Description

A detailed colour manuscript map shows the fortification on the Spanish island Peñón de Alhucemas, off the Moroccan coast. The island belonged to Spain since 1560.
Marked are the main points of the fortification. The text also notes, the distance between the African coast and the south-west point of the island is equivalent to the distance of the firing of the cannonball.

Not much is known about the author of the map, Philip Ernst Colson (prob. 1746 – 1821). He was a probably a military engineer active mostly around Münster.
Between 1773-1777 he made a large manuscript wall map Karte vom Amt Meppen

(https://www.arcinsys.niedersachsen.de/arcinsys/detailAction.action?detailid=v411679).

Colson is also signed as an author of map of the Ems river from circa 1775 (http://dfg-viewer.de/show/?tx_dlf[id]=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.landesarchiv-nrw.de%2Fdigitalisate%2FAbt_Westfalen%2FKartensammlung_A%2F~093%2F09370%2Fmets.xml), kept in the Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen.

In 1782 and in 1785, Colson is mentioned as a lieutenant in Münster, and later as a major.

References: Dokumente zur ostfriesischen Geschichte (1284-1900): Archivalienausstellung des Niedersächischen Staatsarchivs in Aurich. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1968, p. 17; Landeskundliche Karten und Hefte der Geographischen Kommission für Westfalen: Reihe Siedlung und Landschaft in Westfalen, Ausgaben 10-13; 1977, p. 35; Adreß-Calender des Hochstifts Münster, 1782, p. 136; Hof- und Adreß-Calender des Hochstifts Münster, 1785, p. 136); Westfälische Zeitschrift: Zeitschrift für vaterländische Geschichte und Altertumskunde, Bände 141-142, 1991, p. 228.