Regional map of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India, illustrating the report of Nuno da Cunha.

Da Cunha was the son of the famous Portuguese navigator, admiral and ambassador to Pope Leo X, Tristão da Cunha, and Tristão's wife Antónia Pais. Nuno da Cunha participated in the battles at Oja and Brava, and at the capture of Panane, under the viceroy Francisco de Almeida. Named by João III ninth governor of Portuguese possessions in India, he served from April 1528 to 1538. In 1529, Nuno sent an expedition that sacked and burned the city of Damão on the Arabian Sea at the mouth of the Damão River, about 100 miles north of Mumbai in the Muslim state of Gujarat. Forces under his control captured Baxay (now Vasai, often mistaken for Basra in Iraq) from the Muslim ruler of Gujarat, Bahadur Shah, on January 20, 1533. The next year, renamed Bassein, the city became the capital of the Portuguese province of the North, and the great citadel of black basalt, still standing, was begun. (It was completed in 1548). Forced to return to Portugal as a result of court intrigues, he was shipwrecked at the Cape of Good Hope and drowned. Includes a decorative cartouche and vignette. From Vander Aa's Dutch Translation. Striking full color example with wide margins.

Pieter van der Aa (1659-1733) was a Dutch mapmaker and publisher who printed pirated editions of foreign bestsellers and illustrated books but is best known for his voluminous output of maps and atlases. Van der Aa was born to a German stonecutter from Holstein. Interestingly, all three van der Aa sons came to be involved in the printing business. Hildebrand was a copper engraver and Boudewyn was a printer.