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Description

Nice full color example of the first printed map of St. Kitts.

The first map to show the island of St Kitts (formally St Christophers) as divided between the English and French colonists, the first Caribbean island colonized by each of these two European powers.

The English colony on St. Christopher was founded by the English captain Thomas Warner in 1623, having retreated from an attempt to colonize Guiana. Two years later Warner allowed a French ship, sole survivor of a Spanish attack on a colonist's fleet, to also settle on the island. The two groups of Colonists would later organize a joint attack wherein the Colonists massacred the indiginous Kalinago tribe, after which the island was formally divided in 1626.

Mariette's map shows the French in control of the north and south of the island, with the English in the middle. Soon however the relations soured, and French troops took the whole island in 1665, only for the status quo to be restored by the Treaty of Breda in 1667; in 1689 the French took over again, destroying English farms. In retaliation General Codrington defeated the French army and deported all the French to Martininque, only for them to return under the terms of the Treaty of Rijswijk in 1697. The Treaty of Utrecht (1713) finally gave the British total control of the island.