By: Alexander Hubert
In the late 16th century, a Flemish man named Theodor De Bry took on the challenge of documenting Englishman Walter Ralegh's attempt to settle the island of Roanoke. De Bry illustrated maps of the areas explored and inserted what he called ‘kingdoms' of Indigenous people, as well as potential resources the land could provide. Michael Leroy Oberg writes a terrific article titled: “Tribes and Towns: What Historians Still Get Wrong About the Roanoke Ventures'', where he breaks down the faults in De Bry’s work and makes the case that the maps made by De Bry were incorrect and led to many scholars being misled regarding the early information on Roanoke. De Bry is not the only cartographer to use maps as a means to gain status as the “first'' to relay a plot of land. There is an issue with maps in the colonial era that is not discussed enough; they are not to be trusted.
J.B. Harley once said: “it is in the nature of all maps to construct a world in the image of society, rather than to hold a mirror to an objective reality.” Let's take a closer look at De Bry’s map of Roanoke (Figure 1). The map holds an artistic value, with what looks like a sea monster at the bottom and depictions of Indigenous people on the land with trees around them. This map was meant to be seen by many, and indeed it was publicly available for the next few decades after De Bry published it. This was a period of ‘firsts’ - De Bry wanted to be the ‘first’ to unveil a small part of the new world to the public, however there was no intent of creating an accurate depiction of the land, let alone the Indigenous people on it. Many cartographers during the colonial era used artwork as a means to create a certain image to the people back in Europe. These maps were not just for information but a way to entice potential settlers to explore this “new world.”
(Figure 1)
Map forgery is not restricted to a single area of what is today known as North and South America. Jeffers Lennox is a leading scholar in analyzing how the colonization process of what is now Canada heavily revolved around the use of maps to depict the land in certain ways to make it look more economically attractive to new settlers. Maps were used as weapons against Indigenous people, for example, the Mi’kmaq nations surrounding Nova Scotia did not agree with the colonizer's idea of “land ownership,” so the cartographers were able to displace them using maps. English entomologist Moses Harris input the different species found on the map creating the image of an “exotic area for newcomers to buy land” (Figure 2).
(Figure 2)
But what was the obsession with being the ‘first’ to document the land? Why didn’t De Bry just take the time needed to create an accurate map of the area? There are a couple reasons that colonizers felt they had to bring information back to Europe quickly. One of these reasons is because of time and money constraints. Explorers were often funded by investors who expected results, and in order to gain more investors, success was necessary. Another reason for rushing was that exploration was a field that allowed someone to rise in the social hierarchy. It gave the chance for people to make a name for themselves. It is said that Walter Ralegh (whom De Bry was following) was obsessed with the Epics of Homer. He dreamed of conducting his own adventures and returning a ‘hero’. Thankfully, Ralegh was not trusted by anyone back in England, so his falsified information never was taken seriously. But Ralegh does show the effort one would go to to gain a bit of fame and fortune.
This discussion is not meant to completely dismiss historical maps, but rather explain how they should be used with caution. Maps are best used when combined with other sources, for example, comparing them to other maps to find discrepancies in the information. Isra Henson wrote a great blog for the History DSC in 2023 that discusses the misinterpretation of Indigenous maps and sources. This blog can be seen as an agreement between two articles that maps are not to be seen on face value. As many Canadian historians know, colonizers would engage in many malicious tactics to deceive the Indigenous people and steal the land, and creating maps was one of these methods.
The key takeaway here for colonial historians is (and what seems like the key takeaway for most of my blogs) to not take sources at face value. Read against the grain, compare, and contrast - doing so will enrich your research and ensure that your information is as accurate as possible.
References
Cover image from Thompson Rivers University. "Chapter 5: 'Colonial' Wars Looking East". https://histindigenouspeoples.pressbooks.tru.ca/chapter/chapter-5-colonial-wars-looking-east/
Harley, J. B. (John Brian), and Paul. Laxton. The New Nature of Maps : Essays in the History of Cartography. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
Henson, Isra. “Indigenous Maps and the Misinterpretation of Indigenous Sources.” The Watson, History DSC, Feb 3, 2023.
Lennox, Jeffers. Homelands and Empires : Indigenous Spaces, Imperial Fictions, and Competition for Territory in Northeastern North America, 1690–1763. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018.
MacMillan, Ken. “Benign and Benevolent Conquest? The Ideology of Elizabethan Atlantic Expansion Revisited.” Early American Studies 9, no. 1 (January 1, 2011): 32–72.
Mancall, Peter, C. “The Age of Failure.” Early American Literature 56, no. 1 (2021): 23–50. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27081887.
Oberg, Michael Leroy. “Tribes and Towns: What Historians Still Get Wrong about the Roanoke Ventures.” Ethnohistory 67, no. 4 (2020): 579–602.
Winchcombe, R. (2019). Authenticating El Dorado: Frustrated Knowledge Production in Walter Ralegh’s Discoverie of Guiana. Itinerario, 43(3), 443–465. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0165115319000548