Gulf of Mexico (1705)

Nicolas de Fer's 1705 map of the Gulf Coast, Florida, and Texas entitled Les Costes Aus Environs de la Riviere de Misisipi. This is one of the earliest published maps to show any significant detail of the lower Mississippi Valley. De Fer's map covers the North American coastline from, roughly, Tampico, Mexico eastward along the Gulf of Mexico to include all of Florida and the eastern seaboard as far north as Cape Roman (vicinity of Charleston, SC). It also includes the Bahamas, parts of Cuba, and some of the inland waterways connected to the lower extensions of the Mississippi River.

 De Fer is illustrating an ephemeral period in the colonization and mapping of North America between the 1688 destruction of La Salle's colony of Fort St. Louis (modern day Inez, Texas) and the consolidation of French power in the region through Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville's 1717 founding of New Orleans. De Fer began drafting this map around 1699 during a period of great political sensitivity. Without a clearly declared heir, the death of Spain monarch, Carlos II, left a power vacuum in both Europe and the New World - one on which the French crown was strategically positioned to capitalize in both arenas.