1721 Mappe-Monde Geo-Hydrographique ou Descriptione Generale du Globe Terrestre et Aquatique en Deux Plans-Hemispheres…

  Mappe-Monde Geo-Hydrographique ou Descriptione Generale du Globe Terrestre et Aquatique en Deux Plans-Hemispheres… Suivant Les Relations Les Plus Nouvelles et Principalement sur la Carte que Monsieur N. Witzen Bourgemaistre… The rare, final state of Mortier’s famous map, which is the earliest obtainable map to depict the ‘Mer de l’Ouest’. This exceptional example was responsible for the perpetuation of a number of geographical myths concerning the westernmost regions of the Western Hemisphere and the easternmost of the Eastern, including the ‘Mer de l’Ouest’ (Sea of the West’), the ‘Strait of Anian’ (Northwest Passage), the supposed land bridge between North America and Asia, and a vast landmass labeled ‘Terres Inconnues ou Terres de Jesso’, which connects North America with the ‘Terre de La Compagnie’ (the Kurile Islands of Russia and Japan). Farther south in North America are two distinct peninsulas, the southernmost seeming to be an oversized Baja California, with a smaller Baja t