[Verginius Rufus]

As a human being, Christopher Columbus looks pretty good compared to most of the explorers and conquistadors. The harmful effects of his discovery on the native populations were mostly unintended and unexpected. The worst thing he did was to round up several hundred natives and take them to Spain to be slaves--but Queen Isabella freed them.

Francisco Pizarro, now, is not someone I would want to encounter in a dark alley. He was a bad dude.

Of the Spanish explorers, not counting the missionaries, maybe Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca was the best person. His account of his experiences on the Narvaez expedition and later as a slave of Indians on the Texas coast (near present-day Galveston) makes very interesting reading.

[Pining_4_TX]

According to the left, the missionaries were evil, too, for forcing the “white man’s religion” on the natives.