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A series of four maps of the Indian Ocean—one for each quarter of the calendar year—showing the direction and intensity of the winds, including around the seas of Southeast Asia. There are extensive explanatory notes.

Colonial possessions of the Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese, as well as lands of ‘indigenous princes’ are marked with coloured borders on this map of maritime Southeast Asia. Hot springs and mineral water springs in Java are also listed.

In the 18th century, European maps tended to use their own country’s meridian, so on this French map of Southeast Asia longitude is measured from the Paris Meridian. Eleven different scales are also shown.

The arrows on this map show the direction of the seasonal monsoons of Southeast Asia during the late 18th century. Each arrow has a label in French, indicating the month. The hatched sea areas are where the winds always blow in the same direction.

Map marking the routes through maritime Southeast Asia of two delegations: a French delegation from Brest, France to Siam in 1685; and a Siamese delegation from Siam to Brest in 1686. A note next to Aceh records a sea battle against Portugal in 1616.

The islands on this map were central to conflicts between the European powers over the valuable spice trade of the Maluku or ‘Spice’ Islands. A sea battle between European ships is shown, and there are military forts marked in red on the islands.

French text on the reverse of this map of the eastern Sunda Islands describes the city of Macassar (modern Makassar) on Celebes (Sulawesi, Indonesia). Details include the city’s port, trade and crops, as well as its people and religion.