"A group led by Gkalegkos, which was exploring the country a few miles away from the camp, attacked a small group of Indians and drove them away. However, as a horseman charged with his lance at one of them, he was surprised to hear him shout, "Gentlemen, I am a Christian. Do not kill me or these poor people who gave me life." Naked, sunburned, and with a painted body, that man barely stood out from his wild companions. His name was John Ortiz and he had lived twelve years with the Indians..."

In a landmark work for world literature, Charles Browne presents the history of all the indigenous tribes of North and South America, from the time of the first colonization of the Western Hemisphere in 1492, until the mid-19th century. Customs and traditions, peaceful encounters and terrible wars with the colonizers, mutual savagery and massacres are described with astonishing vividness and impartiality, offering a wealth of information that is presented for the first time to the Greek reading audience.
In the first book, in addition to the basic elements of the character, origin, religion, and culture of Native Americans, the author presents the history of the two major regions, Mexico and Florida. The rise and fall of the Aztec empire, the story of the last emperor Montezuma, as well as that of the man who became his downfall, the Spaniard Hernán Cortés, the history of the conquest of Florida, first by the Spaniards and then by the English, as well as the desperate resistance of the natives against the invaders, and the terrible Seminole Wars, are all here.
Through the detailed scientific recording of events and Browne's exemplary commentary, the reader travels through one of the most fascinating chapters in the history of humanity, the chronicle of the great clash between two completely different worlds, the Old and the New."