1521

"Himmerich's near definitive compilation of the early encomenderos is a solidly researched and meticulously realized work that will be essential reading and reference for students and scholars of the period for years to come."

We are quite fortunate to have Francis X. Hezel's The First Taint of Civilization as the first volume in the new Pacific Islands Monograph Series. Of all the world's culture areas, Micronesia has been one of the most extensively studied by anthropologists. At the same time and with the exception of Guam, these tiny islands have been almost entirely neglected by historians. Indeed, in an editorial in the second volume of The Journal of Pacific History, H. E. Maude was moved to write that Micronesia's "varied and often exciting history has been ignored as if by some tacit agreement . One wonders that American historians have apparently no contribution to make to the historical study of an American Trust Territory.