Have you ever wondered how Juan de la Cosa knew Cuba was an island in 1500? Do you accept Edward Gaylord Bourne’s “conspiracy theory” about Amerigo Vespucci and his claim to have made a voyage to South America in 1497? How did the razorback hog get to the United States? These and many more such questions are discussed in this able work by Professor Sauer.
The study is restricted largely to sixteenth-century European explorations of that part of North America now comprising the United States and Canada. Not all, but a major part of the book is devoted to Spanish expeditions which originated in Europe, the Caribbean, or New Spain: Narváez, Cabeza de Vaca, Coronado, Soto, Cabrillo, Ayllón, Ponce de León, Menéndez de Avilés, Gómez, Luna y Arellano and many more. It was a century of failure for the explorers of whatever nationality who desired to establish colonies or sought mineral riches in the northern part of the New World. But they did not fail to record what they saw.
Professor Sauer has selected a number of contemporary accounts of or by these early travelers to indicate that the chroniclers for the most part faithfully related what they observed: the geography, the people, the flora and the fauna. He permits the record to speak for itself, often quoting the observations made by these early writers. Only when it came to recording the potential mineral wealth did some of their reports became farfetched. Untrained as mineralogists, they tended to report uncritically on this subject, frequently repeating the stories told them by the natives of vast treasure over yonder hill.
A point which stands out in this study was the warm reception invariably given the first European arrivals by the natives. They gladly gave food, shelter, clothing and almost anything else they had. But the appetite of the newcomers could not be satisfied. Professor Sauer should be congratulated for putting the Soto expedition into true perspective. It was one long hideous nightmare for the Indians as Soto pushed from place to place in search of gold and silver such as he had found in Peru. But perhaps the trail of tears left by Soto should not be singled out from that of Coronado or any of the others.
Most colonialists will be familiar with the accounts used in the study. The real bonus, however, is the able evaluation of these records in the concluding chapters. In addition, Professor Sauer has provided historiographic data about many of the chronicles. The book will make excellent supplementary reading for students of colonial United States or Latin American history as well as for those interested in the Spanish Borderlands.
