Separate issue, priced 'Prix Trois Francs' lower right.

A large-scale chart of the southern Atlantic Ocean, with two carefully plotted voyages between Africa and America, and down the west coast of Africa to the Cape of Good Hope. The chart is dedicated to Louis-Mathieu, Comte Mole, who briefly held the direction of the Ministry of Marine, which he held until December 1818.

The first voyage begins on the 11th of January [?1820] at the Cape of Good Hope, arriving at St. Helene on the 23rd, and heading for the entrance to the Aprouague River in Guiane on the 12th of February.

The second voyage enters the chart at the Equator, 25 degrees west of the Paris Meridian on the 16th of December 1820, arriving at La Trinite on the 1st of January 1821, departing almost immediately for the Banc du Thelamaque, where it arrived on the 26th of January, before sailing off into the Indian Ocean on the 31st.

Various unnamed islands and outcroppings are annotated with the dates of their sighting, between 1795 and 1820.

Depot de la Marine
This chart was prepared by the Dépôt de la Marine, known more formally as the Dépôt des cartes et plans de la Marine, the central charting institution of France. The centralization of hydrography in France began in earnest when Jean-Baptiste Colbert became First Minister of France in 1661. Under his watch, the first Royal School of Hydrography began operating, as did the first survey of France's coasts (1670-1689).

The Dépôt itself began as the central deposit of charts for the French Navy. In 1720, the Navy consolidated its collection with those government materials covering the colonies, creating a single large repository of navigation. By 1737, the Dépôt was creating its own original charts and, from 1750, they participated in scientific expeditions to determine the accurate calculation of longitude.

In 1773, the Dépôt received a monopoly over the composition, production, and distribution of navigational materials, solidifying their place as the main producer of geographic knowledge in France. Dépôt-approved charts were distributed to official warehouses in port cities and sold by authorized merchants. The charts were of the highest quality, as many of France's premier mapmakers worked at the Dépôt in the eighteenth century, including Philippe Bauche, Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, Rigobert Bonne, Jean Nicolas Buache, and Charles-François Beautemps-Beaupré.