1728 Jesuit Map of the Caroline Islands

The earliest printed map of the Caroline Islands, produced by Joseph Stöcklein in 1728 for inclusion in Welt-Bott, his monumental collection of Jesuit missionary letters. The map was based on the reports of the Jesuit Juan Antonio Cantova (1686-1731), the first to establish a Christian mission in the Caroline Islands in 1722. The publication of this map pre-dates Cantova's 1731 establishment of his mission in Ulithi and subsequent death at the hands of the natives of the island Mogmog (among the island group marked III. Proving Names Egoi on the map.) Cantova's information, as reported in his 1722 letter to the confessor to the King of Spain, was derived from interviews with two separate groups of natives who were blown off course and shipwrecked at Guam, where Cantova was based. From these, Cantova learned their language and received the account of the islands which informs this map. The map's division of the archipelago into five distinct groups was derived from these interviews, as were the locations of safe anchorages was shown. The map also shows 1712 track of Bernard de Egui from the Philippines to the islands of S. Andrea, the first European contact with the Caroline Islands.

Publication History and Census

This map was printed by the Jesuit Joseph Stöcklein for inclusion in his 1728 Neuer Welt-Bott, a work chronicling the works of the Society of Jesus around the world. No examples of the separate map appear in OCLC. We are aware of occasional appearances of this map on the market.