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The miniature map of North and South America, first published in Paris by Pierre Du Val in 1672, is a fascinating snapshot of the late 17th century's exploration, myth, and incomplete knowledge. The map is a relatively simple and straightforward portrayal that nevertheless manages to capture the imagination with its blend of the factual and fantastical.
California appears as an island. This misconception persisted until the early 18th century when overland explorations finally put the idea to rest. The Great Lakes, instead of being five separate bodies of water, are shown as a single entity, reflecting limited exploration of the region.
Terra de Iesso, a massive land bridge, is shown separated from California and the Northwest coast of America by a narrow "F. d'Anien." This is noteworthy because this waterway is typically referred to as a strait, a fabled Strait of Anian, believed to be a shortcut from Europe to Asia.
The Rio Grande, or the "R. Nort" on the map, is shown incorrectly flowing southwest through Santa Fe and Spanish New Mexico to the Mare Vermieile, an early name for the Gulf of California (rather than the Gulf of Mexico). The Lake Conibas, once shown as near the Arctic Circle in northern Canada and connected to the Arctic Sea, is now shown as the source of the R. Nort, is an example of a mythical lake often depicted in maps of this era.
Florida's representation is massive, covering the full Gulf Coast. This reflects both the strategic importance of the area and the incomplete knowledge of its geography. Running east and west from Florida into the Midwest are the Apalatey Mountains, a stark deviation from the actual orientation of the Appalachians.
The seas between Bermuda and the Caribbean are named Mare Verte, a curious naming which we have not previously seen.
The East Coast includes regions such as "New Holland" and "New Sweden." New Holland existed under Dutch control from the early 1600s until 1664, while New Sweden was a Swedish colony from 1638 to 1655
The popular misconception of California as an island can be found on European maps from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. From its first portrayal on a printed map by Diego Gutiérrez, in 1562, California was shown as part of North America by mapmakers, including Gerardus Mercator and Abraham Ortelius. In the 1620s, however, it began to appear as an island in several sources. While most of these show the equivalent of the modern state of California separated from the continent, others, like a manuscript chart by Joao Teixeira Albernaz I (ca. 1632) now in the collection of the National Library of Brasil shows the entire western half of North Americas as an island.
The myth of California as an island was most likely the result of the travel account of Sebastian Vizcaino, who had been sent north up the shore of California in 1602. A Carmelite friar, Fray Antonio de la Ascensión, accompanied him. Ascension described the land as an island and around 1620 sketched maps to that effect. Normally, this information would have been reviewed and locked in the Spanish repository, the Casa de la Contratación. However, the manuscript maps were intercepted in the Atlantic by the Dutch, who took them to Amsterdam where they began to circulate. Ascensión also published descriptions of the insular geography in Juan Torquemada’s Monarquia Indiana (1613) (with the island details curtailed somewhat) and in his own Relación breve of ca. 1620.
The first known maps to show California as an island were on the title pages of Antonio de Herrera’s Descripción de las Indias Occidentales (1622) and Jacob le Maire's Spieghel Der Australische Navigatie (1622). Two early examples of larger maps are those by Abraham Goos (1624) and another by Henry Briggs, which was included in Samuel Purchas’ Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas his Pilgrimes (1625). In addition to Briggs and Goos, prominent practitioners like Jan Jansson and Nicolas Sanson adopted the new island and the practice became commonplace. John Speed’s map (1626-7), based on Briggs’ work, is well known for being one of the first to depict an insular California.
The island of California became a fixture on mid- and late-seventeenth century maps. The island suggested possible links to the Northwest Passage, with rivers in the North American interior supposedly connecting to the sea between California and the mainland. Furthermore, Francis Drake had landed in northern California on his circumnavigation (1577-80) and an insular California suggested that Spanish power in the area could be questioned.
Not everyone was convinced, however. Father Eusebio Kino, after extensive travels in what is now California, Arizona, and northern Mexico concluded that the island was actually a peninsula and published a map refuting the claim (Paris, 1705). Another skeptic was Guillaume De L’Isle. In 1700, De L’Isle discussed “whether California is an Island or a part of the continent” with J. D. Cassini; the letter was published in 1715. After reviewing all the literature available to him in Paris, De L’Isle concluded that the evidence supporting an insular California was not trustworthy. He also cited more recent explorations by the Jesuits (including Kino) that disproved the island theory. Later, in his map of 1722 (Carte d’Amerique dressee pour l’usage du Roy), De L’Isle would abandon the island theory entirely.
Despite Kino’s and De L’Isle’s work, California as an island remained common on maps until the mid-eighteenth century. De L’Isle’s son-in-law, Philippe Buache, for example, remained an adherent of the island depiction for some time. Another believer was Herman Moll, who reported that California was unequivocally an island, for he had had sailors in his offices that claimed to have circumnavigated it. In the face of such skepticism, the King of Spain, Ferdinand VII, had to issue a decree in 1747 proclaiming California to be a peninsula connected to North America; the geographic chimera, no matter how appealing, was not to be suffered any longer, although a few final maps were printed with the lingering island.
