De Wit's comprehensive map of southern Asia clearly shows the extent of the Dutch East India Company (VOC)'s power in the region in the mid- seventeenth century and hints at the results of Tasman's second expedition of 1644. "The Republic's eastern trading domain is tangible here, with a fleet powering across the Indian Ocean, and its ships and ports in evidence from India to Japan. The map gives the impression of dominion over many nations, though in truth the Dutch 'empire' was less territorial than formalistic, a coastal network of strongholds backed by naval power and treaties that held little sway over interior lands" (Woods).

This map extends from Persia in the west to China and Taiwan in the east, and shows northern "Hollandia Nova", bearing three significant place names: "Van Diemens Landt"; "Baya van Diemen" and "Vuyle hoeck" (the last a disparaging term meaning something like "rotten corner" and evidently relating to the inhospitable coastline). These were among the names given to places on the north coast of Australia by Tasman during his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of VOC.

The mapmaker
Frederick de Wit (c1630-1706) moved to Amsterdam in 1648 and studied under Willem Janszoon Blaeu, and by 1654 he began his own business. He was already a well-established cartographic artist, engraving a plan of Haarlem around 1648 and providing city views for Antonius Sanderus's 'Flandria Illustrata'. He issued his own map of the world, 'Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Tabula', as both a wall map and a folio in 1660. Two years later, he began to print atlases, which developed from small compositions mainly compiled of prints from bought stock to larger productions containing his own work. By the 1770s, de Wit was making atlases of over one hundred and fifty maps. After marrying Maria van der Way, a native of Amsterdam, de Wit was granted the privileges of a citizen, and became a member of the city's guild of St Luke in 1664. He published a lavish maritime atlas in 1675, 'Orbis Maritimus ofte Zee Atlas', known for its elaborate decoration. In 1695, he published a book of city views of the Netherlands, 'Perfekte aftekeningen der steden van de XVII Nederlandsche provincien'; the plates were later bought by the Blaeu family and reused for their town books. After de Wit died his widow Maria continued the business until 1710. His son was a successful stockfish merchant and so did not follow his father into cartography.