Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-07-26
A LONG WAY BACKWARD.

What an English Geographer of 10 Years
Ago Knew About This Country.
Of all the rare and antiquated books
which the new public library at Butte,
Mont, contains, probably the most in
teresting of them, from an historical
point of view, is an ancient geography
which was published in London in 1928.
The book is described as a large vol
pme of over seven hundred pages, and
it contains many remarka BILE maps and
descriptions of countries which, in this
age, are genuine curiosities, showing
as they do how little the people of one
hundred and seventy years ago knew
about this great world, and particularly
about America. The book is entitled:
''The Compleat Geographer, or the
Chorography and Topography of All
the Known Parts of the Earth, to
Which Is Promised an Introduction to
Geography and Natural History of
the Earth and its Elements" The
book was in its fourth edition. The
spelling throughout is of the ancient
order, with the old style and char
acters, which gives the book decidedly
quaint appearance, which is increased
by the names of all the countries, lakes,
rivers, capes, islands, ETC., being print
ed in italics.
What is now part of the United
States appears on this map as Canada
or New France, and all of the extreme
eastern states, including Maine, New
Hampshire, Massachusetts,, Rhode Is
land, Connecticut, New Jersey, Della
ware, Virginia, the Carolinas and part
of Florida, are classed as the English
empire and New England. Across the
St. Lawrence river on the north is New
Britain or New France or Canada, as it
is called in as many different places.
Part of the Labrador peninsula is
marked off and booked as Prince Ru-
pert's land, and the rest is called Ter
ra de Labrador" South of the great
lakes is strip of land devoted to 1.-The
nations of the Iroquoi." The Atlantic
ocean appears on the map as the '.sea
of the English empire" it being the
policy of England in those days to
claim everything in sight, whether it
was habitable or not To the west of
Hudson's bay appear New North Wales
and New Yorkshire, and lower down
New South Wales is outlined.
The map showing what is now the
United States is entitled: 'sMap show
ing the Isle of California, New Mexico,
Louisiana, the River Misisipi and the
Lakes of Canada" The most remark
able feature of the whole map is in its
making California an island. The Gulf
of California is shown extending
about as far north as Oregon, and Cali
fornia is separated from the mainland
by the north straits. The northern
part of California is named New Albion.
and the general outline is about as far
from that of Lower California as any
thing could be. 1t looks as though the
explorers from whose sketches the map
was taken had gone mp into the gulf of
California a short distance and then
come to the conclusion that the land to
the west of them was an island and
turned around and went back again.
The Mississippi river is shown as enter
ing the gulf of Mexico away oyer on
the western side. several hundred miles
from where its mouth really is. Louis
lana and Florida occupy the entire ter
ritory west of the Mississippi as far as
the British possessions The northern
boundary of Florida is away up in Ala
bama and Georgia. The country west
of the river is divided up into New