"A Mercator chart of the World by Thomas Bowen" 1779 old antique map
A Mercator chart of the World by Thomas Bowen . Artist/engraver/cartographer: Charles Theodore Middleton, esq. Provenance: A New and Complete System of Geography containing a full accurate, authentic and interesting account and description of Europe, Asia, Africa and America etc. by Charles Theodore Middleton printed fo Pater-noster Row, London. Type: Antique copperplate map. This fascinating map has a number of interesting features. Newly discovered Australia is shown attached to Tasmania. "Alaschka" (Alaska) is shown as a modest-sized island off the north west coast of North America, which itself has a mis-shapen and uncertain outline. The American/Canadian west is named "Fou-Shang of the Chinese", the "Fusang" referred to in ancient Chinese literature as a mysterious land to the East, indicating a theory of the time that North America had been discovered by a Chinese Buddhist missionary in 499 AD. This theory was not comprehensively refuted until the early 20th century. Two "New South Wales" are marked on the map, one in its then newly discovered and named location in south eastern Australia, the other "New South Wales" is marked in what is now roughly Manitoba, Canada ("New North Wales" is marked above it, in Nunavit). The routes of the James Cook and Tobias Furneaux, who accompanied Cook on his second voyage, are marked on the map.
Size: 5480px × 4107px
Location: World
Photo credit: © Antiqua Print Gallery / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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