By 1540, piracy, with some encouragement from the English and French governments, was thriving in the Caribbean. Much has been written about the pirates who infested that bubbling cauldron, but very little about the hardiest of them all: the ones who crossed the jungles of Central America and sailed through the perilous Straits of Magellan or around Cape Horn to sack the ports of New Spain and capture the Spanish galleons loaded with riches. At least twenty-five expeditions of foreigners reached the Pacific shores of Central America or Mexico during the period covered by Peter Gerhard?s book?from 1575, when John Oxenham left England for those waters, to 1742, when Commodore George Anson sailed against the Spanish fleet in the War of Jenkins? Ear. Pirates of the Pacific brings to life Francis Drake and less civilized English privateers and smugglers, sea-roving Dutchmen like Black Anthony, buccaneers like Henry Morgan, and unnamed but no less vigorous pirates who suffered all manner of hardship for riches and generally died young and poor.

Originally published as The pirates of the west coast of New Spain, 1575-1742 by A.H. Clark Co. in 1960. Unchanged but for the durable paper on which this Bison Books edition is printed. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Captivating, well-documented study focuses on piracy among Spain's Pacific coast colonies, ranging from Panama to points north. Colorful narrative traces exploits of Elizabethan pirates, Dutch raiders, mercenary buccaneers, and English privateers and smugglers.

This is a survey of the voyages of English navigators, from the pioneers of the late 15th century to the scientific expeditions of the early 19th century, not only in South American waters, but also the Caribbean and North America.

This title offers an incisive look at how interpretations of the Atlantic world have changed over time and from a variety of national perspectives. This volume discusses key areas of the Atlantic world, including the British, Dutch, French, Iberian, and African Atlantic, as well as the movement of ideas, peoples, and goods.

Mexico's post-independence instability is usually seen as leading to economic stagnation as well as unproductive politics. As this book shows commerce continued and expanded on the West Coast, but because of political difficulties much of the trade was conducted as contraband. The very scale of the business belies the impression that Mexico was, in economic terms, standing still. On the West Coast, the availability of silver, both for export and to pay for imports, led to the organization of an expanding import-export trade that persisted throughout the period here considered, despite unpredictable economic policies and consistent political turbulence. The region became part of the expanding global economy of the first half of the nineteenth century, and, when circumstances permitted, the entrepreneurs who organized the trade made tentative steps toward moving beyond commerce to manufacturing. Times were never easy but neither were they static.

The work and ministries of the Roman Catholic friars who gave their lives, both as martyrs for the cause of their church and in years of hard and often thankless labor, are the inspiration and basis for Missionary Practices and Spanish Steel, a theological and practical narrative that seeks to remember and understand their accomplishments in Christian mission. Missionary and theologian Andrew L. Toth investigates the roots of Christian mission as it developed into the field of Christian missiology in the chaotic, terrible, and incredibly diverse three-hundred-year Spanish conquest of North America indigenous nations. Through his research Toth shows that, in the great majority of the cases studied, the friars accomplished their goals to transform these native cultures into their own Spanish culture to account them as Roman Catholic Christians. This study us more than just a history of the friars' missionary movement. Toth not only explores how Spanish Catholic missionaries approached their work, but also asks to what extent their approach conformed to a particular theological perspective. Toth rounds out his argument by speculating on what the friars can teach us about the role of missionaries today. Comprehensive and thought-provoking, Missionary Practices and Spanish Steel offers a new perspective on the current missionary movement by looking through the lens of the past.

Historia de los piratas ingleses y holandeses en la costa oeste de Nueva España, 1575-1742. Incluye índice. Texto en inglés.

Essential single-volume history of the Pacific region and the global interactions which define it.

Study of selected pirate novels of the 19th century which illustrates the relationship between varied images of pirates and the different political projects of the authors, and the use of pirates as emblems of the struggle of Spanish America to transform