Composed at the request of the Royal Spanish Chronicler of the Indies, Don Diego Torres y Vargas' "Report on the Island and Diocese of Puerto Rico" was the first history of Puerto Rico written by a native of the Spanish island colony. Torres y Vargas, a fourth generation Puerto Rican and descendant of Ponce de Leon, records here the history of the Catholic Church in Puerto Rico as well as the political, social, military, economic, and natural history of the island. This translation - the first ever into English - includes three historical essays by eminent Puerto Rican and Latino studies scholar Anthony Stevens-Arroyo and extensive translator notes to guide the reader through the realities of seventeenth-century Puerto Rican culture and society.