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 unparalleled access to prime cartographic data, often 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 Delisle 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).

Carte du canal de Bahama suivant les remarques de plusieurs navigateurs et en particulier des Anglais.

This very scarce map (12 3/8" X 8 ¼") was engraved for the 1768 "Description des Débouquements Qui Sont au Nord de l'Îile de Saint Domingue", a small navigation guide with 152 pages and 34 marine charts of the North Caribbean Sea.
As stated in the cartouche, it is clearly influenced by the recent British mapping efforts of their new possession (at the first treaty of Paris in 1763, concluding the French and Indian War, England received Florida from Spain in exchange for retro-ceding Havana and North Cuba to the Spanish. In particular, the John Gibson map for the 1763 Gentlemen's Magazine, famous for its depiction of the Florida peninsula as an archipelago, seems to have been a major source for this work. Uncharacteristically, north is on the right side of the map.
Notice that being in essence a marine chart, the map shows very few inland details (which were not available anyway).
Notice also in the NW Florida peninsula the strange anomaly of the Amazuro River shown to connect with the St Johns River.
No text on verso.