New Granada.

An altogether extraordinary 1818 map of the northwestern parts of South America by John Pinkerton. Covers the modern day countries of Columbia, Venezuela, Panama, and Ecuador as well as parts of Peru and Brazil. Pinkerton offers impressive detail throughout noting indigenous groups, missions, towns and cities, swamps, mountains, and river systems. Upper left hand quadrant features the title plate and two distance scales, one in British Miles and the other in Spanish Leagues. Cartographically speaking this is an often neglected part of the world - especially in the early 19th century. Though the coastlands had been well mapped early in the 16th century, the interior was rarely penetrated. The combination of mountainous terrain, daunting jungles, malaria, and unfriendly indigenous groups combine to make this area all but unexplorable - even today. Nonetheless, Pinkerton make a commendable attempt to piece together early conquistador accounts, explorer's journals, missionary records, and indigenous reports into a coherent mapping of the area. By far the most interesting aspect of Pinkerton's work in this region is his ethnographic commentary on the various indigenous tribes. He identi

Date

1818

Place

the Viceroyalty of New Granada

Archive

Wikimedia Commons

Type

map

Original size

3,581 × 5,000 pixels

Need maps for a whole project? Add Find Any Map to Claude and ask for this one by its id: 307321.