Sketch map of the Essequibo colony showing the location of the plantations

Title Leupe: Kaart van de kolonie Essequebo.

This enormous sketch map of Essequibo showing all the plantations in the colony is not signed but on the basis of the handwriting, colour combinations and cartographic style it may safely be attributed to Johan Christoph Heneman.

Heneman presumably collected the relevant data both in April 1772, when during his first home leave from Surinam he spent several weeks surveying in Demerara and Essequibo (see VEL1536 and Library of the University of Amsterdam, Special Collections 101.12.13), and during his second visit to the region in 1774-1775 (see VEL1529 and Library of the University of Amsterdam, Special Collections 100.22.03A & 100.22.03B).

More than twenty years later, the map might once again have served as a basis for Friedrich von Bouchenroeder’s general map of Demerara and Essequibo of 1796 (see VEL1489).

Though the inscriptions are written in a number of directions, the intended orientation of the map might be surmised from the position of the scale-bar, showing it is south-oriented, thus with north below.

Scale-bar of 2000 Roede Rhijnl: à 12 Voet = [approximately 1 : 140,000].