Introduction 
7 
The fall of Mexico City, instead of marking the end of the conquest, as 
is the view too commonly held, marked but the beginning of the real con¬ 
quest and expansion of New Spain; those movements were to continue 
until the close of the eighteenth century, at which time the northernmost 
Spanish outposts were San Francisco and St. Louis. For the first nine 
years after the fall of Mexico City, however, or until 1530, the Spaniards 
in New Spain were interested primarily in pushing their conquests due 
west to the Pacific and south into the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and Guate¬ 
mala; it was not until after 1530 that their attention was centred on the 
north. There were several reasons for this early interest in the south. 
In the first place the northern Indians, or Chichimecas, were exceedingly 
fierce and warlike. Moreover, there were no reports either of a high 
native civilization or of great natural wealth lying to the north. On the 
other hand, from the west came reports of the South Sea, and from the 
south reports of gold and of the material remains of the Maya and Quiche 
civilization—remains which surpassed even those of the Aztecs. Also, 
it was known that the Spaniards, operating from Panamá as a base, were 
pushing north toward this coveted region, and their entry into it must be 
anticipated as Garay’s attempted conquest of the Pánuco region had been 
anticipated. It is these facts which explain why, for a period of nine 
years, the Spaniards of New Spain, save with one exception, turned their 
backs to the north and devoted all their energy to following up the reports 
of southern and western wealth and wonders. 
The conquests of the first two years after the fall of Mexico City are of 
particular interest because theoretically they had no legal status. Yet 
this did not deter Cortés. To the southeast Sandoval carried Spanish 
authority into the province of Tuxtupeque and thence to the mouth of the 
Coatzacoalcos River. Orozco and Alvarado extended Spanish dominion 
and established Spanish institutions to the south in Tehuantepec and Tutu- 
tepec. Villafuerte, Olid, and others conquered and explored westward 
to the Pacific where the important coast towns of Zacatula and Colima 
were founded. The one exception to the rule that the Spaniards at first 
ignored the northern regions occurred in 1522 when Cortés himself ad¬ 
vanced as far as the Pánuco River; there by founding the municipality of 
San Estéban del Puerto he established superior claims on that region to 
any that Governor Garay might, and later in vain did make, on the basis 
of Pineda’s explorations in 1519. 
The conquest of the Pánuco region was the last significant conquest of 
Cortés the rebel, for before the end of the year 1523 he received the 
coveted royal commission as governor and captain-general of New Spain; 
henceforth his conquest had legal status, and no longer had he anything 
to fear from Velásquez. Plans were accordingly made for extending the 
now legal conquest into the more alluring and strategically important 
regions to the south. This was to be effected by two movements. In the 
west Alvarado was to advance south from Tehuantepec, while the eastern 
movement was to be led by Olid, who was to proceed first from Vera 
Cruz to Honduras by water. Success attended the efforts of Alvarado, 
who conquered and occupied Guatemala, and explored far into the interior 
of modern Salvador. The situation in Honduras, however, resolved itself 
