Columbus in manacles? What on earth has happened to the man who "discovered America" since 1492? Dugard immediately intrigues his audience by sketching a portrait of Columbus unfamilar to most Americans. Charged with misgoverning his colony of Hispaniola, Columbus is later released and goes on his fourth and final voyage for the sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella.

It is hard to imagine a world in which the spices we take for granted were more precious than gold and pearls. Pepper was so highly prized it was willed to the next generation, and it was this obsession for spices that in part convinced Ferdinand and Isabella to support Columbus' fourth voyage. Spices are not indigenous to Europe; they must be brought in from the East.

On May, 9 1509, two years after he had been returned to Spain in disgrace and chains, he sailed for India, though plagued by vision problems, arthritis, and gout. He was fifty-one years old - a very old man in a time when most men died in their thirties. Dugard breathes life into an old children's rhyme that teaches only the date Columbus landed in the New World. He presents the conflicts and lies of omission, not always showing Columbus in the best light, but depicting an honest view of the times unlike most history books that seek only to glorify America. This is a wonderful book and I give it four stars.