Including an exceptionally early use of the term "South Continent", applied to the great southern landmass traditionally known as Terra Australis. In discussing the distribution of religions throughout the world, Brerewood considers the population of the still largely unknown southern lands: "But if the South or Antarctique continent, be so large, as I am verily perswaded it is (even no lesse, than that of the East before mentioned, which containeth Europe, Afrique, and Asia together)…". He seeks to identify the parts of the world inhabited by Christians and those in which "idolaters" flourish, leading him into extended speculation on the extent and population of the "Great South Continent". There are digressions on the height of mountains, the depth of the sea, and the dimensions of whales and elephants, together with numerous observations on America, including reports of the religious practices encountered by Spanish and Portuguese explorers, a reference to converts "above the Bay of California, of whom as yet, histories make so little report, that of their number I can make no estimate", and an attempt to establish that the indigenous Americans were descended from Tartar stock.

Including an exceptionally early use of the term "South Continent", applied to the great southern landmass traditionally known as Terra Australis. In discussing the distribution of religions throughout the world, Brerewood considers the population of the still largely unknown southern lands: "But if the South or Antarctique continent, be so large, as I am verily perswaded it is (even no lesse, than that of the East before mentioned, which containeth Europe, Afrique, and Asia together)…". He seeks to identify the parts of the world inhabited by Christians and those in which "idolaters" flourish, leading him into extended speculation on the extent and population of the "Great South Continent". There are digressions on the height of mountains, the depth of the sea, and the dimensions of whales and elephants, together with numerous observations on America, including reports of the religious practices encountered by Spanish and Portuguese explorers, a reference to converts "above the Bay of California, of whom as yet, histories make so little report, that of their number I can make no estimate", and an attempt to establish that the indigenous Americans were descended from Tartar stock.

Of particular interest is Brerewood's extended discussion of "Beach", the supposed Australia of Marco Polo, described here as part of the "southern continent not yet discovered". "Beach" was an old geographical error, perpetuated by Mercator and ultimately deriving from a misprint of "Locach" in the 1532 edition of Grynaeus. Brerewood argues that, if the southern continent is as extensive as he believes, its inhabitants must greatly increase the proportion of "idolaters" in the world: "But if the South or Antarctique continent, be so large, as I am verily perswaded it is (even no lesse, than that of the East before mentioned, which containeth Europe, Afrique, and Asia together) then will the Idolaters be found to surpasse all the other religions, in exceeding great proportion…" He supports this assumption by reference to the inhabitants of "Beach", "over against Java", and to the peoples inhabiting those parts of the other continents nearest to the southern land. The discussion is followed by a substantial consideration of the supposed size of the southern continent, including arguments concerning antipodal weights and the physical distribution of land upon the globe.

This is the rare first edition (a second edition appeared some eight years later) of a work of particular interest for the history of the idea and terminology of the Southern Continent. Brerewood's "South Continent" is a very early English use of a term that was to become increasingly familiar during the seventeenth century, alongside the older Terra Australis. The distinction is significant: the idea of a great southern landmass had been inherited from classical and Renaissance cosmography, often justified by arguments concerning the balance or counterpoise of the globe, but Brerewood gives it a distinctly English name. The term "Southern Continent" appears more prominently later in the century; an early example is Peter Heylyn's Cosmographie, first published in 1652, whose appendix was entitled "An Appendix to the Former Work, endeavouring a discovery of the unknown parts of the World: especially of Terra Australis Incognita, or the Southern Continent".

Brerewood's book is here bound with another work by him, De Ponderibus, et Pretiis Veterum Nummorum (also London, 1614), a treatise on the weights and values of Greek, Roman, and other ancient coins. Other copies have likewise been described with the two works bound together.