Rare plan of the Mouth of the San Juan River. Includes soundings, the Jacksonville area, Ft. Arriando the Barrancas de S. Matteo and a number of other geographical points and topographical details. Issued in the rare Portulano de la America Setentrional, published in Madrid beginning in 1809. The map is not reported any dealer catalogue in over 20 years. Of the 111 maps included in this work, only 3 examples of maps from this rare work have been reported in dealer catalogues. An essential map for collectors of the region.
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.