A Chart of the World Shewing the Latest Discoveries of Capt. Cook

Interesting chart of the world near the end of the 18th century.

This map of the world on Mercator’s Projection was published in London around 1790 as part of William Guthrie’s New System of Geography. An earlier edition with slightly different content, including a speculative southern Australian coastline, was published by Dilly and Robinson in 1785. Other examples, published later, include the tracks of Cook’s ship the Endeavour as well as the Resolution.

The image presents a fascinating contemporary overview of the geographic understanding of the world. Though the Age of Exploration had ended, numerous blank spots and speculative areas remain on the map. The Northwest Passage is a tantalizing myth that persist above the Arctic Circle, ‘Islands known only to the Spanish’ are labeled in the South Pacific, and Tasmania remains a peninsula affixed to Australia. The routes of Cook’s second and third voyages are noted with dotted and solid lines, respectively.

Example at the Huntingdon Library; 1800 Example at the Leventhal