Has heaven reserv’d, in pity to the poor.
No pathless waste, or undiscover’d shore;
No secret island in the boundless main?
No peaceful desart yet unclaim’d by Spain?

The answer to the question posed in these lines quoted by Paul Mapp in The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire turned out to be a resounding yes. In 1738, when Dr Johnson wrote his poem, some two-thirds of North America was still terra incognita, as far as Europeans were concerned. A vast expanse of territory, home to a variety of indigenous peoples only some of whom were in direct contact with white traders, figured on European maps as a blank, sprinkled sparsely with names added as much in hope as in knowledge. This cartographical ignorance and its implications for 18th-century European diplomacy and imperial rivalries are the theme of Mapp’s path-breaking book.

LRB 23 February 2012 | PDF Download