io Singing Valleys 



and corn were all well enough as the trimmings of adventure, 

 but his business was gold. 



Columbus never brought any great wealth into the greedy 

 harbor of Cadiz. That remained for the conquistadores who 

 followed in his wake, and who settled on Mexico and Peru 

 like a swarm of hungry bees. Back and forth they went, from 

 Brazil, from Panama, from Yucatan, from Lima and Cuzco 

 to Lisbon and Cadiz. The road running northward from Cadiz 

 through Estremadura to the cities of Old Castile became 

 known as the Silver Road for the mule trains laden with 

 bullion that passed over it. Not a little of the horde was 

 dropped by the way. Every village church in the province took 

 its toll in silver altars and ceilings and crucifixes and candle- 

 sticks votive offerings from the men of those parishes who 

 had sailed with Pizarro and Cortes. 



The silver was mixed with maize. 



In the half-century after Columbus opened the sea-track 

 to the West, Europe had discovered a new source of wealth 

 in foodstuffs and spices. The Portuguese stumbled on it first 

 when they wrested the power in the Orient from the Arabs 

 and sent that first fleet of three caravels, under Serrano, on 

 a friendly visit to the Moluccas. The ships came back with 

 "as heavy a load of nutmegs and cloves as it was safe to carry." 



There was money in peppercorns, money in ginger. Sugar 

 could be as profitable as pearls. Portuguese and Spanish sea 

 captains, sailing on voyages of discovery financed out of the 

 national treasury or by some merchant company, were in- 

 structed to keep an eye out for foreign spices or foods which 

 might prove profitable in the European markets. 



Accordingly the silver ships sailing from the Indies for 

 Spain carried maize. Some of it fed the crews on the homeward 

 voyage. Some of it trickled up the Silver Road. Landowners 

 in Estremadura tried planting it without success. The soil 

 was too arid, the rainfall insufficient. But over the mountains 

 toward the coast the grain flourished. Maize is still a staple 

 farm crop in the Minho Province of Portugal, and along the 



