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CARTOGRAPHY 
 
 OF 
 
 RHODE ISLAND 
 
 PROVIDENCE 
 PRESTON & ROUNDS CO. 
 
CONTRIBUTIONS 
 
 TO 
 
 RHODE ISLAND BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 No. Ill 
 
 CARTOGRAPHY 
 
 OF 
 
 RHODE ISLAND 
 
Des Barras Chart, 1776 
 
CARTOGRAPHY 
 
 OF 
 
 RHODE ISLAND 
 
 By 
 
 HOWARD MILLAR CHAPIN 
 
 Librarian of the 
 Rhode Island Historical Society 
 
 PROVIDENCE 
 1915 
 

Notes on the Cartogfraphy of Rhode Island 
 
 As Rhode Islanders seek to entwine their early history with Norse mythology, so the 
 earliest references to Rhode Island place-names must be sought in Norwegian Sagas. 
 Whether or not the Northmen actually visited and settled in Rhode Island is a matter of no 
 vital interest to this study. It suffices that students of their voyages, such as Rafn, Kohl and 
 Babcock have seen fit to consider that Rhode Island was the southern part of Vinland, that 
 Leifsbudir was a settlement on the east side of Narragansett Bay, and that Thorfinnsbudir 
 was across from Leifsbudir on the other side of a small "hop" or "haup," which in Norse 
 simply means "a harbor." This "haup" they identify as Mount Hope Bay, and suggest that 
 later Narragansett Bay itself was designated by this name. Rafn's 1843 ^^^P of Vinland is 
 the earliest attempt to locate these places cartographically, and has served as a basis for the 
 later maps of Vinland. Liefsbudir is shown as extending along the shores of northern 
 Tiverton and Fall River, with Thorfinnsbudir across The Haup at Mount Hope, Mount 
 Hope Bay is called Hopsvatn. This and other modern maps of Vinland were made to 
 illustrate a theory, and so have no weight in the historical controversy. No ancient maps 
 show the location of those places named in the Norse Sagas. These names vanished as the 
 Norsemen with whom they came, and it is merely an interesting coincidence that the state's 
 motto, "Hope," the name borne by so many of its daughters, and used so frequently as a 
 place-name, should have virtually the same sound and root as the name which, according to 
 Rafn, was given to our bay by the Northmen. 
 
 The early mapmakers had very vague ideas of New England's southern coastline. 
 Juan de la Cosa in 1500 shows what is evidently meant for Cape Cod, and west of it a bay 
 and island which may represent either Narragansett Bay and Block Island, or Buzzards Bay 
 and Marthas Vineyard. Johann Ruysch's map of 1508 is somewhat similar and fully as 
 indefinite with regard to the New England coast as the de la Cosa map. Accuracy could 
 not be expected until explorers had made more detailed notes. 
 
 On April 21, 1524, Giovanni da Verrazano, a French corsair, then better known as Juan 
 Florentin, a name derived from his Itahan birthplace, sailing in the "Delfina" under the 
 banner of the French king, dropped anchor in Newport Harbor. The island south of the 
 entrance of Narragansett Bay — now called Block Island — he named in honor of the mother 
 of the King of France, Francis I. His mother was Louise of Savoy, a woman of great ability 
 and power, who later became Regent of France, so that Verrazano called the island " L'isle 
 de Louise," although he simply wrote " Battezzammola in nome della vostra clarissima 
 genitrice." This island is the only place named by Verrazano in his letter to the king, 
 describing the voyage. He likened the island in size and shape to the isle of Rhodes, and 
 thus unintentionally became responsible for the present name of Rhode Island. The Isle 
 de Louise appears as " Luisa»" on Maggiollo's 1527 map, and as " Luisia" on the pubHshed copy 
 of the map of Hieronymus da Verrazano, which is now preserved in the Vatican at Rome. 
 
 Subsequent cartographers, mistaking the name of the king's wife " Claudia " for that of 
 his mother " Louise," gave the name of " Claudia " to the island, and with similar inaccuracy 
 generally misplaced it; as on Mercator's map of 1569, Ortelius' map of 1570, and Lok's map 
 of 1582. Lok's map purported to have been based on Verrazano's own maps, which are now 
 lost. The appearance of Louise in various forms on the maps drawn before 1530 disproves 
 the theory that " mother " was an error for " wife " in the surviving text of Verrazano's letter, 
 and throws the responsibility for the mistake upon the later mapmakers. 
 
 If Giovanni da Verrazano drew maps of his voyage, they are not now extant, so that the 
 earliest map to show place-names in what is now Rhode Island is Maggiollo's map of 1527, 
 which was based upon the notes of Verrazano. The delineation is of course very inaccurate. 
 
 357021 
 
Besides showing and naming the island of " Luisa," he shows what is now Point Judith, 
 giving it the appellation of "C. de S. Joani." The appearance here of the name of Verrazano's 
 patron saint is signiftcant. Ccniihuing easterly, he gives "P. Reale,''"C. de S. Fransco," 
 "Refugio,'' and "Jovium Pormtoriuz." These names reappear on Ulpius' map of 1542 as 
 " C. S. lohan," "Porto Reale," "S. Franco," and " Promont Refugium," in this order from 
 west to east, the latter evidently being intended for the " C. del Refugio " of Verrazano. The 
 "Anonymous " map of 1527 also places "S. Juan baptista'" at this locaUty, referring either to 
 the point or bay. 
 
 In 1529 Hieronymus or Jerome da Verrazano drew a map based upon his brother's notes, 
 doubtless the "libretto" mentioned by Giovanni near the close of his letter. This map shows 
 the isle " Luisia," and northeasterly from it " G. del refugio," identical with Newport Harbor 
 or Narragansett Bay, and the same as the " Refugio " of Maggiollo. " C. del Refugio," east 
 of the gulf, is probably meant for the lower end of the island of Rhode Island, which until 
 1614 was considered part of the mainland and identical with the "Jovium Pormtoriuz " of 
 Maggiollo. 
 
 Hieronymus made a serious mistake in his latitudes, placing the isle of Louise in 47° N, 
 and the coastline in harmony with this, although Giovanni had expressly noted that it was 
 located near 41° N. This confused the later cartographers, and Gastaldi, endeavoring to 
 harmonize the inaccuracies of the current maps for the Ptolemy of 1548, followed the contour 
 of other maps up to 40°, and then northward from the true 40 degrees, followed the coastline 
 which Hieronymus drew as extending north from his erroneously placed 40°, with the result 
 that the coastUne of New England was carried northward to where Nova Scotia should have 
 been, and Nova Scotia shown still further north. Verrazano's " p. Refugio " is shown in its 
 new location, as also the isle of Louise, or Luisa, here miscalled "Brisa." In 1556 Gastaldi 
 made another map, this time for Ramusio's book, in which Brisa became " Briso " through 
 another error of the engraver. 
 
 Mercator in 1569, having seen not only the maps of Gastaldi, but also the letter of V^erra- 
 zano, followed the error of the former by placing "Briso" in the latitude of Nova Scotia, and 
 then, following Verrazano's letter, he added a triangular island near 41° N, which by another 
 error, as we have noted, he designated by the name of "Claudia " instead of " Louise." This 
 map thus has two representations of the isle of Louise, one misplaced, and both misnamed. 
 In 1582 Lok corrected one error by omitting " Briso." 
 
 It is quite clear that the early cartographers had but very meagre and indefinite ideas of 
 the actual contours of the coasts which they drew, and it is improbable that with perhaps the 
 exception of Oviedo they really attempted definitely either to show or to name Narragansett 
 Bay. Bays are shown here on one map and there on another which may have been intended 
 for Narragansett Bay, and the designations of "C. de S. Joani" appearing first on Maggiollo's 
 map of 1527, "S. Juan baptista" on the anonymous 1527 map, and "b. de Sanct. Baptista" on 
 Chaves map of 1537, show the tendency of early mapmakers to attach the name of St. John 
 the Baptist to this region, sometimes applying the name to Narragansett Bay, and sometimes 
 to Point Judith. Once clearly by mistake, on Lok's map of 1582, " Montes S. Johannis " 
 make their appearance. As De Costa says in his article on Cabo de Arenas, it 
 appears " that there was a set of Johannean names always used in this part of the old 
 maps with the same regularity that characterizes the application of * C. Breton' to the 
 farthest extremity of the coast." In his description of the American coast in 1537 Oviedo 
 gives a description of the " Bahia de San Johan Baptista" which identifies it as Narragansett 
 Bay, thus corroborating the earlier maps. The " B. de S. Juan Bap." appears as late as the 
 Wytfleit map, which was published between 1597 and 1603. 
 
 Narragansett Bay was also designated by other names, as "Baia honda" on the so-called 
 Spanish map of 1541, and " Baia hermosa " on the Le Testu map of 1555. De Costa believes 
 that the " Bay des lies " on Allefonsce's 1552 map is in reality an attempt to show the " Gulfo 
 del Refugio " of Verrazano, our Narragansett Bay. 
 
These sixteenth-century place-names vanished as did those of the Northmen, and it 
 remained for Adrian Block in 1614 to rediscover and give to Block Island the first per- 
 manent European place-name in Rhode Island. 
 
 The Dutch " Figurative " map of 1616 may well be considered the first map really to show 
 in detail the district about Narragansett Bay. It is a map of the " Nie Underlandt," drawn 
 about 1 6 14 and based upon the explorations of Block, It was presented to the States- 
 General by Witsen in 1616, and is now preserved in the National Archives at The Hague. 
 On it the present state of Rhode Island, then inhabited by the Wampanoag Indians, is des- 
 ignated as "Wapanoos," with Point Judith as the " hoek vande Wapanoos." Block Is- 
 land is called " Adrian bloxeyland," his first name appearing in this connection on Dutch 
 maps during the remainder of the century. The Sakonnet river is given as " Nieuwe 
 rivier," the Pawcatuck as " Oester riviertjen," and Mount Hope as " genseeyland." " sloup 
 bay " appears across East Greenwich, evidently intended to signify the west part of 
 Narragansett Bay. The bay is of course crudely drawn and the islands misshapen and 
 misplaced. The map, however, shows the district far more accurately than any previous 
 production. On this map, for the first time, the island of Rhode Island is shown as an 
 island, a fact which is overlooked by most of the subsequent Dutch map-makers, who make 
 it a peninsula. Conanicut, through some curious error, appears to the east of Rhode 
 Lsland, a pecuHarity characteristic of all the early Dutch maps except those of Colom and 
 Doncker. This is also the first map on which Block Island is so designated, and the first 
 on which the name Sloup Bay is appUed to Narragansett Bay or more particularly to the 
 west passage. 
 
 The next map of this part of the country is that drawn by Anthony lacobsz in 1621, on 
 which he shows and names, besides " Adr. Block Eyl," "Oost Rivier" and " Sloep bay," 
 the " B. de Nassou," a name which he applies to the Sakonnet River, thus supplanting the 
 " Nieuwe Rivier " of the Figurative map. The contour of the bay is much less accurate than 
 that of the earlier map, the island of Rhode Island being shown as a peninsula. 
 
 On De Laet's map of 1630, Rhode Island is shown as an island, and Sloup bay, which 
 is variously spelled by the Dutch map-makers, is given as " Chaloup bay." Asher states 
 that De Laet applied the name "Anker Bay" to part of Narragansett Bay, but this name 
 does not appear upon the De Laet maps, which I have examined. There are indeed con- 
 .siderable differences in some of the various editions of the early Dutch maps. 
 
 The De Laet map served as a model for Hartgers, 1651, Janssonius, 1658, and Schenk 
 & Valk, 1695, maps. Hartgers adds " hoeck van de Wapanoos" and " Nahicans." 
 
 On Blaeu's map of 1635, the middle section of Narragansett Bay is called " Ancker bay," 
 while the West Passage and the Sakonnet River are called respectively " Chaloep Bay " 
 and "Bay van Nassouwe." Blaeu seems in general to have followed the Figurative and 
 De Laet maps. 
 
 Robert Dudley in his Arcano del Mare of 1646, copies the Dutch cartographers, particu- 
 larly Blaeu. At the mouth of the Ooster River he adds the names " C : Ooster" and 
 "B: Ooster," our Watch Hill Point and Little Narragansett Bay. Owing to a slip of the 
 engraver, the "t" of Ooster has a strong resemblance to a " b." Point Judith is given 
 as "C: Chalop," and Conanicut, as usual, misplaced to the east of Rhode Island, is called 
 "I : di Nassaw." "Nahicans" supplants the "Wapanoos" of the Figurative map on which 
 the former name is appUed to Long Island. Thus is reflected the increasing power of 
 the Narragansetts, The "peninsula of Aquidneck " is called "C. di Anker Bay," while 
 Sakonnet is called " C : di Nassaw," Bristol Harbor is " Golfo," and the western shore of 
 Narragansett Bay bears the inscription " B;^* del Golfo." 
 
 On Colom's map, to which Rider gives the date of 1648, " Profedens," "Warrick," and 
 " Road Eylandt " make their first appearance in printed cartography. " Klips kil " desig- 
 nates the Warren River, and Point Judith appears as " Cabeljaus Hoeck." This is the 
 eariiest map to show Conanicut and Rhode Island in correct relation to each other. 
 
Rhode Island appears as an island and Conanicut is peculiarly misshapen. Doncker in 1660 
 copied Colom. 
 
 The Visscher map of 1656 is the earhest of a series of Dutch and Enghsh maps of 
 much similarity. Asher believed that it is not the basis for the rest of the series, but is 
 based on an earlier map now lost. The South County is designated as "Wapanoos" 
 with "Pequatoos" to the north and west. "Nahicans" as well as "Roode Eylant '' 
 appears upon Aquidneck, with "Horicans" to the east of the Sakonnet River. The 
 islands in the bay are very inaccurately drawn and are misplaced. The name "Quetenis 
 Eylant" first appears on this map as the designation of Dutch island, although the 
 island itself has appeared on the earlier Dutch maps. The river at the head of the 
 bay, doubdess the Seekonk, though misplaced, is called " Rivier Nassouw," and the name 
 " Rio Nassouw " is repeated along the west shore of the Bay. " Sloep Baye " appears at the 
 south of " Rio Nassouw.*' 
 
 The nomenclature and delineadon of this map is, as far as Rhode Island is concerned, 
 the same as that used on the maps of the Allards, the Visschers, Ottens, Dancker, 
 Lotter, Seutter, Reinier, Montanus and Ogilby and on the 1690 map of Schenk & Valk. 
 
 The map in Peter Goos Atlas of 1675, adds no new place-names in Rhode Island, save 
 a new spelHng of " Rood Eylant." The Goos maps are more accurate than the previous 
 maps, but are inferior to the charts of Roggeveen. In the Enghsh edition of Roggeveen, 
 entitled the "Burning Fen" and pubhshed in 1676, "Adriaen Blockx Eylandt" and "Rood 
 Eyland " have individualized spelling, but no new place-names occur. This is the 
 earliest chart of the coast of Rhode Island, and if the soundings were as inaccurate as the 
 delineations they could have been of but Httle use to navigators. 
 
 Van Keulen's charts, according to Asher, show " Adriaen Block Eylant," " Roo Eylant," 
 " Adquidnenecke," " Porta Juda," " Warwick," " Cabeljaws Hoeck," " Nargansy Bay," " An- 
 ker Bay," "Bay Nassau," and "Newport," but the Van Keulen chart of 1784, preserved 
 in the Boston PubHc Library, names only "Newport," "Warren," and "Rhode Island 
 H--" (Harbor). 
 
 A French manuscript map of 1650, a copy of which is in the Massachusetts Archives, 
 names " Isle de Bloque " and designates Aquidneck as " Sauvages Narhicans.'" 
 
 While the Dutch cartographers were still covering the Rhode Island section of their 
 charts with Dutch names, Enghshmen were settling the district and fastening permanently 
 upon it an assortment of Indian and English place-names. 
 
 The Wilham Wood map of 1634 is the first Enghsh map to show the Rhode Island dis- 
 trict, and the earliest map on which " Narrogan setts Bay" occurs. It is much cruder and 
 far more inaccurate than the " Figurative " map made by the Dutch eighteen years earUer. 
 The " Narragansetts R " is shown and named, but it is not clear what river is meant. It may 
 have been intended for the Pawtuxet or for the Providence and Woonasquatucket. Bristol 
 is called " pocanokick Sagamore," this being the first appearance of Pokanoket on a map. 
 To the south of Pokanoket appears a church with the name " Old Plymouth," clearly mis- 
 placed. Block Island is shown but not named, and hke the other islands has a grotesque 
 appearance. As this map was drawn two years before the arrival of Roger Williams, the 
 absence of Enghsh names in Rhode Island is to be expected. 
 
 On the Woodward and Saffery manuscript map of 1642, "Providence" and "Seakonk 
 plain " appear. The Bay Path and the Trail to the Connecticut are both shown. This map was 
 the first of the long series of maps drawn in connection with the Rhode Island boundary dispute. 
 
 John Sellers' map of 1675, based in general on the earher Dutch maps, served as the model 
 for the later maps of Morden, Blome, Thornton, Mather and Neal. Seller misspells Paw- 
 catuck " Racatuck," and gives the Dutch designation of " Challops bay'" as well as " Nara- 
 gansick bay," an unusual spelling of the Indian name by which the English settlers knew the 
 bay. The "Providence River," "East Ham," " Wickford," "Portsmouth," " Pocasset," 
 " Canonicut I," " Warwick " " Prudence Isle," and " P. luda" are named on his maps. 
 
The second published English colonial map dealing with Rhode Island is that of Hub- 
 bard, issued in 1677. It shows " Newper," "Rhode Island," " Prouidene," " Monnt hope," 
 "Pocasset," " Canonicut," "Warwick," "S.Kingstown," " Canonicus's Fort," " Wickford," 
 and " Naraganset." It is far less accurate than the contemporai )^ Fjutch maps, but is an 
 improvement over that of Wood made almost half a century earlier. Another edition shows 
 variations in spelling, 
 
 A small Morden map, perhaps 1688, locates a town, " Surtherton," near the southwest 
 corner of the colony of Rhode Island. On the larger Morden map of 1690, "Providence" 
 and " Warwick " appear transposed with " Eastham " between them. The South County is 
 designated, as " The Naragansets," and Warren as " Seaconk." Mount Hope is placed too 
 far to the north. The district northeast of " Naragansets Bay " is called " Pokanakets," and 
 Providence County is called " Spaov (Squaw) Sachem," while " Massasoits Country " appears 
 still farther north. 
 
 On the map made by Thornton a few years later. Providence and Warwick are correctly 
 located, and " Eastham " is placed between Warwick and Wickford. Prudence Island is 
 misnamed " I Providence," and the South County is designated as " Nincroft," a corruption 
 from Ninigret, the Indian sachem of those parts. 
 
 The map in Cotton Mather's " Magnaha " adds " Patiente I," and " Potuxet R " to Rhode 
 Island cartography. Wickford is misplaced at Narragansett Pier, while "Buls" appears 
 north of Wickford. " Eastham or Namset" is located north of " Buls " on a harbor which 
 in the inaccurate configuration has more resemblance to Wickford Harbor than to Greenwich 
 Cove. " New Bristo " is Bristol, " Swansey " is Warren, and " Seaconck " is East Providence. 
 The Woonasquatucket River is called the " Waer River," a name which persists for a couple 
 of decades on Rhode Island maps. "Mount Prospect" (inlet perhaps) appears in the sea 
 between Block Island and the South County, which latter is called "Country of Naraganset." 
 Westerly is called " Manchester," the " Swampfort" is. shown, and "Geneva or Canonicus " 
 ppears in the northwest part of the South County. Wabaquaset" is the district north of 
 the Potuxet R, and " Quanabaug '" is north of " Wabaquaset." A few roads are shown. 
 The dehneation of the islands and coast-Hne is very inaccurate. 
 
 The Chart of Long Island Sound and its approaches drawn by British Naval officers 
 about 1720 is the next development of Rhode Island cartography. Narragansett Bay is 
 shown as an almost square body of water, with its islands grossly misdrawn and misplaced. 
 Houses are shown as well as rocks and soundings, but there is no reason to believe that this 
 data is more accurate than the contour of the islands. The omission of Providence, which is 
 supplanted by " Attleborough," is the most striking feature of the chart. The ocean south 
 of Newport is called "The Sea of Rhoad Island," while the mouth of the Pawcatuck is called 
 " Mount Prospect Inlett." Napatree Beach is shown simply as a sandbar under water with 
 the name of " Fishers Ledge," so that Little Narragansett Bay does not appear. Little 
 Compton is called " Compton." Two descriptive notes read as follows : "Rhoad Island a 
 Garden of Farms Navigable for small Vessells, and a place of great Trade, the Ebbing & 
 Flewing is small," and "Bristol good Ship Harbour great way from the Seaboard trade is 
 Horses & some Lumber to West Indies." This inaccurate chart served as a basis for the 
 less elaborate charts that later appeared in the various editions of the Enghsh Pilot. The 
 chart dated 1731 in the 1745 edition has changed the Point Judei of the 1720 chart to P. 
 
 Judith. 
 
 ***** 
 
 We now come to the first map of Rhode Island as an entity. This is the John Mumford 
 map of 1720. It was made by order of the General Assembly of Rhode Island as the result 
 of a request from the British Government for a map of the colony in connection with the 
 disputed boundary. Besides being the first real map of the colony, it shows the boundaries 
 as claimed by Rhode Island and by the abutting colonies. The map contains a large number 
 of place-names which had not previously appeared upon a map. Rumstick Neck bears the 
 
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 Harris Map, 1795 
 
words " Pocanockett alias Sawoomsett."' The " Shunock," " wood," and " asshauge " rivers 
 bear their modern names with minor orthographical changes, although the Ashaway is called 
 the " asshauge or Quequtuck." The map is far more accurate than any previous delineation 
 of the lands about Narragansett Bay. 
 
 The second map of Rhode Island is the Helme-Chandler map of 1741. This was drawn 
 from the surveys of James Helme and WilHam Chandler, who were employed by the Royal 
 Commissioners appointed to report on the disputed boundaries of the Colony of Rhode Island. 
 The original manuscript map was preserved in the State House at Albany, where it was 
 destroyed by the fire of 191 1. Several manuscript copies were made from the original, and 
 in 1848, lithographs were made from one of these, in connection with the proceedings before 
 the Supreme Court of the United States, which resulted in settling the disputed points. This 
 map contains more than twice as many place-names as appeared on the Mumford map. The 
 contour of the coast-Hne is much more accurate, and nearly all the islands in the bay are 
 shown, sufficiently well-drawn and placed that they can be identified. 
 
 Jefferys Map of New England, first pubHshed in 1755, and reprinted in 1774, is the first 
 map to show counties in Rhode Island. The names of five towns not on the Helme-Chandler 
 map also make their appearance. A number of new place-names are given, although the 
 spelling is noticeably inaccurate. A few roads are shown and the location of churches is 
 given. 
 
 The outbreak of the Revolution brought with it two accurate charts of Narragansett 
 Bay. One, surveyed by J. F. W. Des Barras "in pursuance of Directions from the Lords 
 of Trade to His Majesty's Surveyor General for the Northern District of North America," 
 and " PubHshed at the Request of the Right Honourable Lord Viscount Howe," 20th July, 
 1776, gave the soundings in the lower bay, and showed accurately the topography of the 
 shores and islands. It was the first large map of the bay, measuring 41 inches by 28 >^, and 
 abounds in place-names new to cartographers. Restrikes were made in 1881 from the original 
 plate. 
 
 The Des Barras chart was followed the next year by another chart almost as large and 
 of considerably more detail. It was surveyed and drawn by Charles Blaskowitz, "by Order 
 of the Principal Farmers on Rhode Island," whose names are thereon recorded. It was 
 published by William Faden of London, who dedicated it "To the Right Honourable Hugh 
 Earl Percy, Baron Percy, etc. . . . Lieutenant General of His Majesty's Forces in Great 
 Britain and America." Soundings are given throughout the entire bay, together with forts, 
 roads, and topographical details. This chart, translated into French and reengraved with 
 French names, was pubHshed at Paris in 1780, and is known as " The French Blaskowitz." 
 Another French chart of Narragansett Bay, based on the Blaskowitz and Des Barras charts, 
 was published by Le Rouge at Paris in 1778. 
 
 The published maps of Lewis and Lodge, together with the manuscript maps of Denison, 
 and Fage, and those in the Faden and Rochambeau collections of the Library of Congress, 
 illustrate the military activities in Rhode Island during the Revolution. As these maps em- 
 phasize the miHtary and strategic, rather than the topographic, they add scarcely any geo- 
 graphical information. 
 
 During the decade following the close of the Revolution, Rhode Island became more 
 conscious of its individual existence, and this naturally resulted in the appearance of the first 
 published maps of the state. Caleb Harris surveyed the state and supplied the notes and 
 data that enabled Harding Harris to draw the well-known " Harris map of 1795." This map 
 was printed by Carter and Wilkinson at Providence, and is the first map of the state pub- 
 Hshed as a separate map. A smaU map of Rhode Island appeared in Morse's " American 
 Geography " for 1794, which is the first published map of the state, but being based on earlier 
 maps of New England, it adds virtually nothing to the geographical knowledge of the state. 
 The Harris map, on the other hand, is 2i>^ inches by 16, and is the first map to show details 
 , of topography and place-names in the inland towns of the state. This Harris map was many 
 
times republished, in reduced as well as in augmented forms, and, together with the Blaskowitz 
 chart, served as a basis for the Rhode Island maps of the early nineteenth century. On the 
 Harris map, the Sakonnet River is called the East " Passage," the name now used to designate 
 that part of the bay that lies east of Conanicut and west of the island of Rhode Island. The 
 principal roads are shown throughout the state. A map of Rhode Island was published in 
 German by Sotzmann at Hamburg in 1797. In 1819 Benoni Lock wood drew a map of Rhode 
 Island for Pease and Niles Gazetteer and based it upon the Harris map, with additions of 
 his own. 
 
 In 1821, Amos Lay of New York began the preparation of a new map of Rhode Island. 
 It was found to be so expensive an undertaking that he applied to the Legislature for state 
 aid. They voted that the state should purchase 1 2 copies of his map for $60. Two years 
 later Lay turned the undertaking over to Ariel Van Haun of Westerly and James Stevens of 
 Newport. Stevens did the surveying and finally assumed the entire work of publishing the 
 map. The Legislature increased the number of maps to be purchased by the state from 12 to 
 137, and allowed Stevens to raise $2000 by a lottery. The work progressed slowly, and it was 
 notuntil 1831 that the map was issued, 10 years after the first recognition of it by the Legislature. 
 The map included soundings in the bay. It was printed in colors, and was 42 inches by 26, 
 with wooden rollers at top and bottom. 
 
 Meanwhile Capt. Alexander Wadsworth had been making a new series of soundings 
 throughout the bay for the Federal Government. The results of this appeared in the first 
 United States Government chart of Narragansett Bay, which was issued in 1832, the year 
 following the publication of Stevens' map. 
 
 The Stevens map served as a basis for the Gushing and Walling map of 1846 and so in 
 a sense became the ancestor of the WalHng maps of 1855, 1862, and 1863, although Henry F. 
 Walling made extensive surveys himself and incorporated the results of his work in these 
 maps. The later Walling maps contain a large number of inset maps of the principal cities 
 and villages. Walling followed the example set by Stevens and succeeded in getting the 
 state to subscribe $2100 for 700 copies of his mapj 
 
 The Beer's Atlas of 1870, showing much detail in its local maps, was a new departure in 
 Rhode Island cartography and a forerunner of the Everts and Richards Adas of 1895. 
 
 In 1872, after the resurveying of the bay by Benjamin Peirce, the Federal Government 
 planned to issue a chart of the bay in 28 sheets on the scale of 1/10,000. Only eight of these 
 sheets were issued, and in the following year, 1873, the government issued a chart of the bay 
 in a single sheet on the scale of 1/40,000. This chart "with later corrections for aids to navi- 
 gation " has been reissued at short intervals. 
 
 In 1891, the" Topographical Map " of Rhode Island was made, being based on the survey 
 of the state that had been carried on jointly by the State and Federal Governments. It was 
 first issued in 15 sheets by the Government. Additions and corrections were then made to the 
 plates and the map was reissued by the state both as a single wall map and in atlas form. 
 J. C. Thompson acted as distributing agent. After his retirement from business, the remainder 
 of the wall maps were sold to Pabodie, while the remainder of the atlases were sold to Preston 
 & Rounds. Thompson also issued smaller maps of the state, based upon the topographical 
 map. These smaller maps, with additions, have been issued from time to time by Pabodie. 
 
 The Everts and Richards map, and particularly their Adas of 1895, based not only on 
 the government maps of 1873 ^^d 1891, but also upon their own surveys, goes much further 
 into detail, and becomes virtually an adas of plats. This Adas was sold by subscription. 
 
 Of the Rhode Island maps that illustrate some special feature, the most important are : 
 the Geological map of Rhode Island, which was issued by Charles T. Jackson in 1840; the 
 "map showing the Revolutionary Fortifications in Rhode Island" by Norman M. Isham, 
 published in Fields' " Revolutionary Defences of Rhode Island"; and the map of the lands 
 of Rhode Island as they were known to the Indians, issued by Sidney S. Rider in 1903. The 
 state has also published detailed maps of the boundaries of the state as they have been 
 
definitely established and marked. The United States Fish Commission caused a plaster 
 model of the bay to be made, showing in relief the topography of the bottom, islands and 
 shores of the bay. This model is preserved at the Rhode Island Historical Society. 
 
 Pabodie in Providence, Walker in Boston, and various atlas publishers have issued at 
 intervals maps of Rhode Island. These maps, however, have been based in general upon 
 the topographical atlas of 1891, with minor additions and corrections. 
 

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