"Figvre de la terre nevve, grand riviere de Canada, et cotes de l'ocean en la Novvelle France" from Histoire de la Nouvelle France de Lescarbot, Marc (c.1570-1642)

Paris: 1609 THE FIRST DETAILED MAP DEVOTED TO CANADA Copper-plate engraving: 73/4" x 171/2" References: Philip D. Burden, The Mapping of North America: A List of Printed Maps 1511-1670 (Rickmansworth, 1996), 193. This is the 1609 English edition of the first map devoted to Canada, and constituted the most accurate mapping of the area in existence up until that time. Quite significantly, Marc Lescarbot's 1609 map of New France pre-dated Samuel de Champlain's more recognizable one by three years. Lescarbot's chart was originally produced to accompany the book entitled, Histoire de la Nouvelle France. This text was, in turn, intended to encourage French settlement to the New World. Lescarbot was a Protestant lawyer who lived in New France for over a year. He participated in the famed French expedition, whose members included Samuel de Champlain, that founded Port Royal, Nova Scotia in 1606. Champlain left Lescarbot in charge of Port Royal when the legendary French voyager embarked on his second expedition of New England. Lescarbot's map beautifully illustrates the St. Lawrence River's reach into the former Indian village Hochelaga, or present-day Montreal. It also indicates the location of Tadousac, which in 1600 became the first European trading post ever to be established in Canada. Tadousac is located in the map at the mouth of the R. de Saguenay and adjacent to the River Lesquemin, which is mistakenly named in reverse. "Kebec" is also featured for the first time on a printed map in its Micmac forming, meaning the narrows of the river. Lescarbot carefully relied on Chaplain's manuscripts in order to produce this map.. Book.