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1502-1520) in November 1519, things had started well in the search for gold when the conquistador was presented with a magnificent necklace of golden crabs. When Cortés had met the Aztec ruler Motecuhzoma (aka Montezuma, r. All of these men were after wealth of any kind, from emeralds to exotic hides, but the most coveted material of all was gold. 1500-1542), who began exploring North America as far as the Mississippi River in 1539-42. 1478-1541), who plundered Inca Peru from 1532, and then Hernando de Soto (c. 1485-1541) led the brutal conquest of the Maya in Guatemala in 1524. Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar (1465-1524), the Governor of Cuba, sent Hernán Cortés (1485-1547) to explore Mexico, where he encountered and then conquered the Aztecs from 1521. In the 1520s, the Spanish colonialization process went up another gear. Also in 1513, Vasco Núñez de Balboa (1475-1519) crossed the Isthmus of Panama and so became the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean. In the spring of 1513, Juan Ponce de León (1474-1521) was the first European to make a documented landing in Florida. The tentacles of the empire then spread to Puerto Rico in 1508, Jamaica in 1509, and Cuba in 1511, so far the best source of gold. The conquistadors first found gold on the island of Hispaniola (modern Dominican Republic/Haiti) in 1494. Gold was esteemed by indigenous Americans because of its lustre, incorruptibility & spiritual associations.