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.In exchange for their gold and silver, Spain imposed upon the native racesof America an enlightened despotism and the benefits of Christian civilization.From Hispaniola as the first center, the Spaniards soon extended their dominion over the islands of Cuba,Porto Rico, and San Domingo, and to the mainland of North America.Seeking gold and the fountain ofperpetual youth, Ponce de Leon explored Florida in 1513, and in 1521 and 1525 Allyon and Gomez skirtedthe eastern coast as far north as Labrador.They found no fountain of youth, nor any passage to the South Sea,nor treasure.It was twenty-five years after Columbus's first voyage, when Velasquez reached Cozumel off thecoast of Yucatan, that the Spanish explorers first encountered a people advanced beyond savagery, and cameupon evidences of that wealth which determined the future of their empire.Two years later Hernando Cortez,the greatest of the Conquistadores, was given command of the expedition which ended in the capture ofMexico and the overthrow of the Aztec power.The simple Mexicans, who had never seen a white man, firstwelcomed Cortez as the long expected Culture God, and the hapless Montezuma gathered as a present for theinvader treasure equal in present value to the sum of six and a half million dollars.Most of this was lost in thelake during the fatal retreat from the city; but when the conqueror returned to Spain in 1528, he brought with CHAPTER II 17him, to that very port of Palos where Columbus had landed in 1493, three hundred thousand pesos[1] of goldand fifteen hundred marks of silver.The silver mines of Mexico were not exploited until many years later, but the conquest gave an immenseimpetus to further exploration.It was the hope of rivaling the brilliant success of Cortez that inspired thosefruitless expeditions through what is now the southern part of the United States.Cabeza de Vaca and threecompanions, sole survivors of Narvaez's ill-fated expedition to conquer an empire in Florida, wandered formany years over the country between the Mississippi and the Gulf of California.Picked up in 1536 bySpanish slavers, De Vaca's report of the vast country to the north induced Mendoza, the Governor of NewSpain, to send out Friar Marcos from Mexico in 1539 to find the famous Seven Cities.The friar found nocities, but during the next three years the search was continued by Coronado, who penetrated as far north asthe present State of Kansas.It was also in 1539 that De Soto, who had accompanied Pizarro in the conquest ofthe Incas cities, set out from Florida in search of another Peru.After three years of untold hardship he died ofswamp fever in the region of the great river which he discovered and in which he lies buried.The only resultof all these expeditions was to establish the claims of Spain to an immense territory; and it was not until 1565that the Spaniards founded, at St.Augustine in Florida, the first permanent European settlement north of theGulf of Mexico."To the south, to the South," cried Peter Martyr, "for the riches of the Aequinoctiall they that seek riches mustgo, not into the cold and frozen north." It was a judgment justified in the event.Francisco Pizarro, havingverified the report of rich kingdoms to the south, received in 1528 from the Emperor Charles V a commissionto conquer the country of the Incas in Peru.With reckless daring equaled only by cunning treachery andunspeakable cruelty, the little band of adventurers that followed Pizarro made its way to the city of Cuzaco.The Incas were more civilized than the Aztecs, their defense less resolute, their wealth more abounding.Theransom of Atahucellpa and the plunder of the capital, when melted down into ingots, measured nearly twomillion pesos of gold.And to the south of the capital city were the inexhaustible silver deposits of the Andes.In 1545 the Government registered the mines of Potosi, the main source of the treasure which, flowing inever-increasing volume into Spain, so profoundly influenced the history of Europe and America [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.In exchange for their gold and silver, Spain imposed upon the native racesof America an enlightened despotism and the benefits of Christian civilization.From Hispaniola as the first center, the Spaniards soon extended their dominion over the islands of Cuba,Porto Rico, and San Domingo, and to the mainland of North America.Seeking gold and the fountain ofperpetual youth, Ponce de Leon explored Florida in 1513, and in 1521 and 1525 Allyon and Gomez skirtedthe eastern coast as far north as Labrador.They found no fountain of youth, nor any passage to the South Sea,nor treasure.It was twenty-five years after Columbus's first voyage, when Velasquez reached Cozumel off thecoast of Yucatan, that the Spanish explorers first encountered a people advanced beyond savagery, and cameupon evidences of that wealth which determined the future of their empire.Two years later Hernando Cortez,the greatest of the Conquistadores, was given command of the expedition which ended in the capture ofMexico and the overthrow of the Aztec power.The simple Mexicans, who had never seen a white man, firstwelcomed Cortez as the long expected Culture God, and the hapless Montezuma gathered as a present for theinvader treasure equal in present value to the sum of six and a half million dollars.Most of this was lost in thelake during the fatal retreat from the city; but when the conqueror returned to Spain in 1528, he brought with CHAPTER II 17him, to that very port of Palos where Columbus had landed in 1493, three hundred thousand pesos[1] of goldand fifteen hundred marks of silver.The silver mines of Mexico were not exploited until many years later, but the conquest gave an immenseimpetus to further exploration.It was the hope of rivaling the brilliant success of Cortez that inspired thosefruitless expeditions through what is now the southern part of the United States.Cabeza de Vaca and threecompanions, sole survivors of Narvaez's ill-fated expedition to conquer an empire in Florida, wandered formany years over the country between the Mississippi and the Gulf of California.Picked up in 1536 bySpanish slavers, De Vaca's report of the vast country to the north induced Mendoza, the Governor of NewSpain, to send out Friar Marcos from Mexico in 1539 to find the famous Seven Cities.The friar found nocities, but during the next three years the search was continued by Coronado, who penetrated as far north asthe present State of Kansas.It was also in 1539 that De Soto, who had accompanied Pizarro in the conquest ofthe Incas cities, set out from Florida in search of another Peru.After three years of untold hardship he died ofswamp fever in the region of the great river which he discovered and in which he lies buried.The only resultof all these expeditions was to establish the claims of Spain to an immense territory; and it was not until 1565that the Spaniards founded, at St.Augustine in Florida, the first permanent European settlement north of theGulf of Mexico."To the south, to the South," cried Peter Martyr, "for the riches of the Aequinoctiall they that seek riches mustgo, not into the cold and frozen north." It was a judgment justified in the event.Francisco Pizarro, havingverified the report of rich kingdoms to the south, received in 1528 from the Emperor Charles V a commissionto conquer the country of the Incas in Peru.With reckless daring equaled only by cunning treachery andunspeakable cruelty, the little band of adventurers that followed Pizarro made its way to the city of Cuzaco.The Incas were more civilized than the Aztecs, their defense less resolute, their wealth more abounding.Theransom of Atahucellpa and the plunder of the capital, when melted down into ingots, measured nearly twomillion pesos of gold.And to the south of the capital city were the inexhaustible silver deposits of the Andes.In 1545 the Government registered the mines of Potosi, the main source of the treasure which, flowing inever-increasing volume into Spain, so profoundly influenced the history of Europe and America [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]