JEFFERYS, Thomas (1719-1771)

Turks Islands From A Survey made in 1753 by Sloops l'Aigle and l'Emeraude, By Order Of The French Governor Of Hispaniola, with improvements from Observations, made in 1770, in the Sir Edward Hawke Kings Schooner

London: Printed for Robert Sayer, 20 February, 1775. Engraved chart, uncoloured, with rhumb lines, latitude and longitude scales, soundings in fathoms, reefs, shoals, anchorages, tidal notes, compass variation, and engraved notes on winds, currents, and sea marks. Sheet size: 20 3/8 x 14 3/8 inches.

A finely engraved chart of the Turks Islands from Sayer’s West-India Atlas, combining French survey work and British naval observations to record one of the Caribbean’s most valuable salt-producing island groups and the difficult passage around it.

This chart is a compelling piece of practical Caribbean cartography, made for the realities of approach, anchorage, and passage. It presents Grand Turk, Salt Key, Sand Key, Cotton Island, Pelican Island, Bird Island, Breeches Island, and the neighbouring cays as a working maritime landscape. The islands are surrounded by a dense field of soundings, dotted banks, reefs, shoals, anchorages, rhumb lines, tidal information, and current notes, giving the chart the practical authority of a navigational document made for sailors. French survey work of 1753 was later supplemented by British observations made aboard the Kings schooner Sir Edward Hawke in 1770, reflecting the movement of hydrographic knowledge between rival maritime powers in the Caribbean. Accurate coastal information carried both commercial and naval value, and this chart preserves that layered process of survey, correction, and strategic use. Salt production in the Grand Turk and Salt Key are marked with salinas, ponds, wells, coastal points, and Salt Rakers Huts, details that place the islands within the salt economy that sustained them for centuries. Solar evaporated salt was essential to Atlantic commerce, particularly for preserving fish, meat, and provisions, and the chart records the working geography behind that trade with unusual immediacy. The engraved notes record a tidal rise and fall of about three to four feet, uncertain currents, and the danger of north winds and rain around the autumnal equinox. At Sand Key, another note states that the French erected a sea mark on the southern bluff after the late peace, only to be obliged soon after to demolish it, a small but revealing reference to the political sensitivity of Caribbean navigation after the Seven Years War. Thomas Jefferys was one of the leading English cartographers of the 18th century. From about 1750, he published a series of maps of the Americas, that were among the most significant produced in the period. As Geographer to the Prince of Wales, and after 1761, Geographer to the King, Jefferys was well-placed to have access to the best surveys conducted, and many of his maps held the status of "official work." Jefferys died on 20th November 1771, but Robert Sayer (in partnership with John Bennett) 'having acquired the sole property of the Plates' and other material relating to the work, 'minutely followed' Jefferys' plans for The West India Atlas although Sayer does note that additional work was done using various sources to ensure that the information was up to date.

See also: D. Gestetner "Thomas Jefferys': West-India Atlas, 1775" in MapForum, issue 7 (2005), pp.40-48 & issue 8 (2005), pp.30-35; Phillips 2699.

Item #42752

Price: $950.00