es, achieved unimportant results, and are too numerous to be
even catalogued here.

In 1527 there sailed from Spain the most disastrous expedition which was
ever sent to the New World,--an expedition notable but for two things,
that it was perhaps the saddest in history, and that it brought the man
who first of all men crossed the American continent, and indeed made one
of the most wonderful walks since the world began. Panfilo de
Narvaez--who had so ignominiously failed in his attempt to arrest
Cortez--was commander, with authority to conquer Florida; and his
treasurer was Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. In 1528 the company landed in
Florida, and forthwith began a record of horror that makes the blood run
cold. Shipwreck, savages, and starvation made such havoc with the doomed
band that when in 1529 Vaca and three companions found themselves slaves
to the Indians they were the sole survivors of the expedition.

Vaca and his companions wandered from Florida to the Gulf of California,
suffering incredible dangers and tortures, reaching there after a
wandering which lasted over eight years. Vaca's heroism was rewarded.
The king made him governor of Paraguay in 1540; but he was as unfit for
such a post as Columbus had been for a viceroy, and soon came back in
irons to Spain, where he died.

But it was through his accounts of what he saw in that astounding
journey (for Vaca was an educated man, and has left us two very
interesting and valuable books) that his countrymen were roused to begin
in earnest the exploration and colonization of what is now the United
States,--to build the first cities and till the first farms of the
greatest nation on earth.

The thirty years following the conquest of Mexico by Cortez saw an
astounding change in the New World. They were brimful of wonders.
Brilliant discovery, unparalleled exploration, gallant conquest, and
heroic colonization followed one another in a bewildering rush,--and but
for the brave yet limited exploits of the Portuguese in South America,
Spain was all alone in it. From Kansas to Cape Horn was one vast Spanish
possession, save parts of Brazil where the Portuguese hero Cabral had
taken a joint foothold for his country. Hundreds of Spanish towns had
been built; Spanish schools, universities, printing-presses, books, and
churches were beginning their work of enlightenment in the dark
continents of America, and the tireless followers of Santiago were still
pressing on. Americ