De L’Isle’s Fine Map of Southern Africa

Striking example of De L'Isle's impressive map of South Africa and Madagascar, showing De L’Isle’s characteristic precision and attention to detail.

Stretching from Congo in the north to what is now South Africa in the south, the map also includes Madagascar. The map is full of information about geographic features, especially lakes and rivers, natural resources, and indigenous peoples. Political boundaries are sketched, as are settled areas.

The map is based on De L’Isle’s revised map of the continent of Africa, published in 1700. He shortened the width of the Mediterranean, and northern Africa, by twenty degrees as compared to Ptolemaic versions. In addition to his map of the entire continent, De L’Isle followed with three regional African maps: Northeast Africa, West Africa, and South Africa, which is this map, published in 1708.

Relevant to this map, De L’Isle reviewed existing evidence for features in the interior of Africa. He removed the lake system and Mountains of the Moon that stretched from southern Africa north; these were the traditional source of the Nile as described by Ptolemy. He retained a large lake in the region, however, here without name but “according to the report of the Africans.”

Unlike on the southern part of the continent map, this map contains a large mountain range stretching from southwest to northeast. The note running along the range says, “Mountains of Lupata, called the ‘Backbone of the World’ by the Cafres [local people]”. This feature, and many of De L’Isle’s other details of African cartography, were repeated on later maps throughout the eighteenth century.