Willem Blaeu's Rendering of Captain Smith's Virginia

Willem Janszoon Blaeu, Amsterdam, ca. 1640 :
Nova Virginiae Tabvla.  A fine example. $3200.

This is the second state of the first derivitive of Captain John Smith's legendary mapping of the Chesapeake. Actually engraved by Jodocus Hondius in 1618, the plate was acquired by Blaeu in 1629, who put his name on it and began including the map in his atlas the following year.

The following analysis of the Smith map (referring to the original Hole engraving) is by Coolie Verner :

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH accompanied the party that sailed from England to establish the first permanent English settlement in North America. After sailing into the Chesapeake Bay and up the James River, they landed at Jamestown, Virginia, in the spring of 1607. A set of instructions issued to the party in 1606 noted:

``You must observe, if you can, whether the river on which you plant doth spring out of mountains or out of lakes. If it be out of any lake, the passage to the other sea will be more easy, and is like enough, that out of the same lake you will fine some sprint which runs the contrary way towards the East Indian Sea.''

These directions illustrate the then prevalent belief that the western ocean was near at hand with only the open passage to it remaining to be discovered. This dream is illustrated in the Ferrar map of 1651 and it accounts for the sea-to-sea grants of the original colonial charters. The first explorations of the bay area tended to support the belief in a westward passage and Smith wrote Henry Hudson that there was a sea leading into the western ocean to the north of the Virginia Colony, which led Hudson to the discovery of the river which bears his name.

The exploration of the area began almost immediately after settling at Jamestown. In May 1607, Captain Newport led the first party of twenty-three men, including Smith, up the James River as far as the fall line. Later that same year in November and December, Smith explored the Chickahominy River, and on June 2, 1608, Smith, with a party of fourteen men, set out to explore the Chesapeake Bay returning to Jamestown on July 21st. During this period of sever weeks they explored and mapped the eastern shore of the bay and the Potomac River to its fall line. From July 24th to September 7th - six weeks this time - Smith, and a party of twelve men, went to the northern tip of the Chesapeake Bay and explored the Susquehanna, Patuzant, Rappahannock and Piankatank Rivers. During the winter of 1608-1609 further explorations were conducted which included the Panumkey, Mattaponi and Nansemond Rivers.

The printed map is distinguished by two illustrations that were frequently copied on later versions of the map. Along the right border is a large figure of an Indian holding a bow in his right hand with a pig spung at his hip. This figure is most certainly copied from PLATE 3 of the De Bry engravings which was after White's drawing of ``Weroan or great Lorde of Virginia.'' The Smith illustration follows the engraving rather than the original drawing for De Bry has the bow in the right hand rather that the left as does White.

The second illustration is in the upper left corner of the map. This depicts an Indian hut which is described as the residence of Powhatan. The prototype of this drawing is not clearly discernible as it is not similar to any of the surviving White drawings or the De Bry engravings. This illustration has certain features similar to De Bry's PLATE 22 (``The Tomb of the Weroans'') with respect to the background which shows the internal construction of the hut but the figures in the Smith picture are unlike any in De Bry. In all probability this is a composite drawing formed from specific bits and pieces of numerous De Bry pictures.

Prior to the settlement at Jamestown the Chesapeake Bay had been depicted by a vague and indefinite indentation on the coast. On Spanish maps and their derivatives this bay was usually designated ``B. de St Marie'' without any accurate suggestion of its shape or size. The White and De Bry maps depicted it as a somewhat rectangular shape north of the main area which they described. The information they had about the bay was obviously from the Indians and, interestingly enough, showed four major rivers and some lesser ones emptying into it. The De Bry map is the first to attach the name Chesopioc Sinus to the Bay.

In his delineation of the bay, Captain John Smith achieved a factual and amazingly accurate representation of its shape, proportions and orientation. This map, therefore, is the basic prototype map of the Chesapeake Bay. In addition to providing the first accurate representation of the bay area, Smith also introduced some distinctive characteristics that were perpetuated and often accentuated on derivative maps. The most conspicuous of these include the overall shape and alignment of the bay, the Del-Mar-Va. Peninsula, the JamesYork Peninsula, and the Potomac River.

In presenting the Chesapeake Bay Smith drew it on a rather straight line from north to south with a slight angle from southeast to northwest. In the bay toward the north end are a number of large islands and the adjacent shore line is indefinitely drawn to indicate his lack of exploration of that section. The single most conspicuous characteristic of the Smith delineation of the bay is the pronounced turn to the east at the head of the bay. Each of these characteristics of the bay as a whole are perpetuated on the derivatives with varying degrees of deviation. Some maps, like the Visscher, accentuate the slant to the west; while others shorten or lengthen it disproportionately or alter the straight north-south line.

The distinctive shape of the Del-Mar-Va Peninsula as presented on many derivative maps is due as much to what Smith did not draw as to what he did. He apparently did not explore and map any of the eastern or Atlantic side of this peninsula and stopped his delineation of it at Cape Charles. Hole, in engraving the plate, represented this unknown territory by a vague stippled area leading off indistinctly in a general northeasterly direction which suggested a gradual widening of the peninsula. Subsequent maps make this widening of the peninsula a permanent feature as they joined Cape Charles to the Delaware Bay. A subsidiary characteristic of this peninsula is the shape of the southern tip which Smith depicts with two points that become increasingly exaggerated on many derivative maps.

The peninsula between the James and York Rivers is presented by Smith with two distinctive characteristics: the breadth of the peninsula at the end (i.e., north to south) is greater than in reality, and the northeast end of the peninsula has alarge semicircular bay containing five fairly large islands (Gosnold's Bay). This latter representation is found also on the Tindall and Zuniga charts and implied on the Velasco manuscript. The former two of these three charts contain a westward hook at Point Comfort which is not on Smith.

In his delineation of the Potomac River Smith introduced a decided pattern similar to a large Z. From the mouth, the river has a northwest course then turns northeast and finally northwest again. This is found only on the Velasco chart as none of the earlier manuscripts had included a representation fo the Potomac based on actual surveys.

Some of the names Smith attached to geographical features have survived while others have been abandoned or replaced. Smith himself claims credit for naming Capes Henry and Charles after the 'princes of the day': George Percey in his Discourse also mentions the naming of Cape Henry but he neither assumes credit nor assigns it to anyone else. He does, however, relate substantially the same story as Smith with respect to the naming of Point Comfort as it, in Smith's words, ``. . . gave great comfort to his men upon landing at Cape Henry to know there was land accross the way.'' Smith named the four major rivers Powhatan (James), Pamunk (York), Tappahonock (Rappahannock) and Patowmec and of these, only the last name has survived. Other features were assigned the names of members of Smith's surveying party such as Fetherstone's Baye after Master Richard Fetherstone who died on the second expedition in August, 1608. Many names of this sort were not on the original plate and may have been added later by Smith or the printer to favour or honour those after whom features were named.

There are black crosses at varous points on the map which Smith explains: ``. . . as far as you see the little Crosses on rivers, mountains, or other places, have been discovered the rest was hed by information of the savages and are set down according to their instructions.''

Last, but by no means least, is the information which Smith provides on his map about the location of Indian Tribes. Major Jed Hotchkiss, in a letter dated October 5, 1883, published in Arber, notes: ``I am sorry to say that about the only information we have concerning the location of Indian Tribes at the time of the settlement of Virginia is to be found on Smith's map.'' He remarks further that the map is ``. . . a marvel of results in representation of outline compared with the time occupied in precuring information. Smith had all the inportant features of our wonderfully developed coast well shown.''


The following synopsis of Blaeu's life is by Koeman :

We still do not know if the founder of the famous printing house of the Blaeus in Amsterdam was born at Alkmaar or at Uitgeest (near Alkmaar), nor do we know the precise date of his birth in 1571. Willem Janszoon (also written Guilielmus Janssonius, sometimes with the additional name Caesius) was originally educated as a clerk in the herring-trade of his uncle, Cornelis Pieterszoon Hooft, but later changed his job for the study of mathematics. To that end, he went to Denmark in 1594 as an assistant of the famous astronomer, Tycho Brahe, on the island of Hven. It was from Tycho Brahe that he learned the theory and practice of astronomical observations and the art of instrument- and globe- making. In 1596, he returned to Amsterdam where he settled down as a globe-, instrument-, and map-maker. He built his first shop and printing-house on 'Op de Lastage aen de Waelkant', but in 1604 we find him living in a house on the Damrak, 'Op het water in den vergulden Sonnewyzer', from where he moved his business in 1637 to the Bloemgracht, 'Naest de Kleerbezem'. Willem Janszoon married Maertgen Cornelisdochter in 1596(?). Of this marriage the following chidren were born: Joan (1596-1673), Pieter (died in 1650), Cornelis (c. 1610-c. 1645), Stijntgen, and Sijtchen. Joan Blaeu, born in Amsterdam on September 23, 1596, became, together with his brother, Cornelis, partner in his father's book trade and printing business. It was this Dr. Joan Blaeu, who, after finishing his studies at Leiden, took over the management of the printing house and established its fame. The father, Willem Janszoon, published his first cartographic work (a globe) in 1599 and probably published his first printed map sheet (Map of the Netherlands) in 1604. He specialized in maritime cartography and published the first edition of the pilot guide Het Licht der Zeevaert in 1608, and was appointed Hydrographer of the V.O.C. (United East India Compamy) in 1633. After thirty years of publishing books, wall maps, globes, charts and pilot guides, he brought out his first atlas, Atlas Appendix (1630); this was followed by an emended edition in 1631. This was the beginning of the great tradition of atlas-making by the Blaeus...
Willem Janszoon Blaeu died in 1638, leaving his prospering business to his sons, Cornelis and Joan. Of Cornelis we only know that his name occurs in the prefaces of books and atlases until c. 1645, and that he married at Rotterdam in 1640.