We love manhood; and the Spanish pioneering of the Americas was the largest and longest and most marvellous feat of manhood in all history. It was not possible for a Saxon boy to learn that truth in my boyhood; it is enormously difficult, if possible, now. The hopelessness of trying to get from any or all English text-books a just picture of the Spanish hero in the New World made me resolve that no other young American lover of heroism and justice shall need to grope so long in the dark as I had to; and for the following glimpses into the most interesting of stories he has to thank me less than that friend of us both, A. F. Bandelier, the master of the New School. Without the light shed on early America by the scholarship of this great pupil of the great Humboldt, my book could not have been written,--nor by me without his generous personal aid. C. F. L. CONTENTS. I. The Broad Story. CHAPTER PAGE I. THE PIONEER NATION 17 II. A MUDDLED GEOGRAPHY 25 III. COLUMBUS THE FINDER 36 IV. MAKING GEOGRAPHY 43 V. THE CHAPTER OF CONQUEST 56 VI. A GIRDLE ROUND THE WORLD 71 VII. SPAIN IN THE UNITED STATES 78 VIII. TWO CONTINENTS MASTERED 90 II. Specimen Pioneers. I. THE FIRST AMERICAN TRAVELLER 101 II. THE GREATEST AMERICAN TRAVELLER 117 III. THE WAR OF THE ROCK 125 IV. THE STORMING OF THE SKY-CITY 135 V. THE SOLDIER POET 144 VI. THE PIONEER MISSIONARIES 149 VII. THE CHURCH-BUILDERS IN NEW MEXICO 158 VIII. ALVARADO'S LEAP 170 IX. THE AMERICAN GOLDEN FLEECE 181 III. The Greatest Conquest. I. THE SWINEHERD OF TRUXILLO 203 II. THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT GIVE UP 215 III. GAINING GROUND 225 IV. PERU AS IT WAS 238 V. THE CONQUEST OF PERU 246 VI. THE GOLDEN RANSOM 257 VII. ATAHUALPA'S TREACHERY AND DEATH 265 VIII. FOUNDING A NATION.--THE SIEGE OF CUZCO 275 IX. THE WORK OF TRAITORS 284 I. THE BROAD STORY. HOW AMERICA WAS FOUND AND TAMED. THE SPANISH PIONEERS. I. THE PIONEER NATION.