Smith, John | "The foundation map of New England cartography"

Smith, John

New England the most remarqueable parts thus named by the high and mighty Prince Charles, Prince of great Britaine. Observed and described by Captayn John Smith... London, 1614 [but 1635-39]

Copperplate engraved map (sheet 311 x 368 mm). Burden and Church state 9. Mounted, glazed and framed; not examined out of frame.

"The foundation map of New England cartography, the map that gave it its name and the first devoted to the region" (Burden, 187).

“Smith made a good crossing in six weeks, arriving off Monhegan Island near the Kennebec estuary. By now the waters of New England, particularly Maine, were visited by dozens of English and French fishing vessels a year. One of Smith's vessels concentrated on catching fish and collecting other valuable commodities. Smith continued down the coast to chart and explore, lamenting the poor quality of existing maps: 'he] had six or seauen seuerall plots of those Northern parts, so unlike each to other, and most so differing from any true proportion, or resemblance of the Countrey, as they did mee no more good, then so much waste paper, though they cost me more'. Naming Plymouth Rock he described the place as 'an excellent good harbour, good lands, and no want of anything but industrious people'. This proved the incentive six years later for the 'Mayflower' Pilgrims to relocate here after their first choice proved unwise. In mid July after just six weeks Smith returned to England. It is remarkable that in this short time he managed to glean so much of the coastline. Indeed, the amount of work that is actually his own has been called into question by some” (Burden).

During the course of its use, the plate was altered numerous times, creating nine recorded states: this is the final state, with the addition of the school of fish off of Cape Cod, the insertion of the text relating to John Wood’s New Englands Prospect below the compass rose, and the extension of the River Charles westward. This state was issued with Mercator and Hondius’s atlas Historia Mundi, published 1635 to 1639. Burden and Church provide excellent delineations of the various states of the map and its associated publication history in John Smith’s texts and the Historia Mundi. All states are rare.

REFERENCES

Burden 187 (state 9); Church 369 (state 9); McCorkle 614.1; Schwartz & Ehrenberg pp. 96-99; Tooley, p. 125