The map 'Indiae Orientalis Insularumque Adiacentium Typus' by Ortelius is a 'milestone' map in the cartography of Southeast Asia and the East Indian Islands.
Gebe island, where the French obtained the first clove and nutmeg seedlings they smuggled out in the eighteenth century and which currently contains one of Indonesia's largest nickel mines, is correctly located on the equator between Gilolo and New Guinea. Buru island is located correctly to the west of the main Ambon island, now called Seram, and although the 'Bird's Head' part of New Guinea (Irian Jaya) is shown as three islands, the outline of the coasts, particularly the north coast, strongly suggests that Ortelius based his information on actual charts of the coasts. On the other hand, the clove-producing islands of Ternate, Tidore and their neighbours to the south, Machian and Bacam, are correctly located to the west of the easily identifiable island of Gilolo (Halmahera) with its four distinctive peninsulas. Borneo is mapped in the place of the fictitious 'Java Minor' that frequently appeared at that latitude on the 'modern' Ptolemaic maps of the region, although only the part of Borneo north of the equator is shown to the west of a barely recognizable Celebes (Sulawesi), where no hint is given of the very distinctive peninsula geography of the island. Java is shown as an island but with a greatly inflated shape and no topographical information along the south coast, separated from Beach, a presumed promontory on the southern or 'fifth' continent.
Sumatra and Java are shown heavily distorted in shape together with the principal spice islands, but the emergent shape of Borneo and the Philippines is apparent as well as the general configuration of the East Indian archipelago. The map extends from Portuguese India in the west, through China, Japan, Southeast Asia and the East Indies (Indonesian archipelago), including New Guinea, to the Northwest coast of America. "This map represents a synthesis of the best readily available information on Southeast Asia and the East Indian Islands from Italian, Portuguese and Spanish sources.
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