86 A HISTORY OF AMERICA IN 100 MAPS
The previous map captured the trek of young George
Washington into the West, where he witnessed
French efforts to move toward the confluence of the
Monongahela and the Allegheny rivers at present-day
Pittsburgh. This spot became the flashpoint between
the French and the British as they went to war over
claims to the larger “Ohio Country.” Recently it had
become clear that the Ohio River and its tributaries
potentially connected the interior to the established
colonies, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi River
down to New Orleans.
These geographical revelations raised the stakes
between Britain and France in 1754. In response, the
Pennsylvania legislature asked the surveyor Lewis
Evans to map the relationship between the bustling
seaboard colonies and this promising interior. Evans
complied, issuing an authoritative map that detailed
“the present Conjuncture of Affairs in America,”
meaning the full-scale war that was raging between
France and Britain over the Ohio Country. Along with
a pamphlet printed by Benjamin Franklin, the map
urgently called for the British to confront the growing
French presence in the trans-Allegheny West.
Evans’ small map was designed to be tipped into
a short pamphlet promoting western settlement. This
size limited the amount of topographic detail that he
could offer, yet the map is bursting with information.
The complex topography of the Allegheny Mountains
is detailed, but more important was the inviting
picture of the Ohio Country. “The English have several
Ways to Ohio,” he wrote, “but far the best is by
Potomack.” He carefully annotated the river systems
of the Ohio Valley, distinguishing gentle flows from
rapids and falls and pointing out lands where British
settlers might form a bulwark against the French.
He identified waterways navigable by canoes, boats,
and larger vessels, and enthusiastically marked
short portages that offered the possibility of inland
transportation between different watersheds.
Note the way Evans also carefully delineated
Indian lands. At first glance, this strikes the modern
reader as an acknowledgment of the indigenous
peoples who greeted European settlers in North
Lewis Evans, “A General Map of
the Middle British Colonies,
in America,” 1755
THE PRESENT CONJUNCTURE OF AFFAIRS IN AMERICA