Cartographers were actually failed portrait artists, who had to make a living embellishing their maps with intricate designs.

Cartographers were hired by explorers to embellish the riches in the lands they discovered, so that the king would pay them more for their mission.

Cartographers needed to fill in the white spaces in their maps that represented territory left undiscovered or uncharted, so they chose to draw the details of the lands based on explorer’s testimony.

Cartographers wanted their maps to be framed and hung up, not used for navigation.