Description

Matthaus Seutter

Mappa Geographica, Regionem Mexicanam Et Floridam Terrasque adjacentes, ut et Anteriores Americae Insulas, Cursus itidem et Reitus Navigantium versus flumem Missisipi . . .

Augsberg, 1730

Copperplate engraving with original hand color

Seutter’s decorative adaptation of De L’Isle’s important map of 1703.

The map provides a view of North America from the Great Lakes through the West Indies. The British colonies are confined east of the Appalachian Mountains, France controls the Mississippi valley and Florida, and Spain possesses Mexico and New Mexico. Political divisions as dictated by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. While geographically nearly identical to Delisle’s chart, this map is very decorative with the lower-left corner filled with a huge sea battle and the Atlantic filled with four inset plans of Panama, Havana, Carthagena and Vera Cruz.

The details of the Mississippi Valley were the most radical departure from earlier maps, accurately depicting the information provided by the French Jesuits in North America in the late 17th Century. Nice detail along the Rio Grande and in Texas.