This is the first state of De Wit's fine chart of the Hudson Bay and Arctic Canada. The beautifully engraved chart was based on Van Loon's important chart of 1666 and includes Hudson Bay and Strait, Baffin Bay, and the western coast of Greenland. It shows an erroneous second bay next to James Bay named The Great Bay (an exaggeration of Rupert Bay), and Mansel Island is named as Mansfeld Island. The chart is richly embellished with sailing ships, rhumb lines, and two elaborate cartouches - the second with a Dutch title.

De Wit's sea atlas, Orbis Maritimus ofte Zee Atlas, contained 27 charts from the North Pole to North and South America. The charts all appear to have been engraved by Romain de Hooghe and are splendid examples of Dutch marine works. The atlas was subsequently reprinted with amendments by Louis Renard in 1715, by Reinier and Josua Ottens in 1739 and 1745, and finally by the widow of van Keulen in 1802.

References: Carhart #C27; Kershaw #209.

Condition: B+

Full contemporary color on a watermarked sheet with minor foxing and a small stain at right. There is a small chip and crack in the green ink adjacent to the title cartouche that has been professionally backed with tissue on verso.