Canada Louisiane et Terres Angloises [Southeastern U.S.]

The southwest corner of D’Anville’s important four-sheet map of North America.

Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville’s “Canada Louisiane et Terres Angloises,” first published in 1755, is a monumental multi-sheet map that serves as the definitive French cartographic statement on North America prior to the Seven Years’ War. In addition to incorporating the latest scientific data and omitting spurious sources of information, the content is exceptional 18th-century political propaganda. D’Anville deliberately expanded the borders of New France to squeeze out the British between the Appalachians and the Atlantic seaboard.

This section of the four-part map covers the southeast, including territory claimed by France, Spain, and Britain. A fascinating variety of geographic features, Native American villages, and European settlements/fortifications are labeled throughout the carefully engraved plate. Particular locations of interest include the Province of Tecas (Texas), Fort Conde (on Mobile Bay), and the Chesapeake Bay. Mountains are depicted pictorially, reflecting the rugged terrain of the Blue Ridge and Piedmont ranges. Arguably, the most important element is the Mississippi River, highlighted in green and running between the Kaskaskia Mission into the Gulf of Mexico, south of New Orleans.