Nice example of the rare first state of Sayer & Bennett's Broadside Map and Account of the War in North America, one of the first widely distributed news accounts of the American Revolution in Great Britain.

Following a brief peace attempt between England and the Colonies in 1775, the American Revolution commenced in earnest in the winter of 1775. Sayer & Bennett's Theatre of War in North America . . . and the accompanying Compendious Account . . is one of the earliest contemporary printed accounts of the Revolutionary War available to the British populous, the first printing coming in March 1776, even as the British were evacuating Boston.

The purpose of the map and broadside was to give the British public an overview of the colonies in which the conflict was developing. The map occupies the upper portion, with the colonies described in the letterpress below. Inset on the map is a table of the distances which must have been enlightening to the English who imagined the colonies to be much smaller and close together. In addition, a population chart lists Virginia and Maryland's population of "Men (White and Black) able to bear Arms" at 180,000. On Virginia the publishers note that the colony "seems unrivaled throughout the universe for convenience of inland navigation; indeed, it has been observed, and with reason, that every planter here has a river at his door."

The Compendious Account . . . gives an historical and geographical account of the colonies. Nebenzahl (Catalogue 7:363, 1961) describes the map as a

fine, detailed map of the entire area east of Louisiana, after the famous Evans map. It is accompanied by Evans's table of distances between principal towns, forts and other places in the British colony. Below the copperplate there are three columns of text, including information about each colony.