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.