1919 Administrateur Resident Manuscript Map of Hiking Trails Outside Da Lat, Vietnam

This is a 1919 Administrateur Resident manuscript map of the environs of Da Lat, Vietnam, likely made for French hunters and other outdoorsmen visiting the mountain resort. At the beginning of the 20th century, with its cool mountain climate free of mosquitos, Da Lat became a resort for French colonial administrators living in French Indochina. A sanitarium was established, along with a luxury hotel and a massive church.

A Closer Look

The map depicts the region surrounding Da Lat, with Da Lat situated below and to the right of center. Roads, rivers, forests, and shelters are marked throughout the area. Several native villages are identified by name, including two moï, B'neur dit and B'neur dung, which were inhabited by Lat tribespeople. An Agricultural Station is noted in Dankia, 12 kilometers northwest from Dalat.

Hiking Trails

Three circular roads appear to the right of Da Lat and are detailed in Bouvard and Millet's guidebook Dalat: Sanatorium de l'Indochine française. La Chasse au Lang-Bian. Nouveau guide illustré. Chemin circulaire no. 1 (circular road no. 1) is a 3-kilometer round trip from the hotel and is the shortest route. Chemin circulaire no. 2 (circular road no. 2) is around 7 kilometers round trip and has two shelters and a small 'robinson' placed on the trunk of a large pine. It passes the Camly waterfall, one of the many natural spectacles in the region, on the way back to the hotel. Chemin circulaire no. 3 (circular road no. 3) is the longest at around 11 kilometers round trip and passes by the Camly waterfall and through the defunct racecourse. Three waterfalls (Camly, Prenn, and Ankroët) are within walking distance from the hotel in Dalat and are labeled here.

Go on a Hunting Trip

This whole area was a popular hunting region where sportsmen hunted tigers, gaur, Asian elephants, panthers, collared bears, rhinoceroses, and smaller game. Several types of deer live here as well. The cerf d'Aristote (Aristotle's deer) and the cerf d'Eld (Eld's deer) are at least partially protected species, but the Muntjac and the marsh deer are not. February, March, and April are hunting season. One obtained hunting licenses from the Chief Province Officer of the Lang-Lian. Pencil notations in the bottom left corner detail the boundaries of the 'reserved zone' (zone réservée) (where people could only hunt with a permit) and the protected zone (zone protégée) where certain animals were protected. Among these were female elephants, gaur, Eld's deer, and female Aristotle's deer.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by the Administrateur Resident in Da Lat in January 1919. As it is a manuscript map, it is unique. However, a similar map, likely reduced from this map, was included at a much smaller scale in the 1920 guidebook Dalat: Sanatorium de l'Indochine française. La Chasse au Lang-Bian. Nouveau guide illustré, published by Pierre Bouvard and Fernand Millet. Only five cataloged examples of the guidebook appear, four in OCLC (Harvard, Wayne State University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the National Taiwan University) and one at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, which has been fully digitized.