A fine detailed map of present day Texas and the South West issued just prior to the founding of Stephen Austin’s colony. It was published in the ‘Atlas pour servir a L’Intelligence de l’Histoire Generale des Voyages, de La Harpe’ by Etienne Ledoux. The maps were provided by Amboise Tardieu (1788-1841) the son of another mapmaker Antoine Francois Tardieu. The design of the map is drawn from the ‘Carte Generale du Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne’ of Alexander Humboldt issued in 1812. In the same year, Stephen F. Austin’s father Moses Austin obtained a grant from Spanish authorities in New Spain to settle nearly 300 families in an unsettled region of their territory which would later become known as Texas. The only recognisable settlement shown is San Antonio founded in 1718. The river network in the area is reasonably accurate for the time. The map extends northwards to 42 degrees and takes in Santa Fe and regions to its north. The areas western edge is shown as the source of the Colorado River but is all theoretical. The whole bears the names of a large number of Indian Tribes and place names.