video/audio - video

Narrator
In truth, much of what the French maps showed, from the shapes of the lakes to the course of the rivers, was not there at all. The new world was so far distant from the map makers, in both miles and understanding, that what we find on their maps tells us less about this land than about the French themselves. Cartographic historian David Woodard...

David Woodard
This map was made in 1688, and it was made by an Italian cartographer by the name of Vincenzo Maria Coronelli, who was a Franciscan Friar and cosmographer to the Most Serene Republic of Venice. He was also the geographer to the King of France, who was Louis XIV at that particular time. So, he had a corner on the market of geographical information, if you like. This is a commercial proposition. I mean, the market for this map was European, but it was limited to a small part of society, the upper middle classes, the merchant classes, who could afford these types of maps. I mean, these are not cheap artifacts that you'd have in the house or your library, especially when they were hand colored like this. The title says, "The western part of Canada, or New France, where the Illinois and Tracy and Iroquois Nations, and many other peoples, are found." But clearly, the purpose of this map is to claim it for France. The title has been repeated all over the face of the map. And then, as if to endorse this ownership, the words, "La Louisiane," indicating that this was the area of Louis. In much smaller lettering, we do see, not graphic boundaries, but the names of the Indian Nations. Over here, are the five nations of the Iroquois. Here, the nations of the Illinois, the Potawatomi, the Mascoutens, the Miamis, the Kickapoos, are all named here. It's really good to look at the pictorial decoration, because it's not extraneous. It's part and parcel of the purpose for which the map was made. So, here we have the cartouche with some very interesting images that set up a kind of counterpoint between Indian culture, indigenous culture, and the culture of the fur traders. You have two Europeans who are shooting. One's shooting a beaver over here and the other is shooting a bear over here. And here we've got an image of an Indian that's just let fly, and a rather nonchalant-looking cow with an arrow sticking out of its flank. Another interpretation of these cows is that they're just bad drawings of buffalo. I mean, good drawings of buffalo weren't really available yet. It's very strange imagery there. They're not the usual model of Native Americans that you normally see.

Narrator
The new world was full of people and animals and plants the Europeans had never before encountered. And the secondhand depictions of firsthand descriptions were humorously far from accurate. Only those who witnessed it for themselves could see just how different from Europe this new world actually was, especially its people.