A New Plan of the Straits situated to the east of Java & Madura commonly called the Straits of Bali and of Pondi and Respondi

Chart focusing on the Straits of Bali, based on sources from both the French and English East India Companies.


Although the map is published in English by Laurie and Whittle in 1794 in their notable "Oriental Navigator", on the upper right, it is credited to Jean Baptiste-Claude d'Après de Mannevillette, an officer in the French East India Company who specialised in navigation. In 1745, Mannevillette issued his "Neptune Oriental" as a navigation aid for all merchant mariners to the Far East. The work was highly successful, with a second edition published in 1775 with several additions and corrections. A third edition was published in 1781 and a new edition with an appendix was issued in in 1797. There were further editions after that, many of them composites from several sources as further information was compiled about the waters of the Far East.


De Mannevillette lists his sources for this map below the title, mainly several ships from the British East India Company, whose captains sent him their charts. This chart was then issued in Robert Sayer and John Bennett's "The East India Pilot or Oriental Navigator" in 1778 and then again in the same work by Richard Laurie and James Whittle, their successors in 1794.


The example offered here is the 1794 edition issued by Laurie and Whittle. [SEAS5115]