The West Indies has captured the English imagination since the beginning of the sixteenth century. Though initially claimed by Spain, the English, French and Dutch were also keen to exploit the islands and their wealth. The Caribbean held both enormous potential and serious danger. Pirates, drawn by the possibility of riches, operated in the region, disease and disaster were rife and the Spanish were prepared to defend their colonies by force. In spite of such obstacles England established plantations on a number of Caribbean islands in the 1620s, before Oliver Cromwell began an ambitious military campaign to take the islands in 1655. England's Caribbean colonies became the most profitable of her New World empire. Merchants and settlers arrived and bought land, they set up plantations, they traded in sugar and slaves. This four-volume collection brings together rare pamphlets from the formative years of the English involvement in the Caribbean. Through these writings the Caribbean became known and discussed in the drawing rooms and coffee-houses of England.0Organized thematically, texts cover first impressions of the region, rivalries between European traders and settlers, labour, governance, religion, natural history and the experience of everyday life in the colonies. It will be of interest to those researching the early Caribbean, empire and colonization, Atlantic studies, maritime history, piracy and the history of slavery.