Title: Virginia. First edition, eighth state. [Facsimile]

Scale: Bar scale indicates 15 leagues.

Engraver: William Hole.

Publisher: [Baltimore: A. Hoen and Co.?, n.d.].

Dimensions: Sheet 39.5 x 48.4 cm.; image 32.7 x 41.5 cm. Lithograph.

Virginia, 1627

The first permanent English settlement in America was established in May 1607 by a small band of colonists that had landed in Virginia. A particularly adventurous member of the colonists was Captain John Smith. In the summer of 1608 he began exploring the Chesapeake Bay, the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers in an attempt to find "some spring which runs contrary way towards the East India Sea" (Mathews, p. 348). While he did not find such a waterway, a very influential map resulted from his survey. For the first time the Chesapeake Bay and the surrounding land were depicted in detail and, until the publication of the Augustine Herrman map (no. 6) in 1673, Smith's map served as the prototype for the maps of the area.

Captain Smith and fourteen others spent three months surveying the Chesapeake Bay. The delineation of the shores of the Bay is surprisingly exact, considering the short time that was available to them. The Maltese crosses indicate the limit of Smith's explorations. Around the royal coat-of-arms appear a number of high mountains, suggesting that Smith had heard about the Blue Ridge Mountains from his major source of supplementary information, the Indians. Four types of trees are represented and Indian villages are indicated by houses. The geological feature Calvert Cliffs appears on the map as Richards Cliffes.

Some typical 17th-century map ornaments include the compass rose, the ship, the sea monster (probably a whale), the scale and the coat-of-arms. Two unusual illustrations appear on the map. On the right stands an Indian from the Susquehanock tribe, a group Smith described as "giantlike". The illustration on the left depicts the court of emperor Powhatan, where Smith is reputed to have been held prisoner, condemned to death and rescued by the emperor's daughter, Pocahontas.

According to Verner there are twelve states of this map. The differences between the states consist of additions, mostly of text, to the first state. In the second state were added "1606" underneath the scale and "1607" to the Powhatan legend. In state three Smith's coat-of-arms was added. In the fourth state appears the motto underneath Smith's arms together with the longitude and latitude. In state five "Gunther's Harbour", "Taverner's Roade", "Winslowe's Isles", and "Brookes Forest" were added. In state six, shown here, "Sparkes Contest", "Democrites Tree" and "Burtons Mount" were added. In the seventh state, page numbers 1692 and 1693 were added for publication in Purchase His Pilgrims (1625). In state eight, shown here, "Featherstones Baye," "Bollers Bush," "Sparkes Poynt," "Page 41 Smith" were added, and "Sparkes Content" altered to "Sparkes Vaylley".

References:
E. Baer, 1949, no. 13; E. Fite & A. Freeman, 1969, no. 32; E. Mathews, 1898, pp.347-360; W. Ristow, 1972, pp. 91-95; C. Verner, 1968; The World Encompassed, 1952, no. 241.

Return Home
 

Back

Continue