![]() It must be understood that, at this time, except in progressive Protestant countries like Holland, it was absolutely forbidden to discuss topics not approved by the Church, under pain of death, in some instances. He would have met the great but disparate minds of Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau and debated with them the merits of their ideas. He, along with Baron d’Holbach at whose house the core group met for many years, worked along and discussed passionately their various areas of interests, all free from the supervision of the Catholic Church. He soon became part of a unique intellectual group called Les Philosophes – not so much philosophers as experts at the cutting edge of all the arts and sciences. ![]() He was prodigiously clever and talented and at the age of 18 was appointed chief cartographer to the French Navy. Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703 – 21 March 1772) was a geographer and hydrographer. ![]() We will return to that sad story shortly but first I want to introduce you to a great French cartographer, Nicholas Bellin, who produced beautiful and most elegant maps of the eastern parts of New France. The previous post ended with a brief account of the conquest of Louisbourg and Port la Joye by the British North Americans in 1745.
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