Ever since Amerigo Vespucci put the New World on the map (unlike Columbus who died thinking he had been off the coast of Asia), the world map was full of gaps of uncharted areas. When this map was drawn in 1758, what we call Washington State and British Columbia were extremely far away from Europe, requiring a trip down the Altantic and around the tip of South America, followed by a long sail to the north and west often against prevailing winds. Only Australia was as remote, and both of these last temperate coasts would be finally charted within the next half century. In between lay Hawaii, missed by the Spanish galleons traveling between Alcapulo and Manila, but "discovered" by Cook.
Cook would also sail up the coast to Nootka Sound and Alaska, and the Spanish and Cook's shipmate Vancouver would come back later (during the French Revolution) to fill in the deails of Puget Sound and the Straits of Georgia. The coastlines at least were about to be filled in. The hinterlands also came to be known thanks to men like MacKenzie and later Lewis and Clark who reached the coast overland from the east. The world as we know it today was finally starting to take shape.
After a bit of research, "Monsieur Bellin" turned out to be Jacques-Nicolas Bellin 1703-1772, cartographer to the King of France and "Hydrographic Engineer" of the French Royal Navy. During his 50 years in the Service he was commissioned to carry out surveys of all the known coasts of the world. Because of him and others such as the Vaugondy family, France overtook the Netherlands as the leader in map making during the 18th century. Many of Bellin's charts and engravings (including this one) were compiled as illustrations in the 80 volume (or 20 folio) master work "Histoire Générale des Voyages", which attempted to summarise the findings of European voyages of discovery made until that time. His maps tend to come in two sizes, depending if they are taken form the book or folio version.
Bellin uses a simple but elegant style in his maps, and unlike many others tended not to embellish or fill in gaps if he was unsure of the sources of information. The result with this map is an eastern end of the world well-defined by the Russians, but a North America that drited off into the unknown the further west one travelled from the Spanish and French lands towards the northwest. It is interesting to compare this map to those made by Bellin's successor (Bonne) just 30 years later. Since discovering this map, I have started a small collection of other views by Bellin, many also taken from the "Histoire Générale des Voyages". Almost all fo them are places I've visited around the world, some actually purchased on site. It is interesting to compare Bellin's 18th century vision of our planet with how we know it to be today. |
