A Draught of Cape Bona Esperanca

This sea chart  is a very scarce milestone in the history of mapping of the Cape of Good Hope and its coastline. The chart was engraved on copperplate by John Thornton (1641 – 1708). It was published in English Pilot (Part V) 1734, 1743 and 1761. Thornton was an engraver, hydrographer and publisher who succeeded John Seller (c.1630-1697). Seller was the first Englishman to compete with the Dutch in the production and publication of sea-charts; this inaccurate chart was produced, when the VOC kept its maps secret, from a Dutch source, Kaart van Saldanhabaai tot de Falsbaai by Caspar van Weede (4.VEL 168 in the Dutch National Archives).

The prospect above the chart, of the early settlement, captures an important historical paradox: the English names of the mountains, which English sailors had assigned to them, and a symbol of the Dutch occupation: a Dutch flag atop the fort built in 1652. King James I of England had decided not to take possession of the Cape, when two captains in the English East India Company, offered it to him, after they had laid claim to the land in 1620; consequently, the Dutch settled there in 1652.  The vignette above the chart also includes the much copied drawing of the small wooden fort at the Cape settlement.  The fort was made of wood and mud and was replaced in 1679 by a stone fort known as The Castle (the oldest extant building in Cape Town). The vignette of the fort was copied by a number of famous seventeenth cartographers.  On the chart from the 1675 plate (this map and one with Seller’s imprint): I. Penguin is today's Robben Island; the unnamed island to the left (i.e. north) is today's Dassen Island; Green Point is named for the first time - now the site of Cape Town's controversial football stadium built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.  

In 1703, John Thornton redrew Seller’s map and cartouche on a new plate: he eliminated Saldanha Bay at the 'Entrance to Saldina (sic) Bay'; named Coney (i.e. Dassen) Island; changed Saldinia Bay to Table Bay; and added a key (A-P); this map is plate 78 in Tooley.  

In 1711, Samuel Thornton replaced his brother's name in the title with his own;  

In 1734, Bay of Falso and two annotations in the bay were added, but the Thornton imprint was deleted. The chart also was published in English Pilot V in 1743 & 1761.

In c. 1739, Mount and Page returned to Seller’s original (1675) plate, but deleted the Seller imprint.  

All of these maps are scarce and highly sought after; the Antique Map Price Record has identified the sale of only one other example of this chart in the past thirty years. 

Tooley, p. 101-104