An unusual eighteenth‐century Gujarati manuscript (St John's College, Oxford, MS 254 (45)) that includes a grid‐line map of Gujarat, sailing directions and a list of Indian Ocean ports throws light on the history of Indian cartography and navigation. The manuscript, which is bound into the scrapbook of an eighteenth‐century English clergyman, is examined in detail and compared with other maps and charts originating in Gujarat. The map suggests that nautical cartography in western India may have benefited from the exchange of technical information that prevailed among mariners of the Indian ocean.