The Macclesfield copy of the very rare English language edition, translated from the Dutch by William Phillip (fl. 1596-1619) extra-illustrated with engraved plates from the Dutch edition of 1649, and added soon after, as witnessed by the early manuscript index on the front free endpaper.

Jacob Le Maire and Cornelis' Schouten, his second in command, left Texel in June 1615 on a mission to find a new route to reach the Spice Islands which would circumvent the trade monopoly of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) through the Strait of Magellan. In this they ultimately succeeded by rounding the southernmost tip of South America, south of Tierra del Fuego; simultaneously dispelling the myth that a great southern continent was joined to South America. The new cape was named Horn (or Hoorn) after Shouten's ship which had been destroyed by fire in Port Desire, Patagonia.

Continuing across the Pacific, Le Maire and Schouten discovered numerous islands, sailed up the northern coast of New Guinea, reaching Ternate in the Moluccas, the headquarters of the VOC, in September 1616. Their return was initially greeted with celebration, but the pair were soon accused of having encroached on the rights of the VOC, were tried, found guilty, and shipped home on Spilbergen's ship which was completing its own voyage around the world. Le Maire died on the way, and his journals were confiscated by the VOC. Schouten and Spibergen published an abbreviated version of the voyage, and it was not until 1622, after a long trial, that Isaac Le Maire was able to regain custody of his son's journals and to publish them in full.

Schouten's work was hugely popular and went into seventeen Dutch, one Latin, one German, and five French editions in addition to this English edition with the translation by William Phillip. The extra plates here are extracted from one of the Dutch editions, appearing to agree with those from the 1649 edition. They include a double-page double-hemisphere map of the world, a folding chart of the Pacific, a view of the Strait of Magellan with sailors hunting seals, four of rather tragic skirmishes at sea between the Dutch and the native Americans, including offshore of the "Cocos" islands, and another off Hope Island, and one on land. The copy in the John Carter Brown Library is also extra-illustrated, albeit with the three maps and six plates that appeared in the earlier Dutch editions.

Rare: no other examples appearing in commerce since this one, Bois Penrose's, and T.W.Streeter's were all offered in 2007.