"Columbo", Churchill, Awnsham

A handsome bird's-eye plan of the important port city of Colombo, Sri Lanka, during the period of Dutch occupation. The countryside is filled with elephants, cattle, and farmland, and the sea is embellished with ships, two of which are engaged in battle. This plan was first published in 1672 in Naauwkeurige Beschryvinge van Malabar en Choromandel…en het machtige Eyland Ceylon… by Philippus Baldaeus, a Dutch missionary in the Malabar and Coromandel districts. Baldaeus' account served as one of the best sources of information on Dutch settlements in southern India. Awnsham and John Churchill used many of Baldaeus' maps and views in volume 3 of their own collection of voyages. This engraving is from the third edition, published in 1744-46 by Henry Lintot and John Osborn.

References: Shirley (BL Atlases) G.CHUR-1d #38.

Condition: B+

There is a faint damp stain in bottom left corner and short centerfold separations in top and bottom blank margins that have been closed on verso with old paper.