1764 Bellin Map of the Mississippi Delta, Lake Pontchartrain and New Orleans

This is a 1764 Jacques-Nicolas Bellin map of the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, and part of Alabama. The map's western extent includes the juncture of the Mississippi and the 'Rivier d'Iberville' (actually the Bayou Manchac) and an unnamed lake (possibly Lake Salvador.) The northern reaches of the map include the Rivier d'Iberville, Lake Maurepas, Lake Pontchartrain, and the Gulf coast as far as Mobile Bay. The central focus of the map is the lower Mississippi River and its complicated delta. The city of New Orleans is prominently noted. The region's labyrinthine coastline is heavily notated with depth soundings and the names of many smaller islands; key features are noted as well, such as the large shallow lake which is said to have been 'filled by Jones,' and a 'green oak wood said to be suitable for construction.' Upriver from New Orleans appears a settlement called Carlstain Vill. des Allemans: this was a remnant of the disastrous German settlement of the Mississippi under the aegis of John Law's infamous Company of the West.

The Mississippi is referred to here as the River of Saint Louis, a terminology introduced in French maps in the early 18th century - possibly initially by Guillaume De l'Isle in his 1718 Carte de la Louisiane although the name does not appear in that mapmaker's 1703 Carte du Mexique et de la Floride.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by Jaques-Nicolas Bellin and published in his Petit Atlas Maritimein 1764. The atlas is well represented in institutional collections; twelve separate copies of this map are catalogued in OCLC.