Cap-Vert Peninsula, Senegal

Cap-Vert is the Senegal headland where Dakar now stands, a western projection of mainland Africa marked for sailors by the t...

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Cap-Vert is the Senegal headland where Dakar now stands, a western projection of mainland Africa marked for sailors by the twin hills of the Mamelles, and not to be confused with the Cape Verde islands offshore. Bellin's chart of 1746 maps its coast in detail, and Schley's edition followed in 1747. Paired profiles from both years show the headland from the sea, as a mariner needed to recognise it, and plates from the same travel accounts depict the dress of the local people and an African lion and camel under the old spelling Cap-Verd.

Cap-Vert is the Senegal headland where Dakar now stands, a western projection of mainland Africa marked for sailors by the twin hills of the Mamelles, and not to be confused with the Cape Verde islands offshore. Bellin's chart of 1746 maps its coast in detail, and Schley's edition followed in 1747. Paired profiles from both years show the headland from the sea, as a mariner needed to recognise it, and plates from the same travel accounts depict the dress of the local people and an African lion and camel under the old spelling Cap-Verd.

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