1706 Jonathan Dickinson Map of Florida, Carolina, Virginia and Cuba

An exceptionally unusual and very rare 1706 map of the east coast of America prepared by the Dutch cartographer Pieter van der Aa. The map was prepared to illustrate the Dutch edition of journals describing the voyage, shipwreck, capture by Indians, and subsequent travels of Quaker merchant Jonathan Dickinson and his family. Oriented to the east, Dickinson's map covers the eastern part of North America from roughly Lake Erie and New York south to Jamaica, including Virginia, Florida, the Carolinas, and Cuba. A dotted line indicates the path of Dickinson's travels from Port Royal, Jamaica, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

This map also has some additional cartographic features of considerable interest. There are two lakes of note in the upper left quadrant, one labeled 'Lac Magnus, (more commonly known as 'Lacus acuqe dulcis,' as identified on many other maps), and a second identified as 'Apalatcy.' Both of these lakes make their first appearance on the De Bry / Le Moyne map of 1591. The largest of these is represented as the source of the River May. In that chart Le Moyne correctly mapped the River May (St. John's River, Florida) in an inverted 'V' form, first heading north, then south to meet with a large inland lake (in all likely hood Lake George or one of the other great inland lakes of Florida). Hondius on the other hand maps the course of the May heading to the northwest, thus relocating the 'Lacus Aquae Dulcis' far to the north. This error can be understood in terms of magnetic variation, temperature issues associated with isothermal lines, and navigational errors related to the confusion of the star Asfick with Polaris. While Le Moyne correctly located the mouth of the River May at 30 degrees of latitude, Hondius maps it between 31 and 32 degrees. This led to a misassociation of the River May with the Savannah River. Thus, while the real River May dips southward, the Savannah River heads almost directly NW into the Appalachian Mountains, forming the modern southern border of South Carolina. Hondius, no doubt taking his cue from navigators who rarely trekked inland, therefore rerouted the May River to flow from the northwest. Without an accurate picture of the interior, Hondius followed Le Moyne's example and translocated the great freshwater lake to the north. Others have speculated that the Le Moyne's River May is in fact the St. John's River and that the 'Lacus Aquae Dulcis' is in fact the Okefenokee Swamp - however, this argument runs counter most scholarship. The influence of the Mercator-Hondius firm was so pronounced in Europe that most subsequent cartographers, including as we see her Van der Aa, followed their lead.

Lake Apalatcy, further north, also bears some discussion. Both the De Bry / Le Moyne and the Honduis / Mercator maps of this region depict this map originating from a great waterfalls plunging from between a cleft in the mountains. Some have speculated that this may have derived from early indigenous reports of Niagara Falls, however, this seems doubtful. Be that as it may, Van der Aa is here one of the first to depict this lake without the hallmark waterfall. Most subsequent cartographers abandoned the lake altogether.

This map originally accompanied the exceptionally rare 51 page narrative following the adventures of Jonathan Dickinson (Dickenson), a wealthy Quaker merchant. The narrative became immensely popular and is considered among the best of a genre, becoming popular at the time, known collectively as 'Indian Captivity Tracts.' It was later republished in Dutch and German. The present map, by the Dutch printer Pieter van der Aa, accompanied the Dutch edition published in 1707, for which it was prepared.