of 1818 between Britian and the United States would establish the area from the Columbia River to north of Vancouer Island as jointly controlled, pending further diplomatic negotiations.
At the same time, the Russians were still active on the west coast, but significantly in decline. The Russo-American Treaty of 1824 limited Russian rights to the fur trade to the area north of latitude 54°40'N, with the US claiming rights to the south. The Treaty of Saint Petersburg in 1825 established the same rights as between Britian and Russia. The retirement of Alexandr Baranov in 1818 would further weaken Russian interests in the region, although the claims to Fort Ross (California) would last until 1841.
The six views include one of the earliest printed views from California, showing one the Mission at Monterey.
This is the Volume 17 (the American volume) of a rare 23-volume work published between 1807 and 1820.
The maps:
- Charte von America . . .
- Charte von der Nordwestkuste Americas Nach Vancouver
- Charte Der neuen Niderlassungen in Ober Canada nach der Smythschen Charte reducirt von I.C.M.R.
- Charte von den Vereinigten Staaten von Nord=America mit Luisiana. Prag. 1818. With inset map of lower part of Florida peninsula.
- Luisiana
- Charte von Nord-America
The 6 plates:
- Total Anblick des Niagara Falls
- Der Indianische Krieger auf Canada. Native American Warrior of Canada.
- Philadelphia von der Abend Seite
- Ansicht von New York
- Die Mission von St. Carlos auf Californien unweit Monterey. This view is likely based on one from Vancouver's Pacific voyage account, published in 1799.
- Aussicht auf den Hudson