This book presenting the Spanish presence in Taiwan during the years 1626-1642 has a wide chronological and conceptual scope. The reasons for the Spaniards coming to Taiwan are traced back to the end of the 16th century. Two were the main reasons for the Spaniards to come to Taiwan from Manila; first, for the civil authorities to counterbalance the Dutch expansion that since 1625 was cutting the traditional trade between Fujian and Manila; and second, for the religious authorities to find a staging post before entering Japan in moments of strong persecution, and to find an alternative way of entering China since the only entry point to Macao was under the control of the Portuguese. By explaining these ideas, Professor Borao constructs a new historical realm with the Spaniards on the centre of it, and not only in opposition to Dutch or Japanese, but in relation with China and particularly with Taiwan aborigines. The natives of the island were experiencing at that moment the exposure to foreign sailors, mainly Dutch or Spanish but also due to the increasing immigration from China. Nevertheless, the “encounter” between Spaniards and natives was different from the one that these Europeans had experienced in America, and even in the Philippines. In San Salvador, the main Spanish base only a small number of soldiers and missionaries, accompanied by Filipino mercenaries, they did not intend to conquer the island, either because of their lack of resources, or because of auto-imposed restraints, proper of late Spanish imperial endeavors. Along the book, Prof. Borao argues that even if the place was very small, became a very significant scene from which to observe the transition from the hopeful confidence of the receding Renaissance that originated this Spanish endeavor, to the more pragmatic, emotional, pessimistic, contradictory and paradoxical Baroque ending of that adventure; themes which are specially discussed at the end of each chapter.