Moll’s social life revolved around Jonathan’s coffee house in London, where he exchanged ideas with literary figures such as Jonathan Swift and Daniel Defoe and intellectual pirates like William Dampier. His involvement in that circle also led to his producing maps that encouraged investment in the South Sea Company that burst in a bubble just as this map appeared.]]>

(Some information from the text of a University of Virginia Library exhibit.)]]>

The most unique feature of this map is its fanciful mountain ranges, which resemble an irregular four-armed starfish with its body in western North Carolina. Extending northeasterly from there, the “Apalitean Mountains” become scattered as they reach southern Pennsylvania. Another range extends directly west across what becomes Tennessee to the Mississippi River. The northern arm reaches all the way to the tip of the southern peninsular of Michigan and is labeled: “On the top of these mountains is a Plaine like a Terras Walk aboue 200 miles in length.” The southern arm extends deep into Florida and presents a mountain range as the watershed divide on that flat peninsular. The most accurate details relate to the coastal regions. It includes information about rivers and settlements in the Carolinas but not in the area destined to become Georgia.]]>