The enormous southern continent called Terra Australis Incognita is depicted. The coasts of the continent include river tributaries, ports, settlements and cities, and the Straits of Le Maire now appear, although Hondius still hints at a narrow channel between Terra Australis and Tierra del Fuego. South America had been explored for well over a century by the time this map was published, and its topography is rendered in detail. Virginia is prominently named and to the north, the newly discovered regions reached by Henry Hudson are identified with his name. Interestingly, the coastal area to the northeast of the island is left blank and borderless, leaving open the possibility of the long-sought Northwest Passage.Ī primitive conception of the Mississippi River is present, but no sign of the Great Lakes. The myth endured till the early 18th century, when cartographers began to render it as a peninsula attached to the continent.

In the Sea of Cortez, a curious double set of rivers empties out of the Southwest, with an unnamed Rio Grande draining incorrectly into the Sea of Cortez, rather than the Gulf of Mexico.Ĭalifornia’s depiction as an island was based on the myth created from an account of Sebastion Vizcaino’s 1602 expedition to explore the California coast. Published to replace the important earlier world map by Henricus Hondius, Jacobus’ father, it follows closely John Speed’s 1627 double hemisphere, which was one of the earliest published maps to show California as an island.įarther north in North America, a massive western landmass identified as Nova Albion (New England) is shown, with Cape Mendocino reaching within a few hundred miles of Japan. The map is of paramount importance in the history of cartography. This superb Hondius map is one of the most famous and sought after of all 17th century double-hemisphere maps.

Nova totivs terrarvm orbis