1730 Covens and Mortier Map of South America

by Paul Fearn

Title

1730 Covens and Mortier Map of South America

Artist

Paul Fearn

Medium

Photograph

Description

An extraordinary example of a c. 1730 two map set depicting South America. This is Covens and Mortier's c. 1730 reissue of Guillaume de L'Isle's magnificent c. 1708 map of this region. The northern sheet covers from Costa Rica and Barbados south roughly to the Tropic of Capricorn or more precisely 50 degrees south latitude. Southern sheet covers roughly from 18 degrees south latitude south to Tierra del Fuego. Both maps are notable for their extraordinary condition with a dark strong impression on clean white paper. Early 18th century maps rarely appear in this superb condition. The northern sheet of this set, like most early maps of the area, contrasts a detailed mapping of the coast with a speculative discussion of the interior, particularly the Amazon Basin. Offers a fairly accurate mapping of both the east and west coasts with exceptional detail in the populated Andean regions of Columbia, Ecuador (Labeled Quito), and Peru. Notes Cuzco, Lima, Quito, Valladolid, Arequipa, Trujillo and other important trading centers of the region. In Portuguese controlled Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, San Salvador and San Sebastian are noted. Lake Maracaibo, in modern day Venezuela, is slightly malformed and elongated. The interior is where this map gets interesting. De L’lsle was a cautious and scientific cartographer, who based his maps on the first hand reports from sailors, merchants and missionaries that, at the time, were flowing into Paris at an unprecedented rate. Consequently many of his maps offer significant cartographic advances over their predecessors. This map is no exception and De L'Isle credits the mappings and explorations of Alonzo de Herrera, Johannes de Laet, P.P. D Acuna and M. Rodriguez. Nonetheless, De L'Isle's mapping of South America's interior is full of inaccuracy, curiosities, and ample fodder for the gold hunting European. Our survey of this map begins with De L'Isle's impressively accurate mapping of the Amazon and Orinoco River systems - though he does erroneously connect the two, an understandable error common to maps of the period. Roughly where the Grand Sabana is today, in modern day Venezuela, De L'Isle speculates the location of Lake Parima and the city of El Dorado (curiously this is actually gold rich region though difficult to access and mine). Further South he notates numerous gold rich indigenous groups including Los Plateros and Xarayes. The Xarayes, a corruption of Xaraiés meaning Masters of the River, were an indigenous people occupying what are today parts of Brazil's Matte Grosso and the Pantanal. When Spanish and Portuguese explorers first navigated up the Paraguay River, as always in search of El Dorado, they encountered the vast Pantanal flood plain at the height of its annual inundation. Understandably misinterpreting the flood plain as a gigantic inland sea, they named it after the local inhabitants, the Xaraies. The Laguna de los Xarayes almost immediately began to appear on early maps of the region and, at the same time, almost immediately took on a legendary aspect. Later missionaries and chroniclers, particularly Díaz de Guzmán, imagined an island in this lake and curiously identified it as an Island of Paradise, ...an island [of the Paraguay River] more than ten leagues [56 km] long, two or three [11-16 km] wide. A very mild land rich in a thousand types of wild fruit, among them grapes, pears and olives: the Indians created plantations throughout, and throughout the year sow and reap with no difference in winter or summer, ... the Indians of that island are of good will and are friends to the Spaniards; Orejón they call them, and they have their ears pierced with wheels of wood ... which occupy the entire hole. They live in round houses, not as a village, but each apart though keep up with each other in much peace and friendship. They called of old this island Land of Paradise for its abundance and wonderful qualities.

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July 17th, 2013

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