Mapping the New World was often shrouded in secrecy due to the competitive nature of ‘discovering’ and claiming new territories between the various empires. Details of new and opportune territories often remained undisclosed. Many early maps of North America, for example, reveal substantial empty spaces in the North-Western areas.
This also had a significant effect on the representation of Native American tribes. Unlike the more familiar, detailed maps of Europe, maps of the American colonies often excluded Native American details, histories, names, and features.
See, for example how these areas, depicted on Terrason’s Map of the North America in 1720, and the 1756 map of The British and French Dominions in North America held by Yale University Library, are lacking in local topographical, cultural and historical detail. A similar lacunae is evident in de Wit’s map of America.