By the conquest of Mexico and Peru, the Spaniards became masters of extensive territories, in which there already existed some degree of social organisation, and in which an intercourse between the several provinces was more or less intimately maintained. The acquisition of dominions enjoying such advantages of internal communication increased the activity of the conquerors as much as their power. As distance from control, no less than the excitement that accompanies romantic enterprise, is apt to loosen the bonds of authority, the first adventurers in America, thinly scattered over immense regions, where the stupendous magnificence of nature works so powerfully on the imagination, frequently threw off all obedience to government, and sallied forth on the wildest and most daring schemes of independent discovery. Nor was it merely in Peru and Mexico that this active spirit displayed itself: in every part of the New World it expanded with equal force; and had other empires of equal wealth and population been met with, there would not have been wanting heroes to subdue them. The energy with which a few thousand Europeans spread themselves as conquerors over the American continent within a few years after its discovery, is among the most extraordinary phenomena in the history of mankind. But to what purpose would it be to relate all the details of the various expeditions fitted out to colonise and survey that fertile quarter of the globe?