1855 Colton Map of the West Indies

A beautiful 1855 first edition example of Colton's map of the West Indies. Centered on Santo Domingo (Hispaniola), this map extends north to include the to cover all of Florida, south as far as Panama Bay and northern South America, and east as far as Barbados and the Windward Islands (Antilles). Identifies the island of San Salvador or Cat Island in the Bahamas as the site where Columbus supposedly landed on October 12 of 1492. Colton also identifies the site off the southern shore of Santo Domingo where Sir John Duckworth defeated the remainder of the French fleet following the battle of Trafalgar. Like most of Colton's North America maps, this map is largely derived from an earlier wall map of North America produced by Colton and D. Griffing Johnson. Colton identifies various cities, towns, forts, rivers, rapids, fords, and an assortment of additional offshore and topographical details. Map is hand colored in pink, green, yellow and blue pastels to define national and regional boundaries. Surrounded by Colton's typical spiral motif border. Dated and copyrighted to J. H. Colton, 1855. Published from Colton's 172 William Street Office in New York City. Issued as page no. 56 in volume 1 of the first edition of George Washington Colton's 1855 Atlas of the World .