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Remarkable pictographic map of part of Peru, Bolivia and northernmost Chile, showing the Spanish Treasure route between La Paz and Lima, with the Andes and Amazon Jungles beyond the Andes depicted, oriented with east at the top of the map.

The map presents a stylized image of the road (in red) from Lima, across several mountain ranges, to Cuzco, and then across the highest mountain pass of the trek, on to Paz (La Paz). Along the route, three stick figure drawings of Indians are shown (with packs on their heads), with one trailing behind a pack mule. In the first part of the route, between Lima and Cuzco, there also appears to be an illustration of two bridges.

In dating the map, we looked at the following facts. The map must almost certainly pre-date 1776, as the administrative change in the Spanish governance of the region required the silver mined in the Potosi region to go through Buenos Aires, significantly undermining the La Paz to Cuzco to Lima trade route. We have selected a date of circa 1700 with the assistance of Gonzalo Pontes who noted that the large sailing ship has a Borbonic flag that was used in the ships beginning with the arrival of Philip V in 1700. However, the ship is not the classical galleon of 16th and 17th Centuries, but in fact an early 18th Century ship (which he described as a transitional model between the earlier galleons and the "navio de linea" that appear in the early 18th Century but still with a high stern). We have also identified several examples of similar Spanish pictographic maps from the late 17th Century which are stylistically similar to the present map.

La Paz, Bolivia was founded by Alonso de Mendoza in 1548, with the intention of serving as a principal town in the route from Potosi and Oruro to the Spanish port at Lima on the Pacific. This route would become Spain's primary trade route from Potosi to Lima, with the vast majority of Silver and Gold mined in the New World traveling via this route in the 16th, 17th and early 18th Centuries.

This map was found in a composite atlas of Spanish maps which was divided up in 2012, after being acquired by the Old Print Shop in New York City from Clive A. Burden Ltd. A number of the maps were subsequently acquired by us in February 2013. The contents of the atlas included manuscript maps and Spanish printed maps, which included maps of northern coasts of South America, Mexico and California, along Spanish maps of the Caribbean, Balearic Islands and northern coastline of Spain. The maps in the atlas dated from the early 18th Century to approximately 1790 and included several other remarkable manuscript maps, including a remarkable early 18th Century pictographic map of the road from La Paz to Lima: /gallery/detail/33352