Carte Reduite De L’Ocean Oriental …

Rare, large scale French navigational chart by Jacques-Nicolas Bellin extending from Africa to Australia and the Philippine archipelago .

This is the second edition printed in 1757, seventeen years after the first edition was issued in 1740. Produced for use aboard French naval vessels, it is traversed by a network of rhumb lines and reflects the hydrographic knowledge available to French maritime authorities during the mid-eighteenth century.

It is embellished with a grand title cartouche comprising an elephant and lion, lacking in the first issue. The geographical coverage has been extended westward and eastward to include part of the western coast of southern Africa and the Philippine archipelago.  Revisions are evident along several major coastlines; with Australia differing substantially from that of the first edition , the eastern coast of Africa has been redrawn, while the outline of Madagascar differs from that shown in the 1740 edition. The representation of the Malay Peninsula has also been altered. In the northern Indian Ocean, the configuration of the Gujarat Peninsula has been revised, and changes have been made to the depiction of the Bay of Bengal and the Ganges delta.

From: Bellin, N. Hydrographie Francoise. Paris   or  Depot des cartes et Plans de la Marine