Since conquest and settlement were one single ongoing process in Spanish America, we are a little reluctant to emphasize the distinction between them by devoting a separate section to conquest alone. Yet only in this way can we illustrate to what an extent the conquerors were acting like immigrants, businessmen and settlers. Then too, the creation of Spanish cities, governmental jurisdictions and encomiendas took place at the time of the conquests, as a direct reflection and integral part of them. Spaniards tended to take their new cities - the framework of their world - for granted, but the encomiendas and governorships, being the great rewards of the enterprise, engendered strife and comment; whole genres of conquest correspondence grew up to brag, complain or petition about these matters.

We also wish to give some notion of the often down-to-earth first reports on new areas, whether private (Letters 1, 6), official (Letter 2), or mercantile (Letters 4, 5). It is enlightening to compare these with texts written some years after the occupation, such as Letter 3, or the last pages of Letter 36, both good examples of incipient legend formation. Finally, in the accounts of the conquest one gets an impression of the vast geographical spread of the movement, the differences between regions, and the varying success of the conquerors, who achieved quick victory and large rewards in the most densely settled areas of the Andes and Mexico, but experienced long struggles and relative poverty elsewhere.