Map from "A Topographical Description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina..." also by Hutchins. French title: "Description topographique de la Virginie, de la Pensylvanie, du Maryland et de la Caroline Septentrionale : contenant les rivières d'Ohio, Kenhawa, Sioto, Cherokée, Wabash, des Illinois, du Mississippi..." Published in Paris: Le Rouge, 1781.
Collot’s maps of Louisiana were made in 1796 and were most likely planned for military intrigues and colonial conquest, but the work transcended its purpose in thoroughly documenting the earliest settlements of the Illinois Country. These plans were the most detailed to their time.
In the time of the flatboats and the coming of the first steamboats documented so well through the early American navigational river guides, maps clearly indicated a future problem for St. Louis and its highly praised river harbor—the city was essentially on a peninsula which could become a remote island due to floods and other naturally occurring circumstances over time. The many islands and sand bars in the river were alarming testament in early maps.