Inside the
Mapping North Carolina (Part i)
ANEW
VOYAGE
CAROllNAi
Containing, the
ExaSl Dejcripti&n and Natural Hiftory
OF THAT
COUNTRY:
Together with the Prefent State thereof.
A J
О
UK N A L
Of a Thoufand Miles, Travel’d thro’ feveral
Nations of
/
N D I A N S.
Giving a particular Account of their Cuftoms,
Manners, &c.-
By John Lawson, Gent. Surveyor-
General of North -Carolina.
iL
LO N D 0 N:
Printed in the Year 1709.
- - - - —
Lawson’s book, A New Voyage to Carolina, was published in London in 1709. TI'HS&G owns a
rare first edition of this book.
By Nancy Richards, Curator of Collections
ver since explorers first sighted
the North American continent,
there has been a demand
for maps of the lands on the western
Atlantic. Maps were vital lor navigation,
naval and military campaigns, trade,
settlement and westward migration,
and in settling boundary disputes ol all
types. A prodigious number ol printed
and manuscript maps documenting the
southeast section ol America survive
from the Colonial period (i. c. from the
mid- 16th century to the Revolution).
William P. Cummings The Southeast
in Early Maps (3rd edition, revised and
enlarged by Louis De. Vosey, Jr., 1998)
lists 450 examples. North Carolina is
amply represented in the list.
In the years before the American
Revolution, there are three broad
categories of maps. Ihe first arc the
“maps of discovery," which record the
coastline of the continent using reports
and charts of early expeditions. Group
two are the so called “descriptive” maps;
these expand on early exploration and
are used to encourage settlement. Group
three, produced primarily during the
third quarter of the 18 th century, are
maps based on topographical surveys.
In each case, new maps build on the
products of the previous generation.
Each generation adds new information
while, occasionally, repeating the
misinformation ol earlier maps.
Iryon Palace Historic Sires &
Gardens is particularly blessed with an
important collection ol maps recording
the Carolinas and North Carolina
in particular in the Colonial Period.
Included are examples of all three
types by some of the most important
cartographers and surveyors of the 17th
and 1 8th centuries such as Willem
Janszoon Blaeu of Amsterdam; Jean
Baptiste Homann of Nuremberg; Nicolas
Samson d’Abherville of France; and John
Speed, John Sencx, Herman Moll, John
A. Collet, Ihomas Kitchin and Henry
Mouzon of London.
Generally forgotten in the list ol 18th-
century North Carolina map makers and
surveyors is John Lawson (1674-1711).
A London-born explorer, naturalist and
writer, Lawson set out on Dec. 28, 1700,
Irom Charleston (S.C.) with a small
party traveling up rhe Santee River by
canoe and then by foot to explore the
Carolina backcountry. Along the way he
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Spring 2007
