"How to Con Your Conquistador: The Question of Quivira" Topic

"16th Century Spanish Conquistadors liked shiny things. Gold in particular gave them a warm, fuzzy feeling. And as the treasure galleons began plying the route from Mexico to Spain laden with Aztec riches, the Spanish must have figured this here New World was just plain littered with jewels and precious metals. Having established a base of operations in Tenochtitlan by 1521, and bored with rolling around naked in piles of gold, the Conquistadors turned their eye northward, assuming similar circumstances might prevail. Our story starts with a certain Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, one of the four surviving members of the ill-fated 1527 Narváez expedition, originally sent forth to establish colonial settlements and garrisons in Florida and explore the Gulf Coast.

When your primary source is affectionately surnamed "Cowhead", it's best to take his observations with a grain of salt, but as I said, Conquistadors like shiny things, so even the hint of fabulous riches from a dubious authority gets them all geared up and thundering across the plains. The Narváez expedition, captained by Pánfilo de Narváez set out in 1527 with 600 men. Apparently Pánfilo was neither a good explorer nor conquistador. His claim to fame prior to 1527 was a failed campaign to stop Hernán Cortés from invading Mexico (which was actually unauthorized by then big cheese in the Spanish New World, Governor of Cuba Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar). Although his forces significantly outnumbered Cortés, he was deftly outmaneuvered. Cortés poked his eye out and took him prisoner for his troubles, eventually letting him return to Spain, where somehow he convinced King Carlos V to appoint him Governor of Florida…"

Main page
link

Amicalement
Armand