Philip P. Boucher is Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and author of France and the American Tropics to 1700: Tropics of Discontent? also published by Johns Hopkins.

A strong contribution to our understanding of the interplay not only between France and Britain in the struggle for the Antilles but also between the colonizers and the indigenous people fighting to maintain their independence from both European powers. American Historical Review Welcome evidence that historians are willing to rewrite the history of the colonial era in the Caribbean with a clearer eye to the part the indigenous population played. -- Peter Hulme William and Mary Quarterly Boucher's research is thorough and his contribution to the historiography of the Caribbean and of colonialism is valuable. -- Ethan Casey Magill Book Reviews An intelligent, well-informed discussion of French and English contacts with Island Caribs in the West Indies from the pre-colonial era until the end of the Seven Years War. -- Kenneth Morgan English Historical Review 1995 A new and important contribution to the efforts of historians and anthropologists to understand the history of the Caribs. -- Jalil Sued-Badillo Journal of American History 1994 A lucid and terse examination of direct interactions between Island Caribs and Europeans in the Lesser Antilles, and the indirect influence of literary images of Island Caribs (and other Native Americans) on the emergence of Western philosophical traditions. -- William F. Keegan Journal of Interdisciplinary History 1995

• List of IllustrationsPreface to the PAperback EditionPrefaceIntroduction1. First Impressions: Europeans and Island Caribs in the Precolonial Era, 1492-16232. Realpolitik Caribbean Style: Euro-Carib Relations during the Europeans Invasion, 1623-16603. Between Lion and Rooster: The Island Carib Struggle forAutonomy, 1660-16884. "As if no such people existed": Island Caribs in Decline, 1689-17635. Age of Iron to Age of Sentimentality: Island Caribs in the European Literary Imagination, 1660s-1760sConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex