Colonies Francaise (en Amérique)

Title

Colonies Francaise (en Amérique)

Description

A beautifully hand-colored map featuring four insets: Newfoundland, the island of St. Martin, French Guiana, and the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. It is framed by a magnificent border depicting scenes of the landscape and people. A country index is printed on the left and right.

ca. 1840

Artist

Lemercier / Levasseur (1800-1870)

Cadastre of the War and Bridge Department by V. Levasseur, Geographer Engineer attached to the Cadastre and the City of Paris. Huge Parisian firm of lithographic printers founded by Joseph Rose Lemercier (1803-1887), who began as the foreman for Langlumé in 1825. Working on his own account from 1827, 1829-36 in partnership with Bénard association formed in 1837 according to IFF catalogue for Joseph Lemercier. The firm was still active in 1841.

Historical Description

Newfoundland is the site of the only authenticated Norse settlement in North America. The first European visitors to Newfoundland were Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch and English migratory fishermen and whalers. The island was visited by the Genoese navigator John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), working under contract to King Henry VII of England on his expedition from Bristol in 1497. In 1501, Portuguese explorers Gaspar Corte-Real and his brother Miguel Corte-Real charted part of the coast of Newfoundland in a failed attempt to find the Northwest Passage. After European settlement, colonists first called the island Terra Nova, from "New Land" in Portuguese and Latin. The name Newfoundland in popular discourse came from people discussing the "New founde land" in the new world. On August 5, 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland as England's first overseas colony under Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I of England. The indigenous people on the island at the time of European settlement were the Beothuk, who spoke an Amerindian language of the same name. Later immigrants developed a variety of dialects associated with settlement on the island: Newfoundland English, Newfoundland French.