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Dear all,

On sheet 61, "Map of New Granada, Venezuela and Guiana", in the 1866/68 edition of the Atlas of the New World, edited by Augustus Mitchell, the New River, one of the tributaries of the Corantine River, the boundary between Suriname and Guyana, is drawn in. This is surprising, as according to tradition it was Charles Barrington Brown who discovered the New River in 1871. Robert Schomburgk, the German explorer of Guyana, never noticed the New River, twice the size of the Corantine, when sailing it down in 1843). In order to solve this issue, we are interested in when (or in which edition) the New River first was represented in Mitchell's atlases. And of course, if that can be established, the more important question would be: what were Mitchell's sources for incorporating this tributary?

Ferjan Ormeling/Peter van der Krogt