The Caribbean coast of the Isthmus of Panama is well charted on this uncommon chart. The anchorages, rocks, shoals and reefs are carefully noted along with soundings. There are numerous notations concerning the location of fresh water, friendly Indians, good land for plantations, the location of gold mines, and a river that runs into the bowels of the country. The center is filled with a large inset of the Scotch Settlement in Calledonia. This is one of the few maps that show the short-lived Scottish settlement of New Caledonia that was located on the Isthmus of Darien. The isthmus was of strategic importance in the overland exchange of goods between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The Company of Scotland, led by William Paterson, established the settlement with 1,200 Scots in 1698. The colony failed within a year amid devastating illness and attack by Spanish galleons. The failure of the Darien Scheme (as it became known) contributed greatly to the crippling of the entire Scottish economy that eventually led to the dissolution of the Scottish Parliament and the 1707 Act of Union with England. Embellished with an array of rhumb lines and very nice compass roses and fleur-de-lis.

References: Kapp (MCC-73) #69; Shirley (BL Atlases) M.M&P-5c #28.

Condition: B+

Light toning on paper with a Strasbourg Lily and "IV" watermarks, and faint damp stains at top.