1737 Mount and Page Map of the Bahamas, Cuba, Florida

A rare 1737 map of the Bahamas, Florida, Cuba, and Jamaica issued by Mount and Page for the first edition of The English Pilot: The Fourth Book. The map, based upon a 1698 work by Samuel Thornton, illustrates the Bahamas during the 'Republic of Pirates' era (1698 - 1718), but has here been re-engraved by Mount and Page to capitalize on British interest in this region following increased Anglo-Franco-Spanish tensions surrounding the 1732 the founding of Georgia.

A Closer Look

Centered on the Grand Bahama bank, the map covers from the Yucatan and island of Cozumel (Mexico), to Hispaniola, and from Florida to Jamaica. Within Florida, Tampa (Tompa) is noted and recognizable. There is a tenuous mapping of the Florida Keys, with Key West (Kegost) and Tortuga (Turtuga) noted.

The 'Republic of Pirates' in the Bahamas

While resurrected in 1737 to reflect increased British interest in this area following the contentious 1732 founding of Georgia, we must stress that this map originally was drawn in 1706 - 1707 and reflects the cartography of that time. While the coverage might extend to cover many of the Greater Antilles, the real focus here is the English colony of the Bahamas. At this time, 1706 - 1718, the Bahamas were notorious 'Republic of Pirates.' Based in Nassau (New Providence), the Republic of Pirates can trace its origins to 1696, when the British privateer Henry Every (a.k.a. Avery, 1659 - c. 1715) took refuge there after ravaging Indian Ocean shipping. He unloaded 50 tons of elephant tusks and 100 barrels of gunpowder, among other treasures, bribing the English governor Nicholas Trott (1663 - 1740) to look the other way.

After Avery, other pirates and privateers, mostly English, began to call at Nassau, using their plunder to seize ever greater political power. Ideally suited to raid Spanish treasure flotillas, the Bahamas grew as a nexus of English privateering and piracy, leading combined French and Spanish fleets to sack Nassau in 1703 and again in 1706. Fearing further attacks, most of the law-abiding populace to fled to Jamaica or the mainland, leaving the islands firmly under pirate control. Among the pirates who visited or based themselves in the Bahamas were Benjamin Hornigold, Henry Jennings, Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach, 'Black' Sam Bellamy, Stede Bonnet, Charles Vane, 'Calico' Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Woodes Rogers. By 1711, it was estimated that there were more than 1000 pirates based in Nassau.

Lacking a formal governance, the islands were administered via the pirate 'Codes of Conduct,' a set of strict rules generally more democratic and egalitarian than most contemporaneous governmental systems. For example, the pirate codes often called for fair distribution of spoils, limited voting rights, and, contrary to the reputation of pirates, punishment for rape and theft. The 'Pirate Republic' lasted until 1718 when one of their own, the English buccaneer Woodes Rogers (c. 1769 - 1732), turned official, accepting a Royal Governorship and turning the Bahamas into a Crown Colony.

Publication History and Census

This map has an interesting and confused publication history. It was originally engraved by John Thornton sometime around 1698. Around 1707 the plate was revised to reflect Samuel Thornton, John Thornton's heir. The map was subsequently issued sporadically until 1737, when completely new plate by William Mount and Thomas Page, the present example, was engraved for their 1737 The English Pilot, the Fourth Book. The most significant difference between these two plates, aside from the' Thornton' vs 'Mount and Page' imprints, is that the Thornton had rhumb lines passing through the land. The rhumb lines were removed from the land by Mount and Page to make for easier reading. In 1749, the Irish pirate publisher George Grierson resurrected the map, with minor modifications to the imprint. A close comparison suggests that the Grierson map is actually a modified issue from the old Thornton plate, with all of its flaws, which Grierson must have somehow acquired. The 1737, Mount and Page issue, as here, enjoyed only a short publication run, being quickly superseded by other more detailed and general maps in later editions of The English Pilot. Very rare to the market.