Maybe this evidences a continuing significance as a navigation aid. Again, Hole in the Rock is the only place on Great Abaco that is marked. The southern end of Florida looks worryingly fragmented…įor the new century, a map by George Cook dated 1800 shows the first appearance of Little Abaco as a separate entity. John Blair’s map of 1779, below, shows clearly ‘the Hole in the Rock’ – indeed, it is the only named place on Great Abaco. Little Harbour – ‘Petit Havre’ – is again included as a distinct settlement, and a few Cays are also named. The Cartographer Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, in a 1764 map, also used the french name, though in the plural ‘Trou dans les Roches’, as this much enlarged portion of his ‘Cartes des Isles Lucayes’ shows. Many more settlements are shown, especially on the Cays. The French name is not just because the map maker was French, but probably because it was the name given by French settlers who are believed to have lived in that part of Abaco in the c18 (and quite possibly earlier). You’ll have to trust me on this – the writing is tiny and impossible to enlarge legibly. Little Harbour is mentioned, as are 2 ‘Keys’, presumably indicating settlements.Ī 1750 map by Robert of Paris shows the southern tip of Abaco as ‘Trou dans le Roc’. ‘Abaco’ is now spelled as we know it, with ‘Hole in the Rock’ clearly marked. The relationship of the islands to each other is shown in geographic reality and many more details and place names are included. The earliest specific reference to Hole-in-the-Wall (as it now is) that I have so far found is in a 1738 map by Johannes Couvens & Cornelius Mortier. Things become much clearer and more detailed in the c18. This famous map by A.M.Mallet from 1683, with its enjoyable sea battle vignette, is another good example of the very general nature of the maps, although the design and draftsmanship has advanced considerably
This colourful and charming 1679 map shows that a very basic style of mapping was still common in the c17 I have also included an image of the whole map so that the extraordinary range and complexity of this early map can be seen in its entirety. The first image is a detail of the whole map, showing the Bahamas, a sea monster, and a graphic shipwreck. His incredibly intricate map, for the period, is decorated with volcanos, mermaids, monkeys, and variety of fantastical sea creatures. It is quite hard – near impossible – to relate the position of ‘Haraco’ to the other islands depicted.ĪDDENDUM I have now uncovered an even earlier and far more ambitious map published in 1550 by the Spanish cartographer Diego Gutiérrez. The earliest map I have so far found is the Abraham Ortelius map of 1592, which is a good example of the rather basic map-making of the time. The gradual development of settlements can also been seen – at Little Harbour, Crossing Rocks and ‘Cheeric Sound’, for example, as well as on the ‘Keys’. Over the course of 5 centuries, one can trace the progress of place names to those used today – including of Abaco itself. The islands mostly have quite different names, or variants of familiar spellings.
The very earliest, from the late c16, simply depict the Bahama Islands / Lucayas as rather random-looking blobs which bear little relation to their actual geographical location or their shape. I don’t have access to written archival material, so I looked instead at historic maps of the Caribbean / Bahamas / Lucayas. I started by trying to establish the earliest map, and the earliest mention of Hole-in-the-Wall. If you are interested in the story and close- up photos, you’ll find them at HITW UNIQUE PERSPECTIVES ONE (past) and TWO(present & future). In 2015 I went on the BMMRO research RHIB close to the hole / gap. There are links at the bottom of the page to some posts relating to the new ‘Gap-in-the-Wall’. It was written, of course, before Hurricane Sandy converted the Hole into a Gap. STOP PRESS March 2017 Thanks to the many people currently viewing this post & sharing it around. This picture inspired me to delve into the history of Abaco and its the southernmost extremity, to see how far back it can be traced and how the island’s recorded history has evolved since the Columbian era. To begin with, here is a fabulous recent photograph of the actual Hole-in-the-Wall taken by well-known Abaco nature tour guide Ricky Johnson.
ABACO & HOLE-IN-THE-WALL, BAHAMAS: A SHORT HISTORY IN MAPS
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