|
||
|
|
|
|
Stock# 81760
Description
Rare early sea chart of the Carolina coastline, from Cape Charles to the area around Hilton Head, published by Thornton.
The chart is oriented with east at the top of the map and includes an inset map of the Ashley & Cooper Rivers, centered on Charles Towne (Charleston). As noted by William Cumming:
The most important chart to the maritime traders and colonizers of North Carolina was " A New Mapp of Carolina By John Thornton ... and Will: Fisher," published in 1689 in the Fourth Book of the English Pilot. Unfortunately, it was full of errors and inaccuracies-unfortunate, because The English Pilot was the Bible of English mariners; and the Fourth Book, of prime importance in the history of American cartography, contained the first great collection of charts of British (not Dutch or German) origin delineating the coast of America. Many of its American coastal charts were repeatedly and extensively revised, but the Carolina map was reprinted and even reengraved without improvement. Its inaccuracies were very dangerous to attempted navigation in those waters: its "Corituck" and "New Inlet" were inlets not usable . . . "Roanoke Inlet" was erroneously put opposite Colleton Island and called "Old Inlet," and Roanoke Island itself was portrayed as a small islet hugging the mainland shore. Cape Lookout was shown as barely a protuberance, with shoal water, along the Outer Banks; and the only settlements noted were "Capt. Willobies P.ta" on Currituck Sound and "Charles Town," a temporary and soon abandoned settlement of the 1660's on the Cape Fear River.
A map of primary importance for Carolina Collectors.
The erasure of the imprint occurred in the 1728 edition, dating this example to that edition or later.
Condition Description
This map has moderate restoration with full backing, and 2" x 1/2" and 3" x 1/4" portions of loss, expertly reinstated in facsimile. The map has moderate soiling and toning.
![(Southeast United States) Carte de la partie sud, des Etats Unis de L' amerique septentrionale [Map of the southern part of the United States of North America]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/98738.jpg)
