Plan du Porte decouvert dans le Golfe du Mexique le 21. d'Aoust 1721. par. Benard de la Harpe l'un des commandants a la Louisianne il est scitue par les 29 degrez 15 minuttes de Lattitude a 100 lieues a l'Ouest de l'Embouchure du Mississippi

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IdentifierMaps_114aDate1725DescriptionThe French hydrographic office prepared this highly finished manuscript map of Galveston Bay from field sketches made during La Harpe's 1721 expedition. It is both the earliest known map specifically of Galveston Bay and the earliest of any kind to show this major feature of the Texas coast. A variant of this manuscript is in the collection of the Library of Congress (see Lowery, no. 302 [2]).

Benard de la Harpe was one of the most memorable of the French explorer-adventurers who figured prominently in the early history of Louisiana and Texas. On December 19, 1720, he was appointed commander of an expedition that was organized to reestablish a French beachhead on the western Gulf Coast. His instructions were to erect a trading post and fort at the "Bay of St. Bernard" (Matagorda Bay), the site of La Salle's fort in 1685. La Harpe entered a large body of water, which he quickly realized was not St. Bernard's Bay, but an unknown one. The French force was too small and poorly supplied, however, to establish a foothold against strong opposition from the local Native Americans, and the project was abandoned.

This important episode of Texas history, the first European attempt to plant a colony at Galveston Bay, went largely unnoticed in contemporary Europe and has been the source of considerable confusion among modern historians. J.B.B. Anville's great map of North America (Paris, 1746) contains a notation concerning a "Baye des Francais" discovered by the French in 1720 [sic]. "Port des Francais" is the name given to the bay discovered by La Harpe on the Library of Congress copy of La Harpe's manuscript (see below), but Anville associates La Harpe's bay with modern-day San Antonio Bay rather than with Galveston Bay. Apart from this ill-informed reference, commercial cartographers completely overlooked La Harpe's discovery, and they continued to omit Galveston Bay from printed maps, until the publication of the Carta Esferica in 1799. La Harpe's own written account of the expedition remained unpublished until 1831.

Modern historians have been uncertain whether La Harpe landed at St. Bernard's Bay, as instructed, or at Galveston Bay (see, for example, Bolton, pp. 283-84). La Harpe's manuscript map proves conclusively that the bay entered in August 1721 was Galveston, and it is puzzling that the map has so long remained in obscurity, especially since the Library of Congress copy has been in that collection since at least the turn of the 20th century. Cartographic scholar Woodbury Lowery examined the map, but he did not recognize its configuration as that of Galveston Bay.

The map in fact shows Galveston Bay in an accurate and easily recognizable form. It is far superior to the Evia-type maps that were published from 1799. Galveston Island is unnamed, but bears the legend "Isle de nuiron vingt lieues de long." On the northeastern shore of the bay, in the vicinity of the present-day town of Anahuac, are two notations: "Etangs d'eau douce" and "dans ce lieu Mr. de la Harpe a trouve une nation errante et Antropophages composee de 200 personnes." The latter reference is to the Native Americans, who, as La Harpe notes in the Journal historique, refused to allow the French to establish their settlement. Pelican Island appears but is unnamed. The main channel into the bay passes between Pelican and Galveston islands, the site of present-day Galveston Harbor. West Bay is labeled "Chenal qui conduit aux environs de la Baye St. Bernard," which completely refutes Folmer's Contention (p. 274) that the bay designated St. Bernard's Bay in La Harpe's instructions was not Matagorda Bay but Galveston Bay. La Harpe clearly distinguishes between St. Bernard's Bay and this bay, discovered August 21 1721. Hanna's Reef and Red Fish Bar are crudely noted and labeled "batture remplie d'Hots de Sable." Half Moon Shoal and Dollar Point Shoal are "Hots de Sable." Fort Point is a fragmented archipelago marked with a flag; evidently this is the site where La Harpe landed and laid claim to the country for France.

The Library of Congress' copy, which is found in an eighteenth-century manuscript copy of La Harpe's Journal historique, is generally sketchier, with fewer depth soundings, and gives the bay the name "Port des Francais," as already noted. Galveston Island is named "Isle de la Harpe." This copy bears the additional notation "Il peut avoir dans cette ouverture de Baye quelques Enfoncements ou Revieres dont on n'a pu prende connaissance" along the bay's west bank. The date of discovery is mistakenly given as "27 aoust."

[Benard de la Harpe], Journal historique...(see Streeter, Bibliography, no. 1126, about the questionable authorship of this work); Margry, 6:319-54; Bolton, pp. 283-84; Folmer, pp. 319-54; Wedel, "J.B. Benard, Sieur de la Harpe: Visitor to the Wichitas in 1719." See also Lowery, no. 302 [2]. Language NoteFrenchSubjectGalveston (Tex)--MapsGalveston Bay (Tex)--MapsCopyright StatementNo Copyright – Non-Commercial Use OnlySize49.5x74 centimeters.CartographerFrench NavyJean Baptiste Bénard de La Harpe

CollectionMary Moody Northen Maritime History CollectionPlaceGalveston Bay

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Plan du Porte decouvert dans le Golfe du Mexique le 21. d'Aoust 1721. par. Benard de la Harpe l'un des commandants a la Louisianne il est scitue par les 29 degrez 15 minuttes de Lattitude a 100 lieues a l'Ouest de l'Embouchure du Mississippi

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Plan du Porte decouvert dans le Golfe du Mexique le 21. d'Aoust 1721. par. Benard de la Harpe l'un des commandants a la Louisianne il est scitue par les 29 degrez 15 minuttes de Lattitude a 100 lieues a l'Ouest de l'Embouchure du Mississippi