Chart of Infanta or Broad River

An 1817 cartographical historical gem from the Naval Chronicle, July - Dec. 1817. This small chart is of the coast from Cape Agulhas to Cape Vetches: it includes areas now known as Witsand, Breede River Mouth and Cape Infanta.

Ostrich Bay is now Struisbaai;Cape Vetches is Cape Barracouta (named after Capt. Owen's ship from which extensive maritime surveys were conducted in the 19th century); Bay St. Cathrina is now included in St. Sebastian Bay; Pigeon-house Riveris the Duivenhoksrivier; there is an annotation about the loss of the Arniston, an Indiaman, wrecked two years earlier with the tragic loss of 372 souls aboard and the survival of only six.

The chart shows some of the developments on Dirk van Reenen's Rhenoster Fountain which is described in the Naval Chronicle (which also provides the key to the letters on the chart). Lord Charles Somerset named the east bank of Breede River Port Beaufortafter his father, the 5th Duke of Beaufort.

In 1817 it was found that the sand bar at the mouth of the river was navigable by vessels displacing not more than six feet of water. In 1820: Captain Benjamin Moodie established the Port Beaufort Trading Company and encouraged vessels to cross the sandbar regularly for mercantile purposes. He built a warehouse at Port Beaufort. Some of the Cape’s merchants’ vessels brought in manufactured goods. The vessels were loaded with wheat, wine, brandy and fruit. It was (in) this year that the coastal trade established Port Beaufort. Moodie was given the farm Westfield just east of the Breede River mouth.

"Capt. James Callander was a Scottish master mariner, who was sent by the Cape Colonial government to survey and report on the forests, bays and rivers in various areas, including St. Sebastian Bay, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay, producing the first useful maritime charts of these Bays."

Not in Tooley'sCollectors' Guide to Maps of Africanor Norwich'sMaps of Africa.

This small chart is a conversation piece and a cartographic landmark of the region; it has some later outline colouring and is in fine condition.