Scarce Spanish Sea Chart of the Gulf of Mexico, from Texas and the Yucatan to Florida and Cuba.
Includes notes on the direction of the currents.
A note opposite the Florida keys states that "Within these limit the current is directed strongly over the reefs, when easterly winds are blowing."
The southern tip of Florida includes an area called Las Mil Islas (Thousand Islands).
Working Spanish Sea Charts of regions in North America are scarce on the market.
The Dirección de Hidrografía, or the Directorate of Hydrographic Works, was established in 1797. Its roots were in the Casa de Contratación, founded in 1503 in Sevilla, which housed all the charts of the Spanish Empire and oversaw the creation and maintenance of the padrón real, the official master chart. The Casa, now in Cadiz, was shuttered in 1790, but Spain still needed a hydrographic body. In response, the Dirección was created in 1797. One of its first projects was the publication of charts from the Malaspina Expedition (1789-1794). The Dirección oversaw not only publication, but also surveying. The Dirección was abolished in the early twentieth century, when their work was distributed to other organizations.