In 1492 the Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus sailed west with 80 men in search of Asia. Instead, he "discovered" the New World, although the pious and humourless Columbus could never quite admit it wasn't a part of Asia. This authoritative history (volume one of a planned trilogy, and reissued to coincide with the appearance this year of volume two, The Golden Age), covers the early stages of Spain's empire, when it concentrated on the Caribbean, especially the island Columbus called La Española (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Enough gold was being brought back from this colonial enterprise for the Spanish monarchy to sit up and take notice, and there was an emerging awareness in the court of Fernando and Isabel that a new empire was taking shape with new responsibilities. Some Spaniards argued that the native people had certain rights and they were relatively well treated, although still used as slaves. Plenty of indigenous people were wiped out by contact with the Spaniards, but in return they gave the conquerors tobacco and syphilis.