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Map showing the route of François Pyrard de Laval on his voyage to Southeast Asia in 1601, which resulted in his shipwreck and 5 year captivity in the Maldives.

The map includes an enlarged inset of the Maldives and a portion of India.

On the far left, right on the maps border the coast of Brazil is shown. There are the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn along with the Equator between them, the first meridian is also portrayed. All major known kingdoms, countries, cities and rivers are named and located. The Atlantic is called the sea of Ethiopia and the Indian Ocean is called sea of the Indies.

Pirard or François Pirard de Laval (ca. 1578 - ca. 1623) was a French navigator who published an account of his adventures in the Maldives Islands from 1602 to 1607, which was part of a ten-year trip in South Asia. He is one of the first French navigators to explore the Indies.

On the 11th of May 1601 Pirard boarded the Corbin at the port of Saint-Malo in Brittany and along with the Croissant set sail for Asia. On the August 29, 1601, the voyage reaches the island of Annobon to resupply, before departing the island on October 16th. The Portuguese fire on the pair of ships, killing one and take five others hostage. On November 17, 1601, the expedition landed on Saint-Hélène for nine days. On the 18th of February 1602, after many storms, the two ships join up again in the Bay of St. Augustin, Madagascar. They stay for a couple months on the coast living in a little fort, where 41 crew members die of disease.

On the 15th of May the voyage sets sail again, on the 23rd of May the ships anchor and remain for fifteen days off the coast of the Comorian islands. On July 2nd large rock banks or reefs that surround the islands are sighted. On July 3,1602, the Corbin slams twice into the rocks and immediately crashes onto its side. The Croissant, warned of the danger by cannon fire, moves away and sets sail for Sumatra.

For the next five years, Pirard and his crew remain on the Maldives. On February 7, 1602, Bengalese pirates with sixteen ships raid the islands and take Pirard and 3 of his crew, traveling thereafter for Malicut. From there Pirard travels to Calicut then to Cochin where on the way the Portuguese throw them in a hole. From Cochin they travel to Goa. In Goa, Pirard is thrown in jail again then conscripted into the Militia, where he served for two years, employed in many expeditions and travels the Indies.

Pirard's expeditions are shown on the map by the lines going from India to South East Asia. When he gets back fromm these expeditions he is once again thrown in jail. On the 30th of January 1610, Pirard and three other Frenchmen leave India aboard a Portuguese ship, this is the line on the map called Route de Retour. They stop at the island of Diego-Rodriguez March 15th, then experience a storm and a revolt on board at Cape of Good Hope. Then the ship stops on June 15 at St-Helene. The ship goes off course and lands in August at Beaia de Todos los Santos, Brazil. From Brazil, Pirard boards a ship heading for Portugal and lands in Bayona, Spain on the 20th of January 1611. Form Spain he crosses from the Port of Corogne to La Rochelle. He arrives home in Laval on the 16th of February 1611.