In Spain and all Europe, men were willing and eager to cross the western ocean to learn more about the lands Columbus had found. The early discoverers and explorers thought that these West Indian islands were the East Indies, off the coast of Asia. They wished to reach the mainland and get the gold, gems, spices, and silks which Polo had told them were to be found there. Wealth, even beyond their dreams, the Spaniards found. Seeking Cathay, they reached Mexico and Peru, rich in mines of gold and silver. Our famous American historian Prescott, tells the story of the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards under Cortez and the conquest of Peru by the Spaniards under Pizarro. Like a fairy tale is the history of how a handful of men entered the unknown lands and made themselves masters of their wonderful treasures. It is a sad story too, of the greed and cruelty of the conquering white men, of the suffering and ruin of the gentle natives. Some of the Spaniards, turning a little to the north, reached land on Easter Sunday which they call _Pascua Florida_, flowery Easter. In honor of the day the Spaniards gave to this land of flowers the name Florida, which was applied to all the country north of Mexico. All the flowers of that fair land, were not so charming to Spanish eyes as one ounce of gold, and for this they roamed the country far and wide. It was not gold, however, which Ponce de Leon sought. His hair was turning white and he listened with eager credulity to tales of a fountain whose waters would give perpetual youth. Landing on the coast of Florida in 1513, he wandered hither and thither in a vain search for this longed-for fountain. Instead of finding it, he received his death wound in a fight with Indians. A few years later, Narvaez was made governor of Florida, and he came with a force of three hundred men to conquer it. His troops made their way through trackless swamps and forests and among hostile Indian tribes, across the peninsula to the Gulf. Here they constructed rude vessels in which to go to Cuba or Mexico. Through shipwreck, starvation, and disease, the four hundred were reduced to four men who after nine years of hardships and wanderings reached a Spanish settlement in Mexico. There one of them, De Vaca, met and talked with a young Spanish captain, Ferdinand De Soto. Ferdinand, or Hernando, De Soto belonged to a Spanish family that was both poor and noble. As a youth, he attracted the attention of a gentleman of wealth who took charge of him and educated him. It was not, however, the patron’s wish that De Soto should marry his daughter; when he found that this was the young folks’ plan, in order to separate them he took De Soto on an expedition to the Isthmus of Darien. There De Soto distinguished himself by his courage and his daring coolness.