Archivo General, Simancas, Spain

Mapas, Planos y Dibujos, IV-56

A map, probably drawn by Robert Tatton, bearing three or four inscriptions in Ralegh's hand, in French, indicating to the French ships where they were supposed to find him (in 1617). c.1617.

*RaW 1029: Sir Walter Ralegh, Map(s) of Guiana

This feature explains how the map came to be in Spanish archives, for it was clearly given by Ralegh to one of his French agents, probably Antoine Belle, who subsequently disclosed the arrangements to the Spaniards.

This map first recorded in James Augustus St John, Life of Sir Walter Raleigh (London, 1868), I, 241. Discussed, with a facsimile example, in R. A. Skelton, ‘Ralegh as Geographer’, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 71 (1963), 131-49 (p. 141 and after p. 142).