This rare Spanish chart is part of a group of five maps which together present the West coast of India. Although the Spanish hydrographic office had been officially inaugurated in 1797, and had expanded its influence throughout the nineteenth century by setting up international stations, the cartographic and hydrographic information for this map is taken from the British Admiralty charts of the region. During this period, the Spanish navy had had little influence and few interests in the area, and there are no records of any original surveying projects taking place in the Indian Ocean. It was nonetheless important for Spanish sailors to have access to accurate information about the routes they sailed, and charts such as this provided a helpful indication of dangerous rocks, currents, relief and the seabed.

It is the fourth sheet, dominated by stretches of ocean, but nonetheless showing the area of India that stretches from Cochin to Comorin, as well as the Maldive Islands appearing out of the lower border. Along the Indian coast, lighthouses are represented by a yellow circle, both the mainland and the islands are annotated with the names of numerous cities and ports, and the larger channels that run between the many islands are identified. It is also set on a grid with longitude and latitude identified in the margins, and contains a reduction table from metres to fathoms and feet. We have been able to trace only one institutional example of this map, and there is no record of one appearing on the market.