Roanoke Colonies Research Newsletter
Volume 5.1 (November 1997)

Blaeu’s Attention to Detail Geoffrey Ambridge East Sussex, England

Below are portions of two maps, for purposes of comparison. All show the upper reaches of the Chowan River at the confluence of the Chowan/Meherrin Rivers and Potecasi Creek. One is a modern-day map and the other is by the seventeenth century Dutch cartographer Jon Blaeu.

For some inexplicable reason, on the earlier map, Blaeu has taken the trouble to detail both the unnamed island at the mouth of Potecasi Creek and modern-day Dowry Island, in the Chowan river, further to the north.

Taking into consideration the general complexity of Blaeu’s 1638 map entitled Virginiæ partis australis et floridæ partis orientalis one wonders what was of sufficient importance about these two small islands to have deserved their inclusion on his map?

It may just have been a coincidence, of course, a slip of the pen, but he has got their geographic positions just about right. Obviously someone with first-hand knowledge of the territory must, for some reason, have drawn his attention to the existence of these islets, insignificant though they may appear to be.

In 1770 and 1775, both Collet and Mouzon’s maps of the region show the location of “Meherrin Indian’s Town” on the southern bank of Potecasi Creek. Could there be any connection between this former settlement and the island at the mouth of this creek. Also, through contemporary documents, is there any means of ascertaining the “native” name of the “Meherrin Indian’s Town” on Potecasi Creek? If anyone is able to shed light on any aspects of the above, the writer would be very interested to hear.

Geoff Ambridge can be reached at 3 Northern Avenue, Polegate, East Sussex, BN26 6HQ, United Kingdom.

Technical Note: The contemporary map is adapted from the TIGER Map Service of the U.S. Census Bureau available on the World Wide Web at its homepage http://tiger.census.gov/. The specific map used as the basis of the one here can be seen by requesting a map centered on latitude 36.44168° and longitude -76.95251° (positive latitude indicates north and negative longitude indicates west).

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