Carte des Etas-Unis d'Amérique et du Cours du Mississipi; rédigée d'après différentes cartes et relations anglaises et les operations de la derniere guerre avec les Nouvelles Limites générales fixées par les articles préliminaires de paix Signés.

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Engraved map with contemporary hand-coloring in outline and wash, the table and most of the decorative cartouche left uncolored, the cartouche embellished with laurel topped by the Phyrgian cap of Liberty, two flags (the flag of France and part of a striped flag) draped over a cannon and ordnance. BINDING/CONDITION: Loosely laid on sturdy card stock and enclosed in mylar. Light dampstaining in right margin not affecting map. (65B1D) FIRST EDTION, FIRST STATE. Brion de la Tour compiled his map from various English maps and other sources, but more importantly his base map chiefly derives from Mitchell's Map of the British and French Dominions in North America-the third edition of which was also used by John Jay to draw boundaries during the negotiations of the Treaty of Paris. The most obvious features deriving from the Mitchell map are the aggressive borders of Pennsylvania (at the expense of New York), with Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia extending west to the Mississippi. De la Tour also copied Mitchell's locations of forts, Indian peoples, and towns throughout the map. He also duplicates Mitchell's annotations along the Mississippi, including Ferdinand de Soto's discovery of the Mississippi in 1541; but far to the north, the source of the river remains yet unknown. Other features of interest on the map include a numeric legend just off the coast of Massachusetts identifying eighteen northeastern forts not named on the map due to space constraints. A table in the lower left lists the population by state, including "subject Indians and Negroes," for a total of nearly 3.1 million people. It also contains a curious note at the end: "It is claimed that the waters of the Mississippi have, like those of the Ganges, such propriety, that one can bathe there all in a sweat, without being inconvenienced." Lastly, Tooley points out that the striped flag in the cartouche was probably meant to represent the American flag, and thus is most likely the first map to represent the colors of the fledgling nation. REFERENCES: Phillips, Maps of America, p. 864; Ristow, American Maps and Mapmakers, p. 63; Sellers and Van Ee, Maps and Charts of North America and the West Indies, 746; Tooley, The Mapping of America, pp. 317-318. N° de ref. del artículo 65ERM0015

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