out into the unknown were actuated by two motives--the love of adventure
and the desire of gain. There is no doubt that the second consideration
by far outweighed the first. A man of the period left Spain or Portugal
for the New World for one cogent reason only, to seek his fortune. If he
won fame in the achievement of this, so much the better. Indeed, as a
matter of fact, it was generally impossible to achieve the one without
the other, although this fame might frequently have its shield sullied
and blackened by a number of wild and terrible acts; for circumstances
tended to make the _conquistador_ what he almost invariably became, a
daring being who let the lives of no others stand in the way of his own
interests.

He was not, as was the case with corresponding officials of a later
epoch, sent out on an accurately defined mission for which his
emoluments were definitely fixed and guaranteed by the Home Government.
The _conquistador_ nearly always risked much of his own before he set
sail from his native land. A man was seldom given a Governorship, even
of an unknown region in the New World, unless he showed himself prepared
to finance in part an expedition which should be of sufficient
importance to furnish the new territory with men and live-stock, and
everything else of the kind.

The _conquistador_, in fact, was generally the active partner in an
enterprise which was largely commercial. Sometimes his sleeping partners
were the merchants of Spain; sometimes it was the King himself who
joined in the venture; at others it was both King and merchants who
jointly assisted the pioneer. But it was very seldom that an adventurer
of the kind succeeded in obtaining an important concession unless he
were prepared to subsidize it heavily from his own pocket.