Gran yulvira; they sought the Great Kingdom of the Tejus, the fountain of Silver, the Streams of Pearls, the Provinces o£ V/ealth and the fountain of Youth.	2hoy added luster to their period
and won new empires and lost them. Today the Floridus, the New Soain, the Mexico and the California of those days are the Joy of the people.
..ncicnt Settlements
St. Augustine, settled 15G5, oldest city in the United States, is the beginning of the Old Spanish Trail on the’Atlantic Coast.
San Diego (St. James), settled 1769, first settlement in California, is the terminus of the Old Spanish Trail on the Pacific Coast.
Midway lies San Antonio	(Saint .Anthony) , settled 1718,
anciently an important mission and military center of 33 ew Spain.
West from San Antonio is Ml Paso (Ml Paso del Norte-----the Pass of
the North), settled 1659, rich in history of earliest days. North of Ml Paso lies Santa 3?e (Holy Faith), settled 1605 Or 1609, it became the second oldest city in the United States and seat of missions, colonizing and government. Tucson dates back into the dim past and the Santa Cruz Valley southward was dotted- with missions Other places also lay claim to earliest settlements. Old Mexico was conquered by Cortez in 1519. The Trench occupied Old Louisiana in 1699 by settling on the Gulf of Mexico at Biloxi; they settled Ml Mobile in 1711 and Hew Jrleans in 1718. Spain afterward controlled those cites and all that land.
Conquest of the South and West
Ponce do Leon discovered and named Florida in 1513. The expedition of Panfilo de Narvaez landed at Tampa Bay in 1528 and that of Hernando de Soto/in 1539; both fought powerful Indian tribes around to the Tallahassee country where Narvaez turned south to escane by sea and Soto turned north to- wander thru the South and West. Narvaez was lost in the Gulf of llexico and the remnants of his expedition were wrecked on the Texas shores. Cabeza de 7aca, Narvaez’ treasurer, and three others only survived the Indian enmity, endured six years of slavery, then escaped across Texas and xnnnfcsx in 1536 reached the Spanish on the west coast of llexico — the first white men to cross the continent. Soto reached jirkaia-sas territory, turned back, died in 1542 and was buried in the mighty Mississippi Diver which he discovered. Bagged survivors of the Soto expedition escaped in 1543 down the Mississippi Nivor and to '-armco, Mexico. Don Tristan do Luna landed at Pensacola Bay in 1559 with the largest of all the Florida expeditions but Indian strategy soon drove him back to Vera Cruz.	There are rec-
ords of 30 missions established out of St. Augustine, westward to Tallahassee and up into Georgia. They were probably of wood for no ruins are known exceot some nysdtaxxnipsaS of oyster shell cement north of Brunswick, Ga.
While the Spaniards were exploring the Floridas other remarkable expeditions went northward from Mexico. Francisco Vazquez de Coronado and his princely array explore I the Southwest in 1540-42.
In 1598 Don Juan do Oriatc took possession of the northern land at Paso del Norte (Ml Paso) and proceeded up the Bio Grande to colonize the Santa Fe country. In 169-1 Father Kino entered the