This map is said to be based on the De Soto map.

Geronimo Chavez was the son of Alonso de Chavez, a topographical engineer who worked in Mexico and also as a pilot and cosmographer to Charles V of Spain. Geronimo drew this manuscript map, probably after 1560. He succeeded Sebastian Cabot as "Piloto Mayor de la Casa de la Contratacion" the repository of Spain's secret maps of their explorations and conquests.

The map was published in 1584 as a copper engraving by Ortelius in his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum 1584-1612 on a sheet with maps of Peru and east Central Mexico.

This can be called the first published map of Florida because the Le Moyne map of Florida was drawn in 1564 but not published until 1591 by De Bry.