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This small copper-engraved chart, issued in Amsterdam in Willem Lodewycksz's Prima pars descriptionis itineris navalis in Indiam orientalem .. ., is one of the earliest printed Dutch depictions of Madagascar—then widely known by its Portuguese name Ilha de São Lourenço (“Island of St Lawrence”).
The main map shows Madagascar, its ragged coast stippled with sandbanks, reefs, and dozens of Portuguese toponyms. Two elaborate compass roses sit off the east and southwest shores, and a full web of rhumb lines radiates from them. A three-masted ship under sail in the Mozambique Channel alludes to the Hollanders’ new ocean route to the Indies.
Four inset charts occupy the corners, each framed by strap-work that echoes Flemish decorative taste:
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“Insula de S. Maria” (upper left) shows the small island off Madagascar’s northeast tip, a favored anchorage for replenishing water and provisions.
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“Baija Dantongil” (upper right) details today’s Antongil Bay, the deep natural harbor just south of St Mary’s.
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“Porto de S. Augostino” (lower right) focuses on St Augustine Bay on the southwest coast, another regular watering stop on early Dutch voyages.
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“’T hollansche Kerckhof” (lower left, literally “the Dutch cemetery”) marks the sandy spit where illness forced Jacob van Neck’s fleet to bury a number of crewmen during its long wait for supplies.
Lettered references printed below the image identify the anchorages, fresh-water streams, villages, and burial ground cited in the insets.
Although the title and descriptive key are rendered in Latin (Insula de S. Lavretii), most coastal names remain Portuguese, reflecting the Iberian charts on which Dutch pilots still relied. The map was prepared to illustrate the wildly profitable second Dutch voyage to the East Indies (1598–99) led by Jacob Cornelisz van Neck, Wybrand van Warwijck, and Jacob van Heemskerck—an expedition that circled Madagascar for nearly a month before finding a safe landfall.
![Dese Rivier legt op de Hoogte van 18 Graaden Zuyder Breedte aan het Land van de Megosie ter Kuste van Quama. [on sheet with:] Noord Kust Van't Eyland terhoogten omtrent van 15 Graden Menuten.](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/103431.jpg)
