The Description of the World: Marco Polo
Lac" (Lake Superior) in the period when Huronia was thriving. It thus indicates not only Huron settlement patterns but also shows where the Iroquois were located before their assault on Huronia. The map has a curious history; taken from Quebec in 1759 by the British engineer JohnMontresor and preserved for a while in the archives of the Royal Navy, it has ended up in the British National Archives. The second Jesuit map is the work of Father Jean Brebeuf, and is more limited in area, showing the main settlements of the Huron confederacy, to the north of Lake Simcoe. These are shown in such abundance that the map is a precious source for studying the Wendat people before their dispersion. The map, like Nouvelle France, has a curious provenance, having first been recovered in 1883 from the atlas of an anonymous priest; however, there is no doubt about its authenticity. The Brebeuf map is followed by work by Bernou, Coronelli, and Delisle. Then comes Arthur Dobbs's A NewMap of Part of North America (London, 1744) explicitly based on the work of the "French Canadese Indian" Joseph La France. This was at a time when European readers were increasingly valuing Indigenous cartographic contributions and shows the area northwest of the Great Lakes in which the influence of the Hudson's Bay Company was growing. To judge by the absence of any mention of the Danish presence, it reflects the sort of nationalist preoccupation shown in the map by JohnMitchell,AMap of the British and French Dominions (London, 1755) which marks a phase in the propaganda warfare between British and French cartographers. The next exhibit is an extraordinary and rarely seen panorama from the Library of Congress showing the battle resulting in the capture of Louisbourg by the British in 1758. Over six feet long, the map offers a striking and apparently accurate account of the engagement which, by stripping New France of its naval barrier near the mouth of the St. Lawrence, led to the momentous fall of Quebec in the following year. The final two maps testify again to the importance of the Indigenous contribution to the mapping of Canada. The first shows the Land North of Churchill River and is the work of Moses Norton, following the explanations of two Chipewyan men. The second is Samuel Hearne's "Map of Part of the Indian Country" (1772) also derived from details coming from Chipewyan informants. Indeed, throughout the catalog the editors are at pains to include accounts of Canada's cartography that do not "focus exclusively on European perceptions of place and ways of representing space" (p. 5) They bring forward at each stage the Indigenous contribution to maps, even when it is not at first obvious, and so encourage a new way of reflecting on the mapping of this huge and complex area.