By... Thomas Y. Crowell Company. New York. 1964.

De 23,5x15,5 cm. Com xlvii, [iii], 312, [i] págs. Encadernação em tela com ferros a ouro na lombada e na pasta anterior e sobrecapa de proteção, corte das folhas pintado a castanho à cabeça e folhas de guarda ilustradas com o famoso mapa "Orbis Terrarum of Petrus Plancius, who shared Jan´s dream of the Northeast Passage (1594)".

Ilustrado em extratexto sobre papel couché com 27 gravuras a preto e branco e no texto com vinhetas alusivas à náutica e navegações marítimas (embarcações, instrumentos de navegação, etc.).

Exemplar contém dedicatória de oferta do autor onde se pode ler: "A sua Excelência Almirante Fernando Quintanilha Mendonça Dias, Ministro da Marinha. Charles Mckew Parr. Chester, Connecticut, U.S.A. September 8, 1964. Um dos meus principais objectivos ao escrever esta história da Ásia Portuguesa, foi refutar a injusta animad[?] versão de Linschoten acêrca do valor dos estadistas portugueses, a administração das suas colónias, no século XVI. Charles Mckew Parr.", manchas de humidade e picos de acidez na sobrecapa e no recorte das folhas.

Contém no interior dois folhetos publicitários acerca de outra obra do autor, "Ferdinand Magellan, Circumnavegator. His Life and Explorations", onde estão incluídas várias "Reviews" da mesma obra de vários meios de comunicação internacionais.

Das badanas da sobrecapa, "For almost a century after our own continent was discovered, the Spanish and Portuguese remained the dominant colonial and sea powers of the world. However, in 1579 a very young man named Jan sailed from the Netherlands to seek his fortune with little but a notebook in his pocket (...) The author, following Jan´s writings and supplementing them with his own reasearch and wide knowledge, describes the numerous hazards of Jan´s sea voyages, from shipwreck, pirate attack, and mutiny, to the unimaginable filth and disease that beset crew and passagengers on the long passage to India in the annual pepper fleet (...) Like Marco Polo, Jan not only adventured in the fabled East, but he pusblished a book about it when he returned. Charles Mckew Parr, with enormous understanding of the age of exploration and its underlying economic drives, relates the history of Jan´s life and times with verve and authority."

Da breve biografia sobre o autor presente nas folhas finais, "Charles Mckew Parr brings to the writing of history and biography an un-usual backgroung, for he has been a successful business man and politician as well as a student and scholar (...) He was born in Baltimore in 1884 of a family that settled in Maryland in Lord Baltimore´s day. He attended Boy´s Latin School and then went to West Point. But deafness disqualified him for military life, and he entered upon a business career which has taken him all over the world."