Map of the Atlantic Canada, 1785.
The map covers the territory of what is today Atlantic Canada. In 1785, they were the British Colonies of Newfoundland, St. John’s Island (today called Prince Edward Island), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick (which split from Nova Scotia in 1784).
This map was released just eighteen years after Captain James Cook surveyed and mapped the area between 1763 and 1767. This was his second trip to the region; he first arrived as a soldier of the British Crown in 1757–1758 where he participated in the Siege of Quebec during this military expedition.
In 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed and the United States officially recognized as an independent country by the British and other signatories. The Treaty also laid out how the borders would be charted in the area and granted fishing rights to the American fishermen in Atlantic Canada. Quebec was also a British colony at that time. However, after the arrival of 10,000 loyalists from the newly founded USA in 1791, the province of Quebec was divided into Lower Canada: a predominantly French-speaking region downriver of St. Lawrence River covering the south-eastern part of modern-day Quebec and areas on the Labrador peninsula that are nowadays part of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Upper Canada, a predominantly English-speaking region upriver of St. Lawrence covering what is the southern part of the modern-day Province of Ontario.
“Ann and Seamus”, a historical novel by Kevin Major set in Newfoundland about 40 years after this map was first printed narrates a story of Irish immigrants who were shipwrecked on the shore of the island when on their way to Quebec.
Buy restored reproduction of this map printed on a high quality handmade paper here.