Grenada Divided Into Its Parishes, Surveyed By Order of His Excellency Governor Scott

Engraved map, uncoloured, compass rose, scale bar, latitude and longitude border, English Observations note at lower left. Relief shown by hachures, depths by soundings, roads, fortifications, buildings, anchorages, rivers, estates, and parish or quarter divisions, with the map oriented with north to the left. An unusually rich map of Grenada, capturing the island at the moment it passed from French to British imperial control. Jefferys and Sayer's engraving presents Grenada as both a strategic Caribbean harbour and a highly organised plantation landscape. This large and finely engraved map records Grenada soon after its transfer to Great Britain under the Treaty of Paris of 1763. The French title explicitly describes the island as ceded to Great Britain by the last Treaty of Peace, while the English title presents the map as a survey ordered by Governor Scott and engraved by Thomas Jefferys, Geographer to the King. The Treaty of Paris, signed on 10 February 1763, transferred Grenada, Saint Vincent, Dominica, and Tobago from France to Britain; later that year the Royal Proclamation created the new Government of Grenada, comprising Grenada, the Grenadines, Dominica, St. Vincent, and Tobago. Jefferys' engraving is unusually rich in local detail. The island is divided into its parishes or quartiers, with French place-names retained throughout, among them Sauteurs, Grand Marquis, Megrin, Bacolet, Calivini, Goyave, Grand Pauvre, Levera, and Cabesterre. Roads and tracks thread across the mountainous interior, including the Chemin royal, while small buildings, numbered estate parcels, cultivated grounds, and mill sites mark the settled and plantation landscape. The hachured mountains give Grenada a strongly modelled topography, with named elevations and inland features including Le Grand Étang, Mont St. George, Morne Vache, Mont St. Simon, Morne des Amandes, and Morne Rouge. The engraved observations note explains that the dotted line along the coast marks the Fifty Paces belonging to the King, a Crown reserve around the shoreline. It describes the islands mountains as forming fertile valleys, with numerous rivulets useful for water-mills serving the sugar plantations. The note singles out the eastern part, called the "Cabesterre," as having the best soil so has the most considerable settlements. It also records hot sulphurous and mineral springs, comments on the relative rarity of hurricanes, and states that no serpents or venomous animals were known on the island. These remarks turn the map into a concise British assessment of Grenadas economic prospects, water power, soils, settlements, and perceived natural advantages. The note describes the south-western coast, La Grande Baye, the harbour of St. Georges, is shown with soundings, anchorages, the careening place, Fort Royal, Redoute Monckton, Pointe St. Eloy, Pointe Cabrion, and the surrounding roads and hills as the true entrance of the port from the west-south-west. It records that men-of-war had anchored and careened there and praises the shelter from the prevailing winds. This emphasis reflects Grenadas strategic value within the Lesser Antilles, where harbour access, fortification, and plantation supply were closely connected. The maps surface is a colonial document of land, labour, and control. Its roads, numbered holdings, plantation references, and Crown coastal reserve translate Grenada into the visual language of British administration. At the same time, the retained French nomenclature records the islands earlier colonial geography. Thomas Jefferys was one of the leading English cartographers of the 18th century. From about 1750, he published a series of maps of the Americas, that were among the most significant produced in the period. As Geographer to the Prince of Wales, and after 1761, Geographer to the King, Jefferys was well-placed to have access to the best surveys conducted, and many of his maps held the status of "official work." Jefferys died on 20th November 1. …