As Tsao Yung-ho points out, maps of the day were largely compiled from collections of missionary reports, travel notes, and navigational charts, so that although short on accuracy, they can tell us much about what the Europeans knew of Taiwan.
曹永和表示，這個時期的地圖多根據航海記錄、遊記或傳教士的報告等摻雜融合繪成，雖不精確，卻可以看出當時歐洲人對台灣的認識程度。