This is the definitive English language compilation of the most significant spanish documents relating the first years of the conquest of the Caribbean and Tierra Firme. A tragic account given to us first hand by the chroniclers and put into context by Carl Sauer, one of the experts on the topic. An anthological book.

I purchased this book for my niece's daughter in the 1980's. Now that I have a daughter of my own, I have been trying to find a copy of this book. This is by far and away the best intro. that I have seen to America before the white man for children. It covers every corner of North America and discusses the life styles of the peoples who lived there before European culture came. It is beautifully integrated into the actual geography of the places described and discussed, with a very real sense of the nature of the locales of North America, executed by one of America's best natural and anthropological historians, Carl Sauer. It is a tragedy that it is currently out of print. Hopefully soon someone will pick it up and reprint it.