The story of the expeditions of Spanish explorers told through the history of the first American currency: pieces of eight.

This is a story about the lust for gold and treasure," Fine writes. In the 1600s and 1700s, Spain dominated the oceans with its fleet of galleons. Coming to the

This book should appeal to all aficionados of the romance of the sea as well as to specialists in Spanish and Latin American colonial history.--Benjamin Keen, a

During the middle decade of the 16th century a new type of sailing vessel emerged, designed to carry the wealth of the Americas to Spain. This was the galleon,

One hundred years before Columbus and his fellow Europeans began their voyages of discovery, fleets of giant junks commanded by the eunuch admiral Zheng He and