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Hand-drawn and coloured plan of the fortifications at Batavia (Jakarta, Java) including the castle, city walls, and moat and canal system. An inset map features four more of the city’s fortifications. This is a copy of an original 1788 map.

Shipping routes are the focus of this map of the Dutch East Indies, indicated by red lines labelled with the name of the shipping company and the destinations. Parcel shipping routes are also shown. Inset maps feature railway lines too.

Two maps of the Dutch East Indies, decorated with drawings of local people and animals. Dutch colonial territory and local sultanates and provinces are highlighted. The heights of Java’s mountains and settlements are displayed in an elevation view.

Hachures—short lines/dashes that give a sense of the shape and steepness of terrain—are used to show the mountains of Sumatra’s west coast, and of the Padang Highlands and Lowlands. Text lists the heights of some of the region’s chief mountains.

A late 18th century map of Asia published in London by John Bowles, with regions indicated by colour. Central Borneo is labelled ‘Part inhabited by the Biayos’, which is seen on many contemporary maps, often with the comment ‘a savage people’.

The arrows on this map mark the direction of the seasonal monsoons experienced in the South China Sea and Philippine Sea during the late 18th century. Each arrow has a label indicating the month.

This 18th century map of Southeast Asia by the French cartographer Gilles Robert de Vaugondy features the national borders of the Philippines in green, and of modern Indonesia in yellow. The Malay Peninsula and modern Cambodia and Vietnam are in red.

This 18th century map of Southeast Asia by the French cartographer Gilles Robert de Vaugondy features the national borders of the Philippines in green, and of modern Indonesia in yellow. The Malay Peninsula and modern Cambodia and Vietnam are in red.

This elaborately illustrated map of Asia is decorated with images of angels and cherubs, various figures dressed in colourful robes, wild animals, a procession including elephants and camels, and a double hemisphere world map.

This 18th century map of Southeast Asia by the French cartographer Gilles Robert de Vaugondy features the national borders of the Philippines in green, and of modern Indonesia in yellow. The Malay Peninsula and modern Cambodia and Vietnam are in red.

A mid-18th century map of the Philippines archipelago, with an inset plan of the city of Manila and Pasig River. The cartouche features a drawing of an Asian and a Western man taking part in a cockfight, with a crocodile in the foreground.

Map of the Meinam (Chao Phraya) river from the city of Judia (Ayutthaya) to its mouth near Bangkok. Features temples, villages, a Bishop's Palace, a fort at Bangkok, and a ‘Champ des Eléphans [Elephant Field]’. The text is in French and Dutch.