THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 27, 1995 TAG: 9510250193
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 02W EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Olde Towne Journal
SOURCE: Alan Flanders
LENGTH: Long : 121 lines
Ever try giving an out-of-towner directions to Hampton Roads?
Something like ``just take 64 to 264 or try 364 or 664, but don't worry about the toll on 44?''
If they're going any faster than 25 mph, chances are you've lost a friend temporarily.
But think how difficult navigating this area was back in the late 16th century.
That's just what the folks at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Gallery in Williamsburg want you to do during their ``Mapping Colonial America'' exhibit, which opened Oct. 4 and will run to the spring of 1996.
Fifty maps covering the earliest landfalls made by English explorers along this coast from the late 15th century until the eve of the American Revolution are displayed.
And each reminds viewers of the unbelievable navigational skills those first English colonists needed to settle here.
Think of arriving off Cape Henry after an arduous three to four month voyage at sea with orders from the London Company to find the Elizabeth River.
If your captain was John White, former governor of the ill-fated Roanoke Colony, chances were he would have a chart of the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina printed by Theodor de Bry in 1592. It is one of the most well-known maps in the exhibit.
Fortunately for those first English explorers, the location of the Chesapeake Bay was clearly drawn and included the location of friendly Indian villages. It must have sounded horrible to the natives as the colonists tried to pronounce the Indian place names that were still dominant on the charts.
For example, Old Point Comfort on the White map was labelled ``APASUS.'' Along a very slight and twisting line that might be the Elizabeth River is the Indian village ``Ehesepiooc.''
Forget about giving verbal directions here. What was needed were better charts and maps, and once tobacco was discovered, English pilots and ship masters had no trouble arguing for better directions from their sponsors.
According to information displayed with the maps at the Dewitt Wallace, the beginning of the 17th century would quite literally see North America, and particularly Virginia, explode on the presses of European cartographers.
One of the most famous that sustained itself for more than 50 years as the premier guide to this area was John Smith's ``Virginia,'' published in 1614 as a companion piece to his ``New England.''
The New England chart carries a portrait of the renowned explorer and the Virginia chart shows accurate locations of Cape Henry and Cape Charles.
The James River is referred to as Powhatan's Flu, but most of the principal tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay are included with Hampton Roads indicated as the home of the ``Chesapeacks'' and ``Nandsamunds.''
Powhatan and his council are included on the map along with an Indian warrior clutching an iron hatchet - a sure sign that trading native tobacco for European goods had begun.
The Smith map is familiar to countless Virginians from their grade school history books, which for decades always included a printed copy in the first chapter of the book.
A still unnamed Craney Island makes its appearance on the 1646 map of Virginia by Sir Robert Dudley which surpassed Smith's earlier version. Once again the ``Nansamunds'' are mentioned, but English terminology has replaced a good portion of the original Indian names.
By 1706, John Thornton's chart carries the location of Lower Norfolk County with the Elizabeth River having been divided into Eastern and Western Branches. More importantly, depth soundings are initiated and the names ``Krany Isle'' (Craney Island) and Bennets Creek also appear.
A cartouche or personalized drawing by the printer or cartographer reinforces, as do other charts and maps, the reasons why the colonists were here in the first place - tobacco. In this case a cooper can clearly be seen making his barrels while a pair of local Indians hold clusters of tobacco leaves.
The exhibition also includes a 1737 version of Mark Tiddeman's ``Draught of Virginia,'' which concentrates on the inland waters of Hampton Roads. It was Made for the English Pilot, a series of bound charts of North America printed expressly for pilots and merchants. Tiddeman made the first accurate soundings for this area from his ship HMS Tartar.
Important for the growing villages of Norfolk and Portsmouth is a complete depth gauge for the Elizabeth River and an accurate positioning of Craney Island, Middle Ground shoal and Horse Shoe shoal off ``Point Comfort.''
Portsmouth first makes its location in print on John Mitchell's 1755 wall-sized ``Map of the British and French Dominion in North America.'' A gallery favorite, this is the map that shows Virginia extending from the Atlantic Coast all the way across the Mississippi and beyond.
Officially authorized by the British Lords of Trade, Mitchell's rendition is as much a marketing device as it is a masterpiece in the craft of cartography. It was later used during American-British negotiations over the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War.
A Colonial map collection would not be complete without the wall-sized map of Virginia by Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson, and Joshua Fry. The map, which first appeared in 1751, is complete with wagon roads connecting major towns and villages. This map shows English settlement firmly established from Tidewater to the Blue Ridge.
Another American Colonial notable, Benjamin Franklin, is included in the show with his personal copy of a chart locating the Gulf Stream.
Anyone interested in how we got here and where we went from there during Virginia's Colonial period will be interested in this exhibit. Open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, just take Route . . . oh, forget directions!
Find your way to Colonial Williamsburg and drive up Francis Street toward Merchant's Square. The gallery is on the ground floor of the Public Hospital exhibition building.
For more information or a map, call (804) 220-7724. ILLUSTRATION: ABOVE: The map, John Smith's ``America,'' published in 1614, was
the premier guide to this area for 50 years.
RIGHT: This map of Virginia by Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas
Jefferson, and Joshua Fry first appeared in 1751.
FOR HISTORY BUFFS
Barnabas Baker is available as a consultant on local and state
history from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at
the Portsmouth Public Library, 601 Court St. For more information,
call 393-8501.
The Portsmouth Genealogical Society meets at 3 p.m. the fourth
saturday of each month, also at the Portsmouth Public Library. For
more information, call 393-1205.
by CNB