Jacques Nicolas Bellin; 1703-1772.

A first rank cartographer, Bellin worked for some fifty years at the French hydrographic service (Dépôt de la Marine);which he ran till his death. In this position he had unequal access to prime cartographic data, which he used to further his own private business interests. He was succeeded at the head of the service by the very talented, and no less prolific, Rigobert Bonne.
His career was mainly devoted to charting and mapping coast lines, harbors, sea lanes,....
Most of his publications were related to nautical matters: maps for "Histoire générale des Voyages"* between 1747 and his death, "Atlas Maritime" in 1751, "Neptune François" in 1753, "Petit Atlas Maritime" in 1764,. for the benefit of the French Navy, merchantmen, and the public at large.
He is known to have used informations from the best fellow cartographers of his time, to complement the in-land parts of his maps, notably: Guillaume de l'Isle and Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, often giving them credit.
Fame, enormous output and fastidious quality of work, earned him the appointment of "hydrographer to the king" by Louis XV of France. He was also a member of the Royal Society in London.

* A major work published by Antoine François Prévost d'Exile. The first edition in 1747 was already of an encyclopedic size. A major remodeling was done in the mid fifties, incorporating some two hundred new maps (quite a few drawn by Bellin). Later editions, till 1789, incorporated verbatim other authors travel writings (e.g.: Gmelin's "Voyage au Kamchatka par la Sibérie" was incorporated in volume 25 in 1779).

Coste du nord est de l'isle de Juan Fernandez.

This map (11"X7 5/8"), derived from an Anson original, was probably included in the 1764 "Petit Atlas Maritime".
It is rather unusual in its showing both the normal delineation, and also the elevation view for the pilot approaching the anchorage.
The three island archipelago, off the Chili coast at the latitude of Santiago, is of little interest. Safe for the fact that it was used time and again by seafarers to rest, repair and victual after the harrowing passage through the straight of Magellan, or the rounding of cape Horn. Through the years, mariners had been careful to stock the uninhabited islands with live game and goats, which multiplied for lack of predators.
Francis Drake probably stopped there in 1577 after having escaped death at the hands of the Chili coast natives. So may have Thomas Cavendish a few years later.
It is known that the fleet under Jacques l'Hermite, regrouped on the main island before pursuing the Spanish galleons at Arica and Callao.
As written in the cartouche, admiral George Anson also stopped at Juan Fernandez during his 1741 circumnavigation.
But, the islands will stay forever famous for having harbored the quintessential castaway: Alexander Selkirk, who served as the model for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.
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