The last of his published works, History of the Buccaneers of America, published in 1816, is Burney's historical account of the Spanish, English, and French expansion in the New World. In it, he takes a harsh look at those "miscreants" from his own country who took up arms against the Spanish explorers for glory, revenge, and gold and stole treasures from the native people.

Far from hagiographic, Burney is highly critical of his countrymen's loose morality: he hoped to produce an account that was far more truthful than any previous attempt. Anyone interested in history and the age of explorers will be fascinated by these little-known stories of the day-to-day discovery of the Americas.


Englishman JAMES BURNEY (1759-1821) was a rear admiral in the British Royal Navy. He traveled with the famous Captain Cook and wrote a handful of books about the exploration of various parts of the world, including his most famous, Chronological History of the Voyages and Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean (1803).