For the Spanish who came in the wake of Christopher Columbus, the vast wealth of their new empire in Central and South America was not enough; they wanted more. They sailed north, chasing rumours of gold, slaves and the Fountain of Youth. Here they found a swamp and called it 'Florida'. It took Americans, four centuries later, to turn this wild and steamy backwater into dollars. Alligator leather, egret plumes and the sun-drenched land itself, drained of its vital water, finally became the El Dorado dreamt of by the Spanish