Judged on the basis of what they set out to do, De Soto, Coronado, and
Cabrillo failed. Yet great consequences flowed from their efforts.
Without intending it, they found truth. They exploded myths and gave a
solid anchor to the Spanish imagination. Undistracted, the people of New
Spain could settle down to developing the resources—the mines,
plantations, and ranches—that lay close at hand. It was the perceived
need to protect this new wealth from potential enemies in the
north—France, England, and Russia—and not the frenetic hope of riches
that eventually brought about the extension of the Spanish empire into
what became the southern United States, from St. Augustine, Florida, to
the Franciscan missions of California.
Another discovery was the tremendous size and geographical diversity of
America north of Mexico. After the truth had trickled out about the
forests and savannahs of the semi-tropical southeast, the vast deserts
and striking headlands of the southwest, the spreading central plains
with their immeasurable herds of buffalo, and the coastal mountains and
misty valleys of California, no one would ever again think of the upper
part of the continent as a mere bulb perched on the thin stem of Central
America and Mexico. These vast stretches, moreover, were peopled by a
race never before known. By bringing back the first sound
anthropological descriptions of these people, the Spanish explorers—and
the French and English after them—gave the philosophers of Europe new
food for speculation concerning the human condition.
Most important, they, along with the explorers of other nations, brought
a sense of release and fresh possibilities to the Old World. Their
reports arrived at a time when custom-bound Europe was struggling to
shake off the constraints of ancient traditions, outworn feudal
institutions, and an almost total lack of specie for implementing the
quickening trade of the Renaissance—an average of less than $2 in
currency for each of the continent’s 100 million people. In the Americas
there were no mossy customs, but there were precious minerals and raw
materials beyond imagination awaiting development. Development by anyone
with daring and ingenuity. The great _conquistadores_ had all arrived
poor and unknown and then had discovered within themselves explosive
energies for meeting unprecedented physical challenges. Such strengths,
once they were turned from brigandage into constructive endeavors,
became the hallmark of the new continent. Pointing the way were Cabeza
de Vaca, De Soto, Coronado, and Cabrillo, all doing their great work
within a decade. It is indeed an era to remember.