This finely drafted map features the harbor and town of St. Augustine and Anastasia Island. The town, with Fort St. Marks (Castillo de San Marcos), numerous farms, roads, the lighthouse and stone quarries are all carefully illustrated. The chart was based on Board of Trade surveys and thus presents a more detailed view of the countryside than most sea charts. The coastal features are precisely rendered to show the sand bars and soundings. The chart is oriented with north to the right. Printed on two sheet, joined as issued. This is the 2nd state with darker boundaries around the farms, printed on LVG watermarked paper.

Joseph Des Barres was a military engineer with the British Royal American Regiment. At the conclusion of the French and Indian war, he surveyed the coastlines of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Upon his return to London in 1774, the Royal Navy assigned him the task of producing an atlas of new, accurate sea charts of Britain's empire in North America. In addition to his charts of the Canadian waters, he compiled the manuscripts of British cartographers in the American Colonies, Jamaica and Cuba and produced one of the most important sea atlases of the era, The Atlantic Neptune, published between 1777 and 1781. It contained the first systematic survey of the east coast of North America, consisting of four volumes and over 250 charts and views. All the charts were immensely detailed, featuring both hydrographical and topographical information.

References: Sellers & van Ee #1643.

Condition: B+

Toned with some lifting along the joint at center. There are two extraneous vertical folds.