Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
an peoples, was hotly disputed between the French and the British. France's defeat by Great
Britain at Quebec in 1759 and the Treaty of Paris in 1763 effectively ended French hopes of
dominance in this region.
From the beginning of the century settlers from both countries had been given land grants,
resulting in the complex pattern of landholding reflected in this map of 1767. The French
claims 'express'd by dotted black Lines' around their square plots show their extensive set-
tlement before that time; a table on the lower half of the map names 19 French seigneurs,
keyed by letter to their land. Red lines denote 'Grants made to the English reduc'd Officers
and disbanded Soldiers', and claims by other British settlers. The red and black lines overlap
in places, showing how grants by the different colonial powers conflicted on the ground. As
New York's Governor Sir Henry Moore said of the map, 'it shews how far the Claims inter-
fere with each other'.
Some insight into the map's genesis is given in Moore's letter to the Colonial Office of
February 1767. He recalls that when writing his previous letter he had 'just received from
Canada the Map of the French Settlements which I had so long expected'. The ship taking
that letter was about to depart, so he had no time at that point to 'get the Claims of the Re-
duced Officers and disbanded Soldiers laid down upon it. This is now done on a reduced
Scale to make it more portable', thus enabling the conflict between the claims to be appreci-
ated 'at One View'.
The man who made this 'reduced Scale' map was Simon Metcalfe, Surveyor General of
New York province. A Yorkshireman by birth, he drew these land grants in the manner of
English estate maps, with neat plot lines, tree symbols, and a reference table, all suggestive
of an ordered landscape. The title cartouche, too, recalls those on maps of his homeland, but
instead of bucolic pastoral scenes, here a wild menagerie is gathered around a rugged rock
face. Amid wolves, a crane and a turkey, the lion appears to have strayed from Africa, rather
than down from the mountains. This contrast between the map and its decoration conveyed
to those in London both the inherent possibilities and the dangers present in the colonies.
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