A generation before the establishment of the European colonies on the West Coast of America, Spanish explorers and friars were trudging the deserts and mountains of the American Southwest in search of souls, riches and glory. By 1598, Juan de Onate had established the first permanent settlement in the Southwest, twenty-two years before the Pilgrims founded Plymouth Colony. The story of this colony, the explorations, the defeats and successes, the hopes blighted and the hopes fulfilled are told in this concise history of the era.