The Conquest of Don Pedro Author:Harvey Fergusson Leo Mendes was a man of many lives. In a sense, he was a conquistador...if you can imagine a conquistador from Manhattan's lower East Side. But as a young man he moved to Santa Fe and to another life. These were the days following the Civil War. New Mexico was on the verge of change, balanced between the new ways and the old. Powerful Spanish fa... more »milies still ruled the land, resisting all inroads of American civilization, backing and filling against the inexorable tide. As a peddler, Leo had traveled throughout the Southwest, building a flourishing trade in the small towns and outposts. As the novel opens, he has decided to start a store and trading post in the the village of Don Pedro...and by this step runs headlong into conflict with Don Agustin Vierra. Gringo storekeepers are not welcome...« less