Description
TRINIDAD, WEST INDIES / FINEST POST-EMANCIPATION ERA SURVEY:
[Joseph BASANTA (1810 – 1870)]. / William Joseph CURTIS (c. 1802 – 1875).
London: James Wyld, [circa 1850].
Steel engraving, with original outline colour, on two un-joined sections, in total dissected into 60 segments and mounted upon original linen, olive cloth endpapers, housed in original olive cloth slipcase bearing the pastedown title label of ‘James Wyld, Geographer to Her Majesty’ to front side, with “Trinidad” in mss. and the former owner’s handstamp of ‘H.N. Carvalho’ (Very Good, lovely original outline colours, remarkably clear with just some very minor print transference, a stellar example; slipcase with edgewear and staining), 129.5 x 151 cm (51 x 59.5 inches).
Commissioned during the transformative gubernatorial administration of George Francis Robert Harris, 3rd Baron Harris (Governor of Trinidad, 1846 – 1854), the highly detailed mid-nineteenth-century survey stands as a monumental exercise in British colonial cartography. The map bridges the early military reconnaissance of the island with the rigorous cadastral and industrial layout required by the shifting mid-Victorian economy. By incorporating the foundational 1797 trigonometric coastlines charted by Captain Frederick Mallet alongside the recent topographical surveys of Joseph Basanta, the Surveyor General of Trinidad, as well as modern mid-century railway routes plotted by civil engineer William Joseph Curtis, the compilation tracks Trinidad’s rapid evolution following the emancipation era.
Delicate hand-colored boundary lines trace the island’s partitioning into its native counties, dividing the landscapes of St. George, St. David, Caroni, St. Andrew, Victoria, Nariva, St. Patrick, and Mayaro to establish a formalized municipal framework for taxation, land grants, and population tracking.
Analysis of Land Allocation & Infrastructure
Extensive cadastral referencing forms the analytical core of the chart, meticulously mapping out the interior through an exacting grid system designed to track land distribution. A detailed legend (lower right) clarifies the mathematical distribution of property, distinguishing traditional land grants made by the historical Spanish government from subsequent British crown allocations. The grid system divides territory into distinct blocks where each numbered square or plot contains exactly 100 squares or 320 acres, with individual sub-squares calculated to equal precisely three and one-third acres. Special typographic designations highlight the agricultural engine of the colony, charting settlements explicitly established for sugar works, alongside separate symbols marking isolated outposts dedicated to the cultivation of coffee, cotton, and cacao.
Transportation lines and maritime corridors receive equal technical attention across the expansive layout. The network charts primary arterial movement by delineating royal roads from common high roads, crossroads, and ancient Indian footpaths slicing through dense interior woodlands. Along the coastal fringes, particularly within the strategic waters of the Gulf of Paria and the northern Bocas del Drago (Dragon’s Mouths), the hydrography logs key maritime assets, marking deep-water anchorages for ships alongside specific coastal approaches reserved for lighter coasting vessels. The dramatic topography of the island is rendered using fine hachuring to delineate the northern mountain ranges from the southern expanses, leaving descriptive annotations over unmapped interiors such as the mountains of the south, marked as inaccessible and covered with incorruptible woods.
The Trinidad Railway: A Missed Opportunity
Importantly, the map depicts the envisaged lines of the Trinidad Railway Company, which would have been the island’s first railroad. In the mid-1840s, a London-based consortium proposed a multi-spurred railway system that would connect Trinidad’s main plantation areas to ports. The consortium hired William J. Curtis (c. 1802 – 1875), an esteemed English civil and mechanical engineer and inventor to spearhead the project. He was renowned for constructing one of the earliest trams in Britain, many important railway safety innovations, filing several hydraulic and mechanical patents, as well as inventing the Curtis Rifle, a bullpup-style gun several decades ahead of its time.
Curtis extensively mapped many parts of Trinidad to a very high scientific standard to find the best routes for the railway, information which is integrated into the present map.
He worked closely with Joseph Basanta, the Surveyor General of Trinidad, who also extensively charted the island, and whose work greatly contributed the map, although he is not here named.
Importantly, the map shows the planned main routes and many spurs of the Trinidad Railway, indicated by pink lines. Basically, the envisaged system saw lines extending from the capital, Port of Spain, east to Arima and then down south past San Fernando, with the southern lines connecting to the port of Punta de Piedras (Stony Ppoint), with several spurs extending in various directions.
The Trinidad Railway Company’s ambitions hinged upon a £50,000 subsidy from the Trinidad government (then a very large sum). Jamaica had recently (in 1845) opened the first leg of the Jamaica Railway following similar public support, and it was widely thought that Trinidad would do the same. Regrettably, despite Governor Harris’s lobbying, the colonial assembly ‘bottled’ the matter, refusing the subsidy, such the construction of railway never commenced. This was regretted by many, considered a missed opportunity for the colony. It would not be until 1876 that the island would be served by the first section of the Trinidad Government Railway, the construction of which benefitted from Curtis’s surveys.
A Note on Rarity
The present map is exceedingly rare. It seems that while it was offered for public sale (at the then expensive price of £1, 6 Shillings), it was primarily intended for official and high-level commercial use, such that it would have had a very limited print run. We can trace only a single institutional example, held by the British Library, while we are not aware of any sales records for any other examples.
References: British Library: Maps 82540.(3.); OCLC: 557735489; ‘New Maps / James Wyld’, The Bookseller, March 23, 1858, p. 137.