Isaak Tirion; 1705-1765.

B Born in Utrecht, Isaac (or Isaak) Tirion started a publishing business in Amsterdam.
He became mostly known for his works on dutch towns and provinces (see his 1739 Atlas of the dutch provinces, edited till 1557).
He also made good use of renown cartographers maps (in particular by G Delisle, and Thomas Jefferys) in his successful 1740 "Nieuwe en beknopte handatlas", a small format world atlas re-edited 6 times till 1784.

De Stad, Reede, Haven en Rivier van Chagres, in de Spaansche Westindiën.

This small town plan (6 13/16" X 10 1/8") was prepared for the "Hedendaagsch historie of tegenwordige staat van Amerika".
Directly derived from a 1764 Bellin original, the present item seems to have been printed for a 1769 issue of this work.
It depicts the town, harbor bay and fortification of Chagre, later known as Chagres.
To cross the isthmus of Panama in colonial days the spaniards had the choice:
- either the "Camino Real" (a four day brutal hike on a roughly paved trail thru the mountains),
- or the "Camino a Cruces": a short road between Panama and the river Chagre (which empties in the Caribbean), board at Venta de las Cruces and float down on rafts.
At the mouth of the Chagre, the Spaniards established the town of Chagre protected by Fort Lorenzo. Needless to say, the present day topography is quite different: the Chagre river is feeding the Gatun lake which in turn feeds the Panama Canal.
Notice the little write-up at the top: Here the English landed in 1669. Actually Henry Morgan and his buccaneers landed and took the town ..in 1670!
No text on verso.