New Holland & the Adjacent Islands, …

One of only a few pre-1800 maps solely focused on Australia, and only found in the third edition of Alexander Kincaid&#8217s A new geographical, historical, and commercial grammar which was a copy of William Guthrie&#8217s work of the same title. Kincaid added a further fourteen maps to the third edition including this one by John Andrews. Kincaid was one of a number of Scottish publishers actively republishing English books at lower prices. This was possible due to a loophole in the Copyright Act and a subsequent ruling by the Scottish Court of Session in 1751 which allowed any book not registered at Stationer&#8217s Hall to be copied legally in Scotland. Although the map does not identify the mapmaker or engraver, it has previously been attributed to Kincaid on the basis that another map, titled Southern Hemisphere, which appears in all three editions of his geography and also depicts Australia prior to the discovery of Bass Strait, notes him as &#8216del.&#8217 (delineator or creator). The geography and nomenclature of both maps are clearly based on John Andrew&#8217s A New Chart of New Holland , issued in William Eden&#8217s History of New Holland 1787. Due to the reduced size of Kincaid&#8217s New Holland map, a number of place names have been removed and the inset map of Botany Bay has been replaced with a map of Port Jackson, based on John Hunter&#8217s chart which was first issued in Governor Phillip&#8217s account of 1789. In an advert for his book, Kincaid wrote: &#8216The whole executed on a plan similar to that of W. Guthrie &#8230 by a Society in Edinburgh &#8230 Embellished with an elegant set of maps, engraved on purpose, more numerous, accurate and exhibiting more fully the new geographical discoveries than those to be met with in any former publication.&#8217 It is clear that Kincaid not only copied Guthrie&#8217s book but also used information from earlier published maps issued in the first fleet accounts. Kincaid&#8217s work is historically significant as it disseminated the latest knowledge and discoveries of Australia to a much wider audience than Eden&#8217s very scarce work. From Alexander Kincaid&#8217s A New geographical commercial and historical grammar , 1799. References: Kissajukian, Louis ‘South Land The Search for Spices Maps 1513-1811’