L’Asie divisee en ses Principaux Etats.A beautiful example of Le Sieur Janvier’s 1771 map of Asia. Covers from Africa and the Mediterranean east to Bering Strait (Detroit du Norte ou d’Anian) and south as far as Java and New Guinea. This map is most interesting in its rendering of the largely unexplored extreme northwest of Asia. Yeco or Hokkaido is mapped only speculatively with its western borders unknown. Shows Sakhalin Island in an embryonic state.

Just to the east of Yeco (Hokkaido), Janvier maps the apocryphal Terre de Gama or Terre de la Company. Often called de Gamma Land or Gama, these islands were supposedly discovered in the 17th century by a mysterious figure known as Jean de Gama. Various subsequent navigators claim to have seen this land, but it was left to Bering to finally debunk the myth. In 1729, he sailed for three days looking for Juan de Gama land but never found it. Thought it may be little more than a mis–mapping of Hokkaido or the Japanese Kuriles, Gama or Compagnie remained on maps for about 50 years following Bering’s voyages until the explorations of Cook confirmed the Bering findings.

Though the mainland of Siberia and northeast Asia are remarkably well mapped based upon the explorations of Vitus Bering and Tschirikow, a further anomaly appears in the form of an unusual landmass just to the east of Kamchatka roughly where the Aleutian Islands are today. A note reads that this land mass claims that it was seen in 1741, suggesting either Vitus Bering or Alexei Chirikov. This is most likely an embryonic representation of the MullerPeninsula. The Muller Peninsula was a postulated by Gerhard Muller around this time based on recorded sightings of the Aleutian Archipelago and their misinterpretation of it as a single land mass.

Further to the south New Guinea (Novelle Guinee) is maps speculatively with most of its eastern and southern borders left either blank or hidden behind the grand title cartouche. A decorative title cartouche displaying the riches of the continent appears in the lower right hand quadrant. A fine map of the region. Drawn by J. Janvier in 1771 for issue as plate 24 in Jean Lattre’s 1776 issue of the Atlas Moderne.

1770 (undated)