John M. Miller
In 1747, Emanuel Bowen, Geographer to His Majesty King George II. published A Complete System of Geography, a sprawling attempt to record 'Whatever is Curious and Remarkable in the Works of Art or Nature' across the known world. Buried within its pages are extraordinary early accounts of Britain’s, France’s, and Spain’s colonies in America their settlements and resources, their native peoples and rivalries written at the height of the three empires’ contest for the continent. Especially, notable are Bowen’s unusually detailed notations on indigenous peoples and a richly detailed account of whaling as a major economic activity of the colonies. Gathered here for the first time, these accounts offer a rare, unfiltered look at how the colonial powers saw their possessions in America, and each other, nearly three decades before those colonies became a nation.This edition comes from the library of John M. Miller, who found Bowen’s volume-its maps long since removed for fifteen dollars in a secondhand Wisconsin bookshop as a young man. It became one treasure among thousands in a collection built over five decades. Presented now with Miller’s introduction and notes, 1747 restores a forgotten corner of that collection to readers curious about how the world once looked at America, and how America once looked at the world.
