When the New World was discovered by Europeans in the late fifteenth century, Spain claimed it, tolerating no interlopers. The pope made it official. This book is about the English response. Denied peaceful trade with the Spanish Indies, the English took to plundering Spanish settlements and treasure ships, and to worldwide exploration to find places open to English settlement. Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe in his search for plunder and financial prospects. Later Thomas Cavendish did the same. Also covered are Welsh and Cornish pirates who preyed on ships in the English and Bristol channels, and early trading companies, such as the East India Company.

There is bias in this book, English pride in the "daring and enterprise" that transformed "England into the foremost maritime power." English crimes are acknowledged, but the author concludes that the sea dogs "wrote a glorious chapter in England's history."

This book is too detailed to interest a general audience, but is recommended to anyone interested in piracy, in early exploration, in Elizabethan England, or in the origins of the British Empire. It draws on Spanish archival records, narratives from the Hakluyt Society, Admiralty records in London, and other primary sources. Illustrated and indexed, with bibliography. Some illustrations are in full color. ( )