CONTACT AND DISCOVERY 29At the western edge of the map (on page 26)
Gastaldi delineated the Strait of Anián. This was the
first appearance of the passage between Asia and
North America on any map. This fabled strait had
been located throughout the North American west
in the sixteenth century, and was not definitively
identified as the Bering Strait until two centuries
later. Gastaldi’s depiction was especially important,
for only a few years earlier on a different map he
had connected Asia and North America as a single
landmass, with no separation. Here, the Anián Strait
connects the Pacific Ocean with a massive inland
northern sea, which in turn allows passage to the
Atlantic Ocean. These connected bodies of water
fueled the hope of a Northwest Passage from Europe
to the Far East.
The geography at the western edge of the map
also suggested an easy voyage between North
America and Asia. Japan is placed midway between
China and North America, which transforms the
massive Pacific Ocean into a smallish lake. Both
the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans are spaces of
imagination, with mermaids and mermen swimming
alongside dragons and ocean vessels.
The details of Gastaldi’s map shown at left and
above are full of evidence of Spanish ambitions
beyond Mexico. At the southern edge of the detail
at left we find a densely settled Mexican landscape,
reflecting the growing presence of Spain over the
prior half century. Moving north, that density gives
way to a wide open continent with limited human
settlement. Bands of conquistadores march across
the interior, interspersed with a few native villages.
Here and there are strangely disfigured cattle,
creatures that had been described by Coronado. No
doubt these were some of the first European sightings
of the bison that roamed the plains. The details
along the left edge indicate that Gastaldi was aware
of Coronado’s brutal exploits in this region, for he
identified the Tiguex War fought between the Pueblo
tribes and Coronado’s men along the Rio Grande.
Spanish ambitions are exalted by the elaborate
portrait of King Philip II shown above, which
Gastaldi placed in the center of the full map. The
monarch is seated on a throne with a gaze that
follows an outstretched hand pointing toward North
America. The king’s outsized presence on the high
seas, together with the conquistadores that dot
the landscape, remind us that in the mid-sixteenth
century, the Spanish were actively expanding their
realm in the New World.