Guiana and Caribana. (Guiana, Verdeelt In Guiana En Caribana) 1700

Old map of Brazil, France, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of).

-1667), royal geographer to Kings Louis XIII and XIV, and commonly known as the father of French cartography. Numerous editions copied from Sanson were printed in the early 18th century. The map covers the region from the island of Trinidad and the mouth of the Orinoco River in the west to the mouth of the Amazon River in the southeast. Sanson divides this area into New Andalusia, Guiana, and Caribana and gives the names of the indigenous peoples inhabiting the region. European interest in this region was spurred by the publication, in 1596, of Sir Walter Raleigh's The Discovery of the Large, Rich and Beautiful Empire of Guiana. Raleigh had made an expedition in 1595 up the Orinoco River in search of the legendary kingdom of El Dorado. The kingdom was believed to be located on the shores of a large body of water, known as Lake Parime. This map shows the lake, and attributes its name to the Carib people. The nonexistence of the mythical lake was not definitively proven until the 19th century.

Created by Nicolas Sanson in 1700.

• Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
• Reference extracted from World Digital Library: Mark Nicholls and Penry Williams, "Ralegh, Sir Walter (1554--1618)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).|John Silver, "The Myth of El Dorado," History Workshop, number 34 (Autumn 1992).
• Original resource at: Columbus Memorial Library, Organization of American States.
• Content in French and Dutch.
• Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Map Tags

1700

Brazil

Colonies

France

French Guiana

Guyana

Map

Netherlands

Nicolas Sanson

Spain

Suriname

Trinidad And Tobago

Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic Of)