[Early folding promotial fan with map of Martin La Bastide and his project to join the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.]

The fan is decorated on one side with an engraved map showing Central America and Lake Nicaragua. In the upper part is a long text on the work of Martin La Bastide and his project to join the Pacific Ocean, Lake Nicaragua and the Atlantic Ocean to facilitate trade. The text begins with "Deputies la découverte de l'Amérique, les Européens n'ont pas cessé d'entreprendre des navigations périlleuses…" (Since the discovery of America, the Europeans have not ceased to undertake perilous navigation...)".
On the left, Mercury and the four parts of the world. On the right, the King of Spain and the Fame.

VERSO: Map of North America, North Pole and Bering Strait. The author claims to have done so according to the observations of navigators Cook, Dixon, Perouse, LeMaire, Vancouver, Makensie and Fidler, stating that France "ignore encore quel est et quel a été le sort de M. de La Pérouse" (France still does not know what is and what was the fate of M. de La Perouse").

The French engineer Martin La Bastide had submitted to the Spanish King Carlos IV the visionary project, before the Panama Canal, of a communication channel between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.
After a memoir published in 1791, two sheets identical to this fan were deposited in the legal deposit of the National Library of France in 1803 (year XII), and annotated by the author.
By 1800, several cartographic printed hand fans were issued, showing maps of America and focusing on Central America. They were issued by Jean-Baptiste Martin de La Bastide, who wanted to promote by this way his project of a canal collecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Lake of Nicaragua.
Cartographic, geographical or topographical hand fans, with plans or maps on their leaves, have long been known in Asia and since the end of the 19th century in the West. They are rare, and in Europe very rare in earlier periods.