The bulk of this work is a cartobibliography of maps that depict the cartographic myth of a “Mer de l’Ouest”. As such works are far less meaningful unless accompanied by the pertinent facts regarding the materials catalogued, this introduction aims to serve that purpose.
Most often, cartographic myths did not arise from pure speculation. They were based on the information available to the cartographer at the time and his or her interpretation of that information. To understand this particular cartographic myth, we must travel back in time, before the Mer de l’Ouest first appeared on a printed map.
The West Coast of North America prior to 1695
When explorers first sailed the eastern seaboard of North America, most thought that they were sailing the eastern coast of Asia. As such, there was no western coast of North America, as North America did not exist. Once it became apparent that this body of land was not Asia but a new and distinct continent, speculation as to its extent and configuration began.
Many would suggest that the first expression of a cartographic myth of North America was the “Sea of Verrazzano” (fig. 1).
Giovanni da Verrazzano (also spelled Giovanni da Verrazano) explored the east coast of North America in 1525. He is perhaps best known for discovering New York Harbor. Of more interest to this topic, when sailing the coast of the Carolinas, he mistakenly thought the waters beyond their barrier islands (now called Pamlico Sound) was the Pacific Ocean. He told the King of France that along this stretch of coast the continent was only one mile wide! Although this “discovery” remained on maps for only a relatively short period of time, it reflected the fact that no one knew the true extent of this new continent.
Other maps demonstrate this lack of knowledge and the struggle of cartographers to portray the continent of North America. For example, John Farrer's 1651 map of Virginia (later reissued by his daughter Virginia) placed what we now call the Pacific Ocean just beyond the Appalachian Mountains (fig. 2).
But for the most part, the published maps tended to show a vast continent of North America with a continuous west coast (fig. 3).
Still, there were the occasional manuscript maps that presented some surprising examples of the geography of North America. Perhaps most notable of these is a manuscript map now held at the Yale Center for British Art (fig. 4). This c. 1630’s map represents a large “branch of the South Sea, not yet discovered” protruding well into the North American continent. This example of cartographic thinking, or one similar to it, most likely led two French cartographers, Claude and Guillaume De l’Isle, to their own manuscript representations of a Mer de l’Ouest.
The West Coast of North America from 1695 to 1708
The Bibliothèque nationale de France has several manuscript maps of Guillaume De l’Isle, dated from 1695 to c.1700. As Guillaume was only twenty years old in 1695, it is likely that his father, Claude, also a cartographer, had influence regarding these maps.
Guillaume shows a large sea protruding eastward into the North American Continent that he names the Mer de l’Ouest (fig. 5). The sea on this map is reminiscent of the “BRANCH OF THE SOUTH SEA” noted on the Yale map (fig. 4) shown above.
Over time, Guillaume De l’Isle’s concept of the size and shape of this inland sea changed (fig. 6).
Courtesy of the Newberry Library, Chicago. Vault, Ayer MS 293 (V. 2 map 2).
Despite these several manuscript maps and a reported manuscript globe that also showed the Mer de l’Ouest, Guillaume De l’Isle never produced a single printed map delineating this sea. This myth may never have come to light, if not for an unusual set of circumstances.
In 1700 a contemporary of De l’Isle named Jean Baptiste Nolin (also a cartographer in Paris), produced a very large and detailed map of the World (fig. 7) on which he depicted a large Mer de l’Ouest, similar to those of De l’Isle.
Nolin’s map was very quickly copied by Pierre and David Mortier in Amsterdam and London (fig. 8).
The Mortiers were safe from charges of plagiarism but Nolin, in Paris, was not. Guillaume. De l’Isle sued Nolin and finally won his case in 1706. Nolin had to allow De l’Isle to take his plates and erase the “offending geography.” De l’Isle was also allowed to destroy any of Nolin’s 1700 wall maps he could find. (This may partially account for the fact that there are only three known copies of Nolin’s 1700 wall map still extent.) A fuller account of this whole episode can be found in appendix A, within the translation of Joseph Nicolas De l’Isle’s work, Nouvelles Cartes….
The West Coast of North America from 1708 to 1749
Contrary to Joseph Nicholas De l’Isle’s later statement that maps between 1706 and 1750 never showed the Mer de l’Ouest, there were some examples (see %R%_LIST_;cartobibliography%%). That said, these maps were few and far between.
After his court loss to De l'Isle, Nolin revised his wall map and subsequent maps to reflect a Mer de l’Ouest of far more modest size (fig. 9). The outline of his new Mer de l’Ouest was, in fact, similar to the cartographic representation found on Guillaume De l’Isle’s 1703 map of Canada.
Mortier and then Covens and Mortier continued to copy Nolin’s 1700 image of North America and its large Mer de l’Ouest for decades (fig. 10). There were also a number of wall maps during this time period, by various cartographers, copying Nolin’s 1700 image. Others copied his 1708 concept of the Mer de l'Ouest.
West Coast of North America, 1750
The Mer de l'Ouest appeared to be all but forgotten. Then, in 1750, like the phoenix, it arose from the ashes. At this time Guillaume De l’Isle’s half-brother, Joseph Nicholas De l’Isle, revived the myth. This first occurred on a manuscript map commissioned by J. N. De l’Isle and done by a cartographer married to Guillaume’s sister. His name was Philippe Buache. He had inherited Guillaume De l’Isle’s plates and stock of maps through marriage.
J. N. De l’Isle presented his new concepts of the cartography of northwest North America to the Royal Academy of Sciences on April 8th 1750. His presentation included the manuscript map prepared by Buache (fig. 11). Despite some obvious problems with the map (Buache had mistaken some latitude measurements), Buache’s rendition of the Mer de l’Ouest and other aspects of the northwest coast of North America met with immediate praise from some and scorn from others.
The West Coast of North America from 1752 to 1779
Between 1752 and 1779 the controversy over the Buache map raged on. For his part, Joseph Nicholas De l’Isle quickly distanced himself from Buache’s concept of this sea and created his own outline, significantly decreasing the northern expanse of the sea (fig. 12).
Buache struggled with altering his errors in his first attempt at presenting a Mer de l’Ouest. Some time between 1752 and 1755 he settled on a modified presentation (fig. 13).
The controversy surrounding the maps of Buache and J. N. De L’Isle centered on two points. The first of these was the very concept of a Mer de l’Ouest that some cartographers accepted and others did not. The second point was the use of information from two controversial voyages in constructing their new concepts of the northwest coast of North America. Those two voyages were the voyage of Juan de Fuca and the voyage of Admiral De Fonte (see Appendix A for details regarding both). Although J. N. De l’Isle accepted both as true voyages, many considered these voyages as apocryphal. Henry Wagner has written an excellent summary regarding these two voyages in his “Apocryphal Voyages to the Northwest Coast of North America,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 1931.
Cartographers lined up on both sides of this controversy. Nicholas Bailleul, Jean Beaurain, Roch Joseph Julien, Jean Denis [Robert] Janvier, Gobert-Denis Chambon, Isaac Brouckner, Loius-Charles Desnos, John Gibson, Santini, Remondini, and many others signed on to the Buache and J. N. De l’Isle concepts regarding the northwest coast of North America. Those violently opposed to these concepts included: Gerhard Friedrich Müller, Didier Robert de Vaugondy, Braddock Mead (alias John Green), and Thomas Jeffreys.
Despite his violent objections, Didier Robert de Vaugondy included a vague or “sketchy” Mer de l’Ouest on his four sheet World map of 1760. This particular map is mentioned as it may have acted as a prototype for the presentation of “The West Sea” or “The Western Sea” found on many English maps starting in 1762. In that year, both Rocque/Dury and J. Palairet presented this image on their maps. This particular image of the Mer de l’Ouest became the standard for English and American maps that included this cartographic myth until c. 1795 (fig. 14).
Over time and with further explorations of this area, fewer images of a Mer de l’Ouest appeared on maps. Its existence and the validity of the voyages of Juan de Fuca and Admiral de Fonte appeared more and more unlikely. With the voyages of George Vancouver and Captain James Cook in the late 1770’s, the concepts of Buache and the De l’Isles all but vanish from the maps of the northwest coast of North America.
The West Coast of North America after 1780
Although some maps with a Mer de l’Ouest or “Western Sea” appeared after 1779, they are most often from old plates, not yet revised, or maps simply repeating older concepts of previously theorized geography. Exploration of this northwest coast had proven that if there ever was a true Mer de l’Ouest it was, in reality, simply the Pacific Ocean. Interestingly, as early as 1744, there were a few maps that did label the Ocean just off the northwest coast of North America as “Mer de l’Ouest” (fig. 15).
A Summary of Common Forms of the Mer de l’Ouest.
In an attempt to simplify this topic, a terminology for the various cartographic forms of the Mer de l'Ouest has been used within this cartobibliography. There are, with a few exceptions, eight forms of the Mer de l’Ouest. They are listed below, with examples pictured. This "type list" does not include maps that identify the Pacific Ocean as the Mer de l'Ouest.
Type 1. G. De l’Isle/Nolin Mer de l’Ouest
This Mer de l’Ouest was first conceived by Guillaume de l’Isle and copied by Jean Baptiste Nolin. This form first appeared in manuscript about 1695 (De l’Isle) and in printed form by Nolin (1700).
Type 2. Nolin Mer de l’Ouest
This Mer de l’Ouest was created by Nolin in response to the charge of plagiarism by Guillaume De l’Isle. It first appeared in 1708.
Type 3. Guillaume De l'Isle type 2 Mer de l'Ouest
This Mer de l’Ouest was copied from a manuscript map of Guillaume De l’Isle, c. 1720. See figure 6, above. It was used by both Phillipe Buache and J. N. De l’Isle.
Type 4. Buache 1 Mer de l'Ouest
This Mer de l’Ouest was created by Philippe Buache for a manuscript map in 1750, printed in 1752. Although requested to be drawn by Joseph Nicholas De l’Isle, his name is not associated with this form because he quickly rejected Buache’s concepts.
Type 5. J. N. De l’Isle Mer de l’Ouest
This Mer de l’Ouest was created by J. N. De l’Isle in response to criticisms leveled at the Buache manuscript map that De l’Isle used in his presentation to the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1750. This type Mer de l’Ouest first appeared in 1753.
Type 6. Buache 2 Mer de l’Ouest
This second, or Buache type 2, Mer de l’Ouest was Buache’s own response to the criticisms of his first (1750) concept of a Mer de l’Ouest. It first appeared c. 1754.
Type 7. “Sketchy” “The West Sea” or “The Western Sea”
This Mer de l’Ouest appeared most often on British and American maps between 1762 and c. 1800. It was most commonly used by Thomas Kitchin and those who copied him.
Type 8. Meares type sea
This “last gasp” of a sea in northwest North America first appeared in John Meares' Voyage Made in the Year 1788 and 1789, From China to the North West Coast of America, London, 1790. It continued to appear on maps until c.1800.
Almost all images of a Mer de l’Ouest will fall into one of these eight categories. Those few exceptions are noted in the cartobibliography.
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