The two continents are surrounded by a veritable menagerie of sea monsters; some resemble flying fish, others strange alien creatures. Also at sea are various water craft from cultures ringing the waters shown on the map. To the west is a Japanese square-rigged vessel. Farther south are three European vessels in full sail. Near the Strait of Magellan is an indigenous canoe carrying a fire in the middle, near another European ship. Farther north, beyond yet another tall ship, a second canoe also carries a fire and a note explains that the canoes are also hollowed out by fire. Even farther north is a kayak with a man holding a trident and wearing what appears to be Santa’s hat. The inscription says that this is a Greenlander.
There are also two cartouches on the map. At the top center is the title, “America,” in a strapwork cartouche common to the period. The more impressive cartouche is in the bottom left corner. This strap-work frame, with two birds perched on top, separates the rest of the map from a scene depicting Brazilian natives brewing cauim, an alcoholic beverage made from manioc root. The manioc is boiled, then women—here it says virgins—chew the root because enzymes in the saliva will help the mixture to convert from starch to fermentable sugars. The mixture is then boiled again and left to ferment in pots. The pictures should be read from right to left, as women made the drink and men consumed it.
There is a wealth of cartographic detail included on this map, which was supposed to be the definitive map of the continent when it was first published. The map shows a more accurate west coast of South America than its Mercator predecessor. Hondius considerably narrows the continent as well. Several large lakes feature in the interior. The largest is a long, thin horizontal lake in Guiana, a reference to Lake Parime.
To the south, the Strait of Magellan separates South America from a huge southern continent which extends east as well as west, snaking behind the cartouche.
Farther west, various islands dot the Pacific, or South Sea, including Tuberones (Shark Island) and S. Petro (St. Peter’s Island), which Magellan had called the Unfortunate Islands. New Guinea just peeks out of the left frame of the map.
North America retains its wide projection, especially to the north. The east coast includes a bizarre projection of Virginia—it is shown as a blockish peninsula stretching far east into the Atlantic Ocean. To the northwest, the coastline extends nearly due west, split from Asia only by the much-hyped Strait of Anian.
Hondius includes “Quivira Regnum” near “Anian Regn.” Quivira refers to the Seven Cities of Gold sought by the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in 1541. In 1539, Coronado wandered over what today is Arizona and New Mexico, eventually heading to what is now Kansas to find the supposedly rich city of Quivira. Although he never found the cities or the gold, the name stuck on maps of southwest North America, wandering from east to west. Here it is used to describe the entire southwest of the North America.
