Born in New York City, he had a career as a lawyer, practicing patent law, until 1897, when he became interested in Spanish-American history and quit his job to focus full time on that.
[5] A 1912 review of both volumes criticized the first as lacking consideration of economic and political issues in Spanish failure to colonize America.
[6] In 1961 a reviewer in The Florida Historical Quarterly called the volumes "a work of nearly classic quality" and positively commented on its accessibility to scholars and everyday people.
They considered the work to offer new views including "assigning less importance to religion as a source of conflict" and its portrait of Menéndez de Avilés.
[3] The Journal of Southern History also published a review of the republished volumes that considered the reprinting "a valuable service to the scholarly world" and generally had favorable comments, but did note some errors and omissions.