Spanish and Russian America 93

West Indies and parts of the mainland coasts were the first
to be laid under contribution. Balboa, 1513, looked out over
that Peaceful Ocean which Magellan, 1520, was to cross
to the Philippines. From Nova Scotia to Cape Horn the
Spanish captains had charted the seas, and two continents
were ready to be made into an empire greater than any yet
known to man. There were virtually no competitors for this
magnificent gift of Pope Alexander VI.

But Spain was unequal to the occasion. Her island
plantations deteriorated. The natives, who were really
enslaved, died off; negroes were expensive, and the mineral
wealth of the mainland began to attract a host of grandees
and adventurers who traversed the country in every direction
in their ceaseless search for people to plunder and mines
to exploit.

The southern valleys were occupied by the invaders,
and the silver of America compensated for the diamonds
and spices of India. In every section of the country silver-
mining became the great industry. Agriculture, pursued with
native labour under the guidance of the Jesuit priests,
thrived, and missions, mining-centres, and cattle ranches
spread north as far as the arid belt which interposed an
effectual barrier to northward progress. While Spain was
declining in Europe, New Spain in America was steadily
expanding. Her policy, however, was one of conquest, and
her object the exploitation of the wealth of all the new lands.
To settle her own free-born nationals on the soil seemed
to be no part of her plan. The native population was not
supplanted, it was merely used to furnish cheap labour. As
late as 1768 the prosperous valley of Sonora in Northern
Mexico had only 500 Spanish families distributed among
a native population of large proportions. Lacking a firm
foundation in the colonial soil and losing prestige and power