Louisiana; First Map to Name Louisiana; Antique Map, 1688

This is a museum-grade reproduction of the 1688 first Dutch edition of Friar Hennepin's most important work describing his explorations through the Great Lakes and the upper Mississippi valley. This is the first map to name Louisiana as well as the Niagara Falls. The enclosed map, entitled Kaart van Nieuw Vrankryk en van Louisiana , covers all north American from the Strait of Anian and California as far east as the Grand Banks, as far north as Lake Assenipoils (Winnipeg), and as far south as Antilles and the Spanish Main. In 1679 the French lord Rene-Robert Cavelier de La Salle set out from Fort Frontenac, on Lake Ontario, to explore the Great Lakes and eventually make their way to the Mississippi River. His scribe and chronicler on this expedition was a Dutch Friar of the Franciscan Recollect order, Antoine Louis Hennepin. At this point the explorers parted ways with La Salle returning on foot to Frontenac to resupply and Hennepin continuing onward via the Illinois River to the Mississippi. La Salle went on to explore the length of the Mississippi, named Louisiana, claimed it for France, and established a short lived colony near Matagorda Bay, Texas. Hennepin, who had enough adventure, returned to France where he published an enormously popular book, Description de la Louisiane , of which this is the first Dutch edition. This book features a map that depicts much of the upper Mississippi valley but does not suggest exploration as far as the Gulf of Mexico – as do Hennepin's two later maps.