We may instance Pedro de Mendoza. It was the part he had played in the
sack of Rome which enabled this wealthy adventurer to organize the great
expedition which set sail for the Provinces of the River Plate. Here we
have the curious anomaly of the Church being robbed by a mercenary, and
the money obtained by the loot employed in an object which was
ostensibly in the interests of the Church in the New World. In order to
satisfy the public nearer home, it is true that the _conquistadores_
were almost invariably accompanied by priests; but once well without the
jurisdiction of Rome, Spain, and Portugal, they took very good care that
the priests should not interfere in their concerns. Having been accepted
as a guarantee of good faith, their sphere of utility had ended with the
arrival in the New World so far as the _conquistadores_ were concerned.
Many of them became active participants in the wild deeds of the
_conquistadores_. Did they, on the other hand, show themselves desirous
of protesting, the more reckless pioneers made strenuous attempts to
muzzle their eloquence.

When the spirit of the age and the circumstances in which these
adventurers sailed to the South-West are considered, many of the
atrocities committed are less to be wondered at than would otherwise be
the case. It may be taken for granted, in the first place, that the
temperament of these men was sufficiently wild and reckless to cause
them to embark in any extraordinarily perilous enterprise of the kind.
With all they had in the world sunk in the venture, they would move
heaven and earth, and squander countless human beings, before admitting
defeat. The failure of Indian labour meant financial ruin; this was
frequently staved off at the cost of thousands and tens of thousands of
lives. Such characteristics as these were by no means confined to the
Spaniards and Portuguese. We have some terribly vivid examples of it on
the part of the Welzers, the German merchant princes who contracted with