This map and the atlas it which it appeared were based on the important map by John Mitchell, one of the earliest English mapmakers to give an accurate representation of the Missouri and the central river system of the mid continent. Mitchell’s maps were influential for a century and, as seen here, were appreciated by an international following of mapmakers.
Hutchins accompanied expeditions to the Mississippi at the time of Pittman’s own travels into the Illinois Country as a young officer and produced his own accounts of these journeys with excellent maps which are among the earliest—if not the earliest—printed maps with St. Louis clearly identified in a location long known to some explorers, obscured or overlooked by others for one hundred years of mapping New France. Many of these descriptive narratives borrow heavily from Pittman, but his maps are crucial for the period he describes. Much later, Hutchins was an important surveyor for the territories of the young United States, rising to the post of Geographer to the United States, the first and only citizen ever to hold such a position., From: A topographical description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina / reprinted from the original ed. of 1778; ed. by Frederick Charles Hicks.
This is the most important description of old and new settlements along the Mississippi River Valley in English in the 18th century by a soldier who volunteered to bring new knowledge to the British command in North America concerning Louisiana, all readers having to the time of publication of this new book depended far too long on out of date sources. Pittman himself had noted that “Louisiana is no longer the same as in the time of Pere Hennepin, and all other authors that I have read on this subject rather abound with Indian stories and talks, than with useful information”. He was in St. Louis two years after its establishment and observed its progress directly. He mapped the region thoroughly for his government as Ross had done, to Fort Chartres., From: The present state of the European settlements on the Mississippi : with a geographical description of that river illustrated by plans and draughts / by Captain Philip Pittman.