One of a few maps of the period to show any trace of Francis Drake's voyage through Southeast Asia. "Huc Franciscus Dra. Appulit" appears beneath the sketched outline of the southern coast of Java, indicating a possible landing site during his circumnavigation of the globe in 1577-80.

Although the exact point at which Drake first made landfall in Asia is disputed, it is very likely that the island of Palau in Micronesia was the place. "From Micronesia he continued west to Mindanao, then sailed southeast in search of the Spiceries. He picked up two native fishermen in canoes in the sea somewhere northeast of Sulawesi, who guided him to the Moluccas. Leaving the Moluccas filled with spices and the precious spoils of earlier plunder in South America, Drake attempted to navigate the tricky waters leading to the clearer seas to the south, but ran aground on a steep reef off Sulawesi. Three tons of cloves, among other valuables, were dumped overboard to lessen their weight, but nothing seemed to help them from what appeared to be inescapable disaster until the strong winds reversed, freeing them from the reef " (Suarez).

Jodocus Hondius's map of the East Indies is one of thirty-seven new maps engraved for the 'Gerardi Mercatoris Atlas Sive Cosmographicae' in 1606, here from the French language edition published from 1609.

The mapmakers
Jodocus Hondius I (1563–1612) established the Hondius publishing house in Amsterdam, the center of cartographic production in the late sixteenth century. Between approximately 1584 to 1593 he lived and worked in London. Whilst there, he took a particular interest in Drake's voyages and the man himself, with several engravings of the explorer attributed to him.
The mapmaker

When Gerard Mercator (1512-1594) died he left the responsibility for completion of his 'Atlas' to his son Rumold. A number of maps still had to be engraved, and he employed various members of the Mercator family as engravers, including Gerard's grandsons Gerard and Michel. There was one further edition in 1602 before the plates were acquired by Jodocus Hondius I (1563–1612) in July of 1604. They were probably acquired in Leiden at the auction of Mercator's library, then in the possession of his grandson, Gerard Mercator, Jr.

Hondius built a successful publishing career from his own Mercator-Hondius atlas, issued as 'Gerardi Mercatoris Atlas Sive Cosmographicae', in 1606 with thirty-seven newly engraved maps, taking the total to one hundred and forty-four. A revised text was written by Petrus Montanus. In 1609 a French edition was published, with by now, one hundred and forty-seven maps.

After Jodocus Hondius I's death in 1612, his widow, Jodocus Hondius II and his brother, Henricus Hondius II (1597–1651), continued publishing atlases under his name until 1620. Unfortunately, in 1621 Jodocus Hondius II split with his brother, creating a rival publishing house. Henricus continued his father's business with his brother-in-law, Joannes Janssonius (1588–1664), who had married twenty-four-year-old Elizabeth Hondius in 1612. After 1619, the Atlas was published under the name of Henricus Hondius, Jodocus Hondius's son