America

Map of the Americas engraved by Hondius for the first edition of his issue of Mercator's Atlas Sive Cosmographia (1606). In the lower left corner is a vignette depicting native women making and distributing a beverage to seated men. A caption in Latin describes the scene: "Manner of obtaining and drinking draughts among the Americans in Brazil, where young women, after they have chewed up certain roots, spit it out again, and then they cook it and offer it for drinking to the men. And this drinking-bout was especially a stimulus of delight." Vignettes of boats and sailing ships, as well as sea monsters, appear throughout the map. A Japanese sailing vessel, somewhat resembling a Chinese junk, is shown in the North Pacific. Engraving with watercolor mounted on board.