Thomas Gage

Born around 1603, he was an English Dominican friar who spent more than a decade in New Spain and Central America. After returning to England in 1637, he left Catholicism and became associated with the Church of England, a dramatic turn that shaped both his reputation and his writing.

He is best remembered for The English-American (1648), a lively travel narrative based on his journeys through places including Mexico and Guatemala. Readers have long valued it for its detailed picture of colonial life, even as they debate its strong anti-Spanish tone and religious bias.

He died in 1656. Today, he is mainly remembered as an early travel writer whose work offers a rare English-language view of Spanish America in the seventeenth century.