Mappemonde a l’usage du Roi par Guillaume Delisle et Philippe Buache Premiers Geographes de sa Majeste et de l’Academie des Sciences Revue et augmentee des N les Decouvertes par Dezauche.

Very decorative double-hemisphere world map by French cartographers de L’Isle and Buache.

The title appears in a long ribbon with the face of the Sun King dramatically radiating through the clouds. The map depicts the world at the conclusion of the Age of Discovery and the beginning of the great era of scientific exploration which had begun with the French voyages of Bougainville 1766-9 and La Perouse 1785. These were soon to be followed by D’Entrecasteaux 1791-94, Baudin 1800-4, Freycinet 1817-20 and D’Urville 1826-9. At lower centre is an ornately bordered cartouche with a notice advising that this new world map includes the recent discoveries made during the three voyages undertaken by James Cook. Australia is shown with an imaginary southern coast and Tasmania joined to the mainland.

Also noted are the Trial Islands near present-day Dampier, which were named after the English ship the Trial, wrecked in 1622 and remained incorrectly positioned on charts for two hundred years. On his first voyage 1768-1771, Cook circumnavigated and charted the coast of New Zealand and proved that the land discovered by Tasman in 1642 was not attached to a larger southern landmass. He then sailed westward, discovering and charting the east coast of Australia. On his second voyage 1772-1780, Cook was instructed to search for Terra Australis Incognita, sailing as far south as the 71 parallel, making him the first to cross the Antarctic Circle and dispelling the notion of Terra Australis. He also made extensive explorations of the Pacific. On his third and final voyage 1776-1780, Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands 1778 and then sailed north along the west coast of America to search for the illusive northwest passage which the English Admiralty had long sought. Failing to find the passage, he correctly concluded that one did not exist. The map includes an interesting curiosity along the west coast of present-day Canada, the place name of ‘Fousang des Chinois’, referring to a land described by the Chinese Buddhist Hui Shen in 499 AD as being some 8000km east of China. During the eighteenth century, the French Orientalist Joseph de Guignes proposed that Shen had in fact visited the Americas, a theory which would cause widespread debate during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

From Atlas geographique des quatre parties du monde, Dezauche Geographe, Successeur des Srs. De Lisle et Phil Bauche 1ers. Geographe du Roi, Rue des Noyers.

References: Moreland pp.131-132, 134.