The general History of China [etc.] Done from the French of P[ere]. Du
Halde [by R. Brookes]. London, John Watts, 1736. 4 vols. 8° with maps
and ills.
This is referred to in the following text by the letter B.
This is the first English translation from the original French edition
of the "Description géographique et historique de l'empire de la Chine"
by the father J. B. Du Halde, published at the Hague in the same year
as the above translation. The text of the original French I have not
been able to consult, though, so far as Bering's voyage is concerned,
there does not seem to have been any material abridgment in the
translation above cited, for an opportunity of consulting which I am
indebted to the Librarian of Congress.
The maps and charts of the original French edition were separately
printed in an atlas by themselves, for the use of those who might
desire to do without the text, under the following title:
Nouvel Atlas de la Chine, de la Tartarie Chinoise, et du Thibet:
contenant Les Chartes générales & particulieres de ces Pays, ainsi que
la Carte du Royaume de Corée; (etc.): Rédigées par M^r D'Anville,
Géographe ordinaire de sa Majesté très Chrétienne, Précedé d'une
description de la Boucharie, Par un Officier Suedois que a fait quelque
sejour dans ce Pays. A la Haye, chez Henri Scheurleer MDCCXXVII. Folio,
12 pp. 42 charts.
The chart of Bering forms sheet 42, and differs from the others in
being on Mercator's projection which indicates that it was copied
directly from an original as stated in the text, and not redrawn. It is
20-3/4 by 9-3/8 inches on the neat-lines and is entitled:
"Carte des Pays traversé par le Cap^{ne}. Beerings depuis la ville de
Tobolsk jusqu'a Kamtschatka."
Beneath the title is a table of four transliterated Russian terms for
fort, post, village and convent, with their French equivalents. This
and certain peculiarities in the transliteration of proper names make
it certain that the original chart was in Russian and that the
transliteration was done by some one not perfectly familiar with both
languages. There are a few errors of the engraver in rendering single
letters "c" appearing for "t" and "r" for "e" in a few places. The
longitude is reckoned in degrees east from Tobolsk to which 67° degrees
when added will give practically the meridian east from Greenwich. The
transcriber of the map from the Russian appears to have been a Dane, G.
Kondet.
That part of this chart east from 112° E. Gr. has been fairly
reproduced by Lauridsen (Chart I) with the omission of some unimportant
names and the addition of a signature (not the ordinary autograph) of
Bering. This is reproduced with a different running headline to
accompany Olson's translation.