While working as the secretary of the Portuguese archbishop of Goa, the map’s maker, Jan Huygen van Linschoten, managed to build up a database of various commercial and trading activities conducted by the Portuguese in Southeast Asia. This information, coupled with access to secret Portuguese seafaring information and trading routes, allow Linschoten to produce many accurate maps of Asia. This map is one of the earliest to depict Singapore as “Sincapura”.

Linschoten’s maps provided the Dutch, and subsequently the British and French, with safe sea routes and details of the spice trade, enabling them to venture East, ultimately breaking the Portuguese monopoly of Asian trade routes in the 17th century.