The map shows the route taken by the English explorer Martin Frobisher when he was trying to find a north-west passage to China. Iceland is only a small part of the map and rather unsightly. Place-names are few and Iceland is given two names, Yslandia and Frisland. On some maps Frisland had for a long time been the name of an island south of the country but now it has been put on Iceland since many thought it was Iceland's double.
The map appeared for the first time in a large collection of travel stories published by Pieter van der Aa in the beginning of the 18th century.