"Valuable source for the western country during the late British period" - Howes
First Edition in French. Includes two engraved plans on one folding sheet, "Plan des Villages de la Contrée des Illinois" & "Plan des Rapides de la Riviere d'Ohio"; plus "Carte des Environs de Fort Pitt et de la Nouvelle Province Indiana," this last hand-colored in outline - it is traced from Hutchins' large map, "A New Map of the Western Parts of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina" and is not in the English edition. The folding table shows distances from Fort Pitt to the juncture of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
Hutchins' work stands as one of the best sources for the West during the British period, especially for the Illinois Country. When the American Revolution broke out Hutchins was unwilling to fight against his countrymen (he was a New Jersey native), for which action he was charged with treason and imprisoned. He was released in 1780, made it to France, and with help from Benjamin Franklin returned to America. After the war he was appointed Geographer General of the United States.
Thomas Hutchins... spent his youth in the West and served as an officer first with the Pennsylvania troops during 1757-59 and then in the regular British service until 1780... As a military engineer he traveled extensively... The Topographical Description discusses navigation on the Ohio River and the natural resources in that valley and its tributaries; the possibility of a wagon road connecting the headwaters of the Kanawha and the James; the navigability of the Shawanoe [Cumberland] River and especially of the Cherokee [Tennessee] River below and above Muscle Shoals - Clark.
The final four pages have a list of Indian tribes in the area, as well as an interesting catalog of American maps by Le Rouge: Cartes de l'Amerique, copiées fidellement sur les Cartes Angloises, qui se trouvent chez le Sr. Le Rouge.
George-Louis Le Rouge (1712-1790), though known for his work in Paris, was originally born Georg Ludwig of Hanover, Germany. He grew up and was educated in Hanover, after which he became a surveyor and military engineer. Around 1740, however, Le Rouge moved to Paris and set up shop as an engraver and publisher on the Rue des Grands Augustins. It was at this time that he changed his name, adopting a French pseudonym that would later become quite famous.
Le Rouge spent much of his forty-year career translating various works from English to French, and his cartographic influence often came from English maps. His experience as a surveyor and engineer in Germany made him a skilled and prolific cartographer, and he produced thousands of charts, maps, atlases, and plans. His work spans from garden views and small-town plans to huge, multiple-continent maps. Le Rouge eventually accepted the position of Geographical Engineer for Louid XV, the King of France.
Later in life, Le Rouge became well-known for publishing North American maps, such as in his Atlas ameriquain septentrional of 1778. One of Le Rouge’s other more famous works is the Franklin/Folger chart of the Gulf Stream, which he worked on with Benjamin Franklin. Franklin and Le Rouge corresponded around 1780 and collaborated to create this map, a French version of Franklin’s famous chart which was originally printed in 1769.