1606 Mercator Hondius Map of Florida, Carolina, and Virginia

Published in 1606 by the Mercator/Hondius firm, this is the most influential map of the southeastern part of North America to emerge in the 17th century and the first map to depict Virginia and Florida. Entitled, Virginiae Item et Floridae, Hondius' map covers from the Spanish colony of St. Augustine northwards, past the Outer Banks of the Carolinas, as far north as the entrada to the Chesapeake Bay. Cartographically Hondius' map is a synthesis of the two landmark North American maps of the previous century, the 1591 Jacques Le Moyne map of Florida and the 1590 John White map of Virginia and Carolina, both of which were published by Theodore de Bry. The influence of this map, augmented by the gravity of the Mercator name, defined the cartographic perspective of the American southeast well into the 18th century, propagating in the process a number of erroneous conventions that would appear on maps well into the 1700s.

The Legacy of a 16th Century French Attempt to Colonize Florida

Despite several clear sources, Hondius' map is a unique production with several important innovations. The most notable of these deal with the lakes and rivers found in the southwestern quadrant of the map. This region was tenuously mapped by the French during their disastrous attempt to settle the Florida between 1552 and 1565, when they were finally driven out by the Spaniards of St. Augustine. Le Moyne was part of this expedition and, although the French settlers likely did very little actual mapping of the interior, good terms with the indigenous Floridians did enable them to produce an impressive and surprisingly accurate early map of the southeast. The Le Moyne - De Bry map, as it is known, identifies several major lakes in the interior of Florida, all of which are noted here, nonetheless, where Le Moyne was surprisingly accurate, Hondius' interpretation is surprisingly erroneous.

Mythical Great Lakes in the American Southeast

The most significant deviation from Le Moyne's map is Hondius' placement of the River May and Lake Apalachy, here identified as the Lacus Aquae Dulcis (Sweet Water Lake). Where 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 maps the course of the May heading from 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 an erroneous association of the River May with the Savannah River. Thus, while the River May dips southward, the Savannah River heads almost directly northwest 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 if 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 - but this argument does not coincide with most scholarship. The influence of the Mercator-Hondius firm was so pronounced in Europe that most subsequent cartographers followed their lead. Lacus Aquae Dulcis appeared in maps by Jansson, Laet, Janszoon, Blaeu, Allard, Ogilby, Speed, Homann and others well into the 18th century, becoming one of Hondius' most tenacious legacies.

The Mysterious Waterfall Lake

Another curious and striking element drawn directly from the Le Moyne map is the curious lake fed by an enormous waterfall. To our knowledge, there are but two maps that depict this lake, this being the second. Some believe this unusual lake may have been based on native legends of Niagara Falls. A note near the lake and falls claims the natives of this land find grains of silver in its waters. The sources for this lake are, unfortunately, as unclear in this map as they were in Le Moyne's and will most likely remain a mystery. The third mysterious lake, Sarrope, appearing the southwestern quadrant, is most likely a flawed mapping of Lake Okeechobee, as Le Moyne places it much further to the south in roughly the correct position. To our knowledge, only 4 maps illustrate this lake and waterfall as here.

One of the Earliest Maps to depict and name the Appalachian Mountains

Like the Le Moyne map, this map is also one of the earliest maps to depict and name the Appalachian Mountains, here identified as Apalatcy Montes. A note suggests that ' Apalatcy,' a term presumably derived from a once populous American Indian nation inhabiting the Pensacola region, are rich in gold and silver. Later 19th century discoveries in the Carolinas indeed lead to a minor gold rush.

To the east and north of Port Royal, the former site of the failed 1552 French colony, Hondius draws most of his cartography from John White's map of 1590. This map, which is the first to accurately detail the Grand Banks, was drawn by White following Sir Walter Raleigh's mysterious and ill-fated 1585 attempt to colonize Roanoke Island. Hondius' takes far fewer liberties with White's work than he did with Le Moyne's, following closely on the cartography of the older map, although he has included a few Spanish names including C. S. Romano Hispanis, Medano, and Hispanis. These names most are most likely derived from early Spanish forays up the North American coast from St. Augustine, despite the fact that few of these expeditions yielded discoveries of any note.

A Persistent Distortion of the American Coastline

Another noteworthy error is the jutting distorted horizontal projection of Virginia-Carolina, which erroneously places Carolina and the Outer Banks too far to the east. This error follows on earlier maps and relates to difficulties 16th century mariners experienced in calculating longitude and accounting for magnetic variance. It was not until the invention of the marine chronometer in 1714 that longitude cold be accurately measured at sea. Nonetheless, one can image the misrepresentation being problematic for earlier sailors short on supplies after a lengthy trans-Atlantic crossing. Fortunately, most ships navigating to this region would have stopped first in the West Indies then followed the coast northward rather than make directly for the colonies along the Grand Banks. This approach no doubt influenced the longevity of this cartographic apocrypha.

This map is further profusely illustrated with various decorative illustrative elements drawn from early encounters with American Indians nations. These include a Floridian King and Queen, sea monsters, and an American Indian fishing canoe taken from De Bry. To the right and left of the title cartouche, upper left quadrant, are views of American Indian villages, illustrating the construction differences between Florida and Virginia villages.

The Mercator/Hondius Virginiae Item et Floridiae map remained the most important map of the North American southeast for nearly 70 years, until superseded by the 1672 publication of Ogilby-Moxon's Description of Carolina. It was published in numerous editions in various languages, but there is only one state as the map remained unaltered in all subsequent publications. From the verso text, we can identify this example as being drawn from the 1609 French edition of Gerard Mercator and Jodocus Hondius' Atlas. Mercator died in 1594 and though the maps and atlas bear his name, most of the individual maps were edited and updated by Hondius prior to the 1606 Atlas publication.