[As The King's Fifth opens, Estéban de Sandoval is awaiting] trial for defrauding the King of Spain of his rightful share of the treasure found in the Land of Cíbola…. [Estéban] hopes that by writing down in careful sequence the story of the search for gold, by reliving the fighting, hardships, suffering, treachery, fears, and disappointments, he will find the answer to all that puzzles him: even he succumbed to the fever for gold. Captain Mendoza is not clearly characterized, nor should he be: the record is by "a maker of maps and not a scrivener." Estéban sees him as the leader of the conducta and does not censure him for thinking of nothing but gold. To the reader he is the personification of greed, and the other members of the band, with the exception of Father Francisco and Zia, are shadows of evil...