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| historical maps |
| 18th century views of my 21st century world |
| Below is a map of "Amérique Septentrionale" (North America) published around 1790 and drawn by Rigobert Bonne, who succeeded Jacques-Nicolas Bellin as "Engineer-Hydrographer" of the French Navy. The drawing itself was probably done in the early 1780s. |
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| As usual, I am particularly interested in what was known of the west coast. In this case Bonne carefully notes the landfalls made by Vitus Bering (Mt and Cape St Elias) and Chirikov (Tszirikow) in 1741. The port of Francis Drake is placed very close to San Francisco Bay opposite the Farallons. He also choses to follow Bellin's example by showing the entrances of Martin Aguilar and Juan de Fuca. It is still not certain what Martin Aguilar had seen, but an entrace similar to that described by Juan de Fuca was of course discovered and charted a few years later. |
| The Caribbean basin was still the most economically interesting region of North America. Although sugar was already in a slow decline, the islands were still worth more than the large empty expanses of continental North America. The only cities worth mentioning were the Spanish towns of St Augustine and Pensacola in Florida, and New Orleans, recently acquired by Spain after the 7 years' war. He nevertheless continues to extend Louisiana to the east bank of the Mississippi. |
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| Since the colonial wars were still not clearly decided in the early 1780s, there is no mention of the United States whatsoever. All that is shown are the various colonies and their main cities, including a clearly mentioned Williamsburg in Virginia. There is not much beyond the Appalachians besides indian tribes and the French forts that would become Detroit and Pittsburgh. |
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| The greatest speculation concerns Alaska. The Russians were convinced that some of the chain of islands that had been seen were in fact part of the mainland. Catherine the Great sent Ivan Sind in 1764 to explore the straits, but confused by the Aleutians concluded there was not a long peninsula. Müller and Stählin of the Russian academy redrew Alaska as an archipelago, and their maps were almost exactly copied here by Bonne. Cook had already made this view obsolete before it was published. The confirmations of Vancouver and others would finally fill in the missing gaps. |