1718 Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississipi Dressée sur un Grand Nombre de Memoires Entr’autres sur ceux de M. Le Maire / Par Guillaume Delisle de l’Academie Royale des Sciences
DESCRIPTION
One of the most important and influential maps of early eighteenth century North America, Guillaume de l’Isle’s 1718 second state of the Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississipi stands as a bold cartographic expression of French imperial ambition in the New World.
Issued at a moment when France sought to strengthen and expand its territorial presence from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes, the map was designed not merely as a geographic record, but as a political vision of Louisiana as the central artery of a vast French colonial network. De l’Isle synthesized reports from explorers, missionaries, traders, and military officials into a map that significantly advanced French geographic claims while minimizing competing English influence in the continental interior.
Geographic Scope and the Early Appearance of New Orleans
The map encompasses an enormous region stretching from the Great Lakes and the upper Mississippi Valley southward to the Gulf of Mexico and westward toward New Mexico and the lands of the Apache and Padouca. Rivers dominate the composition, emphasizing the Mississippi and its tributaries as arteries of trade, exploration, and imperial control. The second state is especially notable for its inclusion of New Orleans near the mouth of the Mississippi River, one of the earliest printed appearances of the city following its founding in 1718. Throughout the map, de l’Isle carefully labels Native American nations, villages, trade routes, and frontier settlements, creating one of the most information-rich depictions of the interior continent produced during the period.
Native American Intelligence and Frontier Geography
Particularly striking are the numerous annotations embedded throughout the map, many of which preserve French intelligence gathered from Indigenous informants and colonial travelers. In the northwest interior, an inscription notes that the Missouri traveled to trade with nations situated farther northwest from whom they obtained “yellow iron, or so they say,” a tantalizing reference likely suggesting copper, brass, or perhaps rumors of gold-bearing regions beyond the known frontier. Elsewhere, the map references the defeat and capture of “Abatschakin, king of these lands,” while extensive notes describe tribal territories, trade patterns, and colonial encounters. The density of ethnographic and geographic information reflects the French dependence upon Native alliances and Indigenous geographic knowledge in maintaining their influence across the continent.
French Claims to the Carolinas
The eastern portion of the map reveals equally ambitious political messaging. De l’Isle presents the English colonies in a reduced and geographically compressed form while extending French historical claims deep into the southeast. Most remarkable is the inclusion of “Caroline,” accompanied by the statement that the region was named by the French in honor of Charles IX and settled by them in the sixteenth century. Charleston itself is identified as having been “named by the French,” underscoring France’s attempt to invoke earlier Huguenot settlements as justification for broader territorial claims along the Atlantic seaboard. These annotations reflect the increasingly competitive struggle between France and England for influence in North America during the early eighteenth century.
Guillaume de l’Isle and French Imperial Cartography
Guillaume de l’Isle served as Premier Géographe du Roi under Louis XV, making him the official royal geographer to the French crown. Closely connected to the scientific and political establishment of France, de l’Isle produced maps intended not only to advance geographic knowledge, but also to reinforce French strategic and diplomatic interests abroad. His work combined rigorous cartographic research with subtle geopolitical messaging, making his maps among the most influential representations of North America produced during the period.
Historical Context and Legacy
Issued during the first quarter of the eighteenth century, the map reflects the height of French colonial aspirations in North America following the War of the Spanish Succession and during the expansion of the Louisiana colony under John Law’s Company of the West. France envisioned a continental empire linked by waterways, trade alliances, missionary networks, and fortified settlements stretching from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. De l’Isle’s map became one of the foundational geographic documents supporting these ambitions and shaped European understanding of the Mississippi Valley for decades.
The 1718 second state is regarded as one of the seminal maps of colonial North America, prized for both its historical importance and its extraordinary synthesis of exploration, politics, ethnography, and imperial cartography.
CONDITION
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