Tahiti et Morea

Rare map of the French protectorate of Tahiti, comprising the island with the Taiarapu peninsula, as well as the sister island of Moorea (Morea), dated 1862. It is the reissue of the first map of the region published during the colonial era, having appeared initially in 1857 with no change other than its title (“Plan des îles Tahiti et Morea dressé par Adam Kulczycki… au Ministère de la Marine et des Colonies, Paris, le 14 février 1857”). The map, which describes a territory of about 1,200 km², is remarkably complete. On it appear not only the various villages and hamlets of the island, but also the rivers and streams, the name and altitude of numerous peaks, the location of the forts, as well as the administrative division into districts. This map was made by Adam Joachim Kulczycki, a Polish military engineer who had to flee his country after the failure of the November Uprising of 1830. He first moved to Paris and then was hired by the Brazilian government (1836-1838) for an engineering project. In 1843 he joined the French colonial administration and moved to Tahiti. In Papeete he installed an astronomical observatory and determined the precise position of various islands of the archipelago, results that he would publish in 1851 in a work prefaced by Clément Vincendon-Dumoulin, one of the best hydrographers of his time. It is told that Kulczycki became a local celebrity by announcing eclipses in advance in the almanac that he published regularly, to the great astonishment of the Polynesians. He then published his celebrated map of Tahiti and Morea, which would be reissued until 1875. This engraving forms part of a series of colonial maps published by order of Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat, a key figure of the French colonial administration. This politician was, among other posts, minister of Algeria (and then of the Navy) and of the Colonies in 1859, practically founding that ministry, a post he held until 1867. He was also the promoter of the Mission of Exploration of the Mekong and the upper Song-koï, entrusted to the frigate captain Ernest Doudart de Lagrée. Rarity: this map, published initially in the Revue Maritime et Coloniale, is very rare on the market. WorldCat (OCLC) records its presence in a single library, the BnF (Paris).