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Description

Highlighting the Bolson De Mapimi Region of Texas and Northern Spain -- Commanche Lands

One of the earliest maps of Mexico printed in the United States after Mexican Independence on August 24, 1821.

The present map boldly depicts the boundary between the US and the newly formed country of Mexico, less tha 2 years after Mexican Independence. The map also shows Mexico at the dawn of the modern history of Texas.

In the West, the mythical Lake Timpanogos is shown in Utah, along with a second lake to the South, both of which are fed by Rivers from the east, but without any sign of the mythical rivers which would attach these lakes to the West Coast.

The location of the California, Texas and New Mexico Missions are shown, with the Colorado and Gila Rivers shown in a relatively modern form for the times.

One unusual region located by the map and highlighted is the Bolson de Mapimi. Spanish penetration into the Bolson began in the 1590s with Jesuit missionaries, slave traders, and Tlaxcalan Indians whom the Spanish persuaded by grants of land and freedom from taxes to move north to aid in assimilating the Indians and resolving the long-running Chichimeca War. The Toboso and Chisos began raiding Spanish settlements at an early date and participated in wars against Spanish settlements in 1644, 1667, and 1684. Most of the Toboso and Chisos were absorbed into the Spanish population in the early 18th century.

In the 19th century the Bolsón was still largely unpopulated. Especially in the 1840s and 1850s the Bolsón became a base for Comanche Indians from Texas who met at well-watered locations, consolidated their forces, often numbering hundreds of warriors, and struck off in every direction on destructive raids of mines and ranches

Resolving The Southern Border

Following the Louisiana Purchase, the issue of the ownership of Texas and the Southwest was unsettled. The French Representative in New Orleans, for example, advised the Americans that their territorial claims extending to the Rio Grande. After a number of years of negotiations, the Adams-Onís Treaty was signed between the United States and Spain in 1819, whereby Spain ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined the boundary between the U.S. and New Spain. as tracking the Sabine and Red Rivers, in the most general terms.

The treaty established the boundary of U.S. territory and claims through the Rocky Mountains and west to the Pacific Ocean, in exchange for the U.S. paying residents' claims against the Spanish government up to a total of $5,000,000 and relinquishing the US claims on parts of Spanish Texas west of the Sabine River and other Spanish areas, under the terms of the Louisiana Purchase.

The treaty remained in full effect for only 183 days: from February 22, 1821 to August 24, 1821 when Spain signed the Treaty of Córdoba acknowledging the independence of Mexico. It would not be until the Treaty of Limits, signed in 1828 and effective in 1832, that the borders defined by the Adams-Onís Treaty as the boundary between the United States and Mexico, would be officially acknowledged by both countries.

Fielding Lucas

Striking example of Fielding Lucas' fine work, which distinguished him as the best publisher of the era. Lucas' maps are highly desirable and increasingly scarce. His maps are printed on a higher quality paper than contemporary maps by Carey & Lea and demonstrate a superior engraving quality and more attractive coloring style.

Fielding Lucas Jr. Biography

Fielding Lucas, Jr. (1781-1854) was a prominent American cartographer, engraver, artist, and public figure during the first half of the 19th century.

Lucas was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia and moved to Philadelphia as a teenager, before settling in Baltimore. There he launched a successful cartographic career. Lucas's first atlas was announced in early- to mid-1812, with production taking place between September 1812 and December of 1813, by which point the engravings were complete. Bound copies of the atlas -- A new and elegant general atlas: Containing maps of each of the United States -- were available early in the next year, beating Carey to market by about two months. Lucas later published A General Atlas Containing Distinct Maps Of all the known Countries in the World in the early 1820s.