Carte du Canada ou de la Nouvelle France: Et des Decouvertes qui y ont été Faites

• Main Author: L'Isle, Guillaume de
• Language: French
• Published: Chez l'auteur sur le Quai de l'Horloge a l'Aigle d'Or 1703
• Subjects: Canada; Detroit; Greenland; Guillaume
• Online Access: http://cdm15932.contentdm.oclc.org/u?/maps,15974

A seminal and fairly accurate map of the Great Lakes Region up to Baffin's Bay in Northern Canada. This is possibly the first printed map to locate Detroit, founded two years earlier, and one of the first to reference the Rocky Mountains (though not labeled). Also incorporates geography from Lahontan, which included both accurate geographical features such as the Rocky Mountains and imaginary features Pays des Gnacsitares and the Riviere Morte. Typical for L'Isle, he remained skeptical of all information and included a note on the map above the mountains which briefly describes Lahontan's discoveries but ends with "Unless the Seigneur de Lahonton has invented all of these things, which is difficult to resolve, he being the only one who has penetrated this vast land." There are numerous small blocks of descriptive texts. The cartouche is ornately engraved, with images of explorers, monks, priests, animals, and topped with the French royal crest.