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| Keywords: 1818 Pinkerton Map of of La Plata (Southern South America, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia) - Geographicus - LaPlata-pinkerton-1818.jpg An altogether extraordinary 1818 map of the southern parts of South America by John Pinkerton Covers the modern day countries of Argentina Bolivia Paraguay Chile as well as parts of adjacent Brazil and Peru Pinkerton offers impressive detail throughout noting indigenous groups missions towns and cities swamps mountains and river systems Upper left hand quadrant features the title plate and two distance scales one in British Miles and the other in Castile Leagues Cartographically speaking this is an often neglected part of the world - especially in the early 19th century Though the coastlands and open plains had been well mapped early in the 16th century the interior was rarely penetrated The combination of mountainous terrain daunting jungles malaria and unfriendly indigenous groups combine to make this area all but unexplorable - even today Nonetheless Pinkerton make a commendable attempt to piece together early conquistador accounts explorer's journals missionary records and indigenous reports into a coherent mapping of the area In doing so he achieves a number of significant advances in the mapping of the region In general this map reads like a litany of disappointment The number if ruined towns abandoned missions forgotten mines and destroyed settlements would be hard to match in any other map Pinkerton notes the ruins of La Conception St Isabel Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Guadalcazar to name but a few In the Andes he identifies the sites of a number of important mountains and volcanoes including Aconcagua Coquimbo Petoroa and others He also identifies the site of the majestic ruined pre-Columbian city on the shores of Lake Titicaca Traditionally cartographers identified the apocryphal Lake of Xarayes as the source of the Paraguay River In earlier days explores associated this lake with legends of Paradise El Dorado and the gateway to the Amazon The lake itself though never existed Instead it was a misinterpretation of the vast Pantanal flood plain during the rainy season Here Pinkerton abandons the notation of a Lakes of Xarayes instead identifying numerous Lakes of Xarayes and in doing so come much closer to the truth This is the first map to exhibit this change which is itself a significant advance the mapping of the Amazon Basin Drawn by L Herbert and engraved by Samuel Neele under the direction of John Pinkerton This map comes from the scarce American edition of Pinkerton ™s Modern Atlas published by Thomas Dobson Co of Philadelphia in 1818 1818 undated Size in 20 28 object history credit line accession number LaPlata-pinkerton-1818 Pinkerton J <i>A Modern Atlas from the Lates and Best Authorities Exhibiting the Various Divisions of the World with its chief Empires Kingdoms and States; in Sixty Maps carefully reduced from the Larges and Most Authentic Sources </i> 1818 Philadelphia Thomas Dobson Edition Geographicus-source PD-old-100 Maps by John Pinkerton Old maps of Argentina Old maps of Bolivia Old maps of Chile Old maps of Paraguay Old maps of Uruguay 1818 maps Santa Cruz Bolivia | ||||
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