The First Mapping of America tells the story of the General Survey. At the heart of the story lie the remarkable maps and the men who made them - the commanding and highly professional Samuel Holland, Surveyor-General in the North, and the brilliant but mercurial William Gerard De Brahm, Surveyor-General in the South. Battling both physical and political obstacles, Holland and De Brahm sought to establish their place in the firmament of the British hierarchy. Yet the reality in which they had to operate was largely controlled from afar, by Crown administrators in London and the colonies and by wealthy speculators, whose approval or opposition could make or break the best laid plans as they sought to use the Survey for their own ends.

Table of Contents:
Contents PART I Chapter 1: Introduction Maps, Knowledge & Power in the Age of the Enlightenment PART II The Antecedents and Genesis of the General Survey Introduction Chapter 2: The Civilian and Military Antecedents of the General Survey Governance of Colonial Affairs in British North America; Signs of Progress;Lord Halifax Becomes President of the Board of Trade; Introducing William Gerard De Brahm;The Development of Military Cartography in British North America; Introducing Samuel Holland Chapter 3: The Genesis of the General Survey The Role & Status of the Board of Trade; The Grenville Ministry & the New Colonial Policy;The Important New Policy Questions of the Day; The Proclamation of 7 October 1763; Samuel Holland’s Timely Proposal for the General Survey; The Plan for the Survey is Defined; Linking Surveys, Envisioned as Additions to Complete the General Survey Scientific Surveying as Practiced by the General Survey of British North America Chapter 4: The Pre-Existing Information Influencing The General Survey Pre-Existing Maps of the Northern District: The Maps of L’Acadie versus Nova Scotia; Depiction of the Island of St. John up to 1764; Depiction of Cape Breton Island up to 1764; Pre-existing Maps for the Southern District: Spanish Florida, 1565-1763; Spanish Conceptions of Florida during their First Colonial Period; Maps & Geographical Information acquired by the British in 1764 PART III Mapping ‘Infant Colonies’: The Commencement of the General Survey Chapter 5: The Northern District Holland Arrives to Begin The Survey; Holland Assembles his Team; Holland Manages the Inherent Operational Issues; The Survey in Nova Scotia Begins; Holland’s General Map & Account of the Island of St. John; Holland’s Account of the Natural Attributes of the Island of St. John’s; Holland’s Survey Received; The Decision About St. John; The Survey of Cape Breton Island; Whitehall’s ‘Temporary’ Settlement Freeze in Cape Breton Surveying Operations in Cape Breton Island; Holland’s Reports and General Map of Cape Breton; Holland Quietly Supports Nova Scotian Activism; Whitehall Continues the Settlement Freeze; The Survey Begins in Québec; Holland’s Own ‘Murray Map’; Mapping the Gaspésie; Charting Lower St. Lawrence Surveying Newfoundland’s Dependencies The Magdalen Islands; Anticosti Island; Labrador; Conclusions Chapter 6: The Southern District Introduction; Whitehall’s High Hopes; James Grant Becomes East Florida’s First Governor; De Brahm Sets Out; De Brahm’s Reconnaissance Mapping of the Atlantic Coast, 1765-1766; De Brahm’s First Mission; De Brahm’s Survey of Mosquito Inlet; The Second Coastal Reconnaissance Mission, Spring of 1765; Mapping the St. John’s River & the Search for a Trans-Peninsular Navigable Passage; The Gathering Storm; De Brahm Excluded PART IV ‘Closing the Net’: The General Survey during the Administration of the Earl of Hillsborough Introduction Chapter 7: The Northern District Charting New England The Coastal Surveys from Cape Ann to the Kennebec River; Whitehall’s New Forestry Agenda Chapter 8: The Southern District The Trials of William Gerard De Brahm; Romans and Durnford Take Over De Brahm’s Duties on the General Survey; East Florida, 1768-1771: Growing Pains; The Search for a Connection to the Gulf of Mexico; Tampa Bay: ‘A Good Harbour for all Purposes’; Enter Bernard Romans; The General Survey Charts the Gulf Coast; The Northernmost Parts of East Florida’s Atlantic Coast; Towards Miami; De Brahm’s Atlantic Pilot: The Florida Keys & The Gulf Stream; Bernard Romans Continues the Gulf Survey; West Florida The Downfall of the Earl of Hillsborough PART V The General Survey under the Administration of the Earl of Dartmouth Introduction Lord Dartmouth becomes Secretary of State for the Colonies; Power an