Jersey 160

     Theodore de Bry (1528-1598) was born in Liége, and worked as a cartographer in Frankfort am Main.
     The stamp  from Jersey reproduces part of a map engraved by Theodore de Bry, which, in turn, may have been based on a map, now lost, by John White. White accompanied the first of Walter Raleigh’s colonizing expeditions, and was the governor of Raleigh's colony on Roanoke Island. The map was printed in A Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, by Thomas Hariot, published in 1588.
     Hariot wrote, “Because of the many islands on the seacoast of Virginia it was difficult to discover an entry to the mainland....Before we came upon an entrance we made many attempts at different places.... Sailing farther, we reached a large island.
     “As soon as the inhabitants of this island caught sight of us, they set up a loud and terrible outcry, as if they had never before seen men dressed as we were, and they ran off screaming like beasts and yelling like madmen. But we called them back and offered them presents....Convinced of our good intentions and kindness, they slowly approached and made us welcome.... Thus we reached the part of the world called Virginia.”
     A close examination of the stamp shows a shipload of colonists headed toward the island, the figures of the inhabitants running away from them, a fish-weir off the coast of the island, shoal-waters, indicated by patches of dots, and the Indian villages of Roanoac and Pasquenoke.

     In 1594 de Bry published a collection of maps, Collectiones Peregrinationum in Indiam.... One of the maps, Tabula Chorographica, is the basis for the stamps from Anguilla and Jamaica.
    The design of the Anguillan stamp shows little of the detail on the original, and it covers a slightly smaller area. The coat of arms in the upper left cornter, and the cartouche in the upper right corner of the original are missing, as are several ships. The ships that appear on the stamp are not on de Bry's map. They are Columbus' ships.

     The map of the island of Jamaica is a detail from de Bry's map. There is an inscription on the original below the island, Hoc loco prima dessensio orta, et pugna commisea inter Hispanos, a reference to a mutiny by some members of Columbus' crew during the fourth voyage.