Silver traces the effects of English settlement on South Atlantic ecology, showing how three cultures interacted with their changing environment.

List of figures; Preface; Acknowledgments; 1. Prologue: images and boundaries; 2. Perspectives on the land; 3. Perspectives on the people, 1500; 4. Europeans going thither; 5. An accessible desert; 6. The price of civility; 7. Conclusion: perspectives on the land and people, 1800; Index.