robisher's voyages and
the lands he encountered had little influence on the mapmaking world.
Due to the blanket of secrecy the
Privy Council
tried to impose, demanding that all records of the voyages be handed over to
them, there have been passed down to us only three maps or charts produced
either for use on, or as a result of, the expeditions. The
censorship also helps explain why the regions Frobisher explored
appeared on only four maps during the remainder of the sixteenth
century.
In 1576, William
Borough prepared a navigational chart of the North
Atlantic. It was to be used for plotting Frobisher's initial voyage;
in fact, it was also used on the subsequent voyages. It included an
outline of the major known coasts, in colour, as well as several
place names.
In addition to this chart, we have two general maps showing the
discoveries of the expeditions. Published in 1578, they were created
either by George Best or by James Beare. One
of the maps is a generalized version of the world map produced by
Ortelius in 1570, but with
three differences:
- Greenland was moved to a more northerly position and the
archipelago of Meta Incognita put in Greenland's original position;
- Asia was moved to its natural position far to the west across the
Strait of Anian;
- the Northwest Passage, to which Frobisher believed he had found
the entrance, was now called "Frobusshers Straightes".
The second map (shown below), equally crudely drawn, focuses on the region
surrounding Meta Incognita and the Northwest Passage. It has three
main features:
- a large number of the places visited during the three voyages are
included and named;
- Greenland is separate from the polar series of islands;
- Frobisher's Strait runs westward between several unnamed islands
and leads into a principal northwest passage.
These elements were included on a few subsequent maps: one produced
by John Dee and given to Queen Elizabeth in
1580; a second by Dee in 1582; a third map produced by
Michael Lok; and the
Stockholm Chart of the North Atlantic, of uncertain origin.
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The second map showing the discoveries of the expeditions focuses on
the region surrounding Meta Incognita and the Northwest Passage.
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John Dee's 1582 polar chart
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John Dee's 1580 map was modelled after the one by
Mercator in 1569,
but with the addition of details perhaps from Spanish or Portuguese
sources, and the inclusion of Meta Incognita. Inexplicably, Dee
presented two different locations for Meta Incognita. The northern
one was based on data from Frobisher's explorations, while the
southern version was taken from Mercator's map.
In 1582, Dee produced a polar chart which he dedicated to
Sir Humphrey Gilbert. It shows the northern
lands of America, Eurasia and the polar islands with the waterways which
could link them for trade. It too has both placements, southern and
northern, of Meta Incognita. The 1582 map also shows two inland water
routes to the South Seas, via the St. Lawrence River.
Michael Lok also produced a polar map
in 1582 (based partly on Verrazzano's of 1529), published by
Richard
Hakluyt; it showed the location of Meta Incognita, although the central
focus was northeastern North America. This map was designed to attract
investors in Gilbert's plan to colonize that part of the world,
and to encourage further search for a passage to the Pacific. It
is a simplified view of North America; omission of the northwest
part of the continent was intended to imply ease of access to the
South Seas. Lok's map provided a simplified version of the Meta
Incognita region, based on the 1578 Beare-Best map. In his version,
however, Lok increased the size of the island named after him and
reduced the significance of Meta Incognita.
The Stockholm Chart is believed to have been produced by Englishman
James Hall sometime between 1587 and 1605. He was leader of an
expedition organized to rediscover Greenland for the Danish king.
It accurately located Meta Incognita in relationship to the
surrounding lands.
After these maps were produced, a major mapping failure occurred,
due to the suppression of accurate information about the location
of Meta Incognita. Frobisher's Strait and places associated with it
were moved southeast from Baffin Island to the south end of
Greenland. This displacement was not corrected for two centuries.
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