This book is a new edition of the most beautifully written history of the Caribbean from the European discovery through the nineteenth century. Commonweal wrote of the 1946 edition, "Arciniegas has written a most informative and entertaining book...the student of political and social morals will find in it much to ponder." The New Republic concurred, writing, "Senor Arciniegas has a flair for bits of colorful detail and the kind of gossip which makes history come alive. Not the least of the book's virtues are a series of thumbnail biographies of such figures as Amerigo Vespucci, Raleigh, Toussaint, Miranda, Lafitte, William Walker and de Lessep." This edition also features an introduction by Norman Arciniegas.