"Santa Fe, in the early 1800s, was a part of Mexico, and the city's landed gentry, the hacendados, had developed an appetite for the good life. Matthew Collins, an entrepreneurial American, sees opportunity there. He bankrolls a wagon train filled with fine goods from St. Louis and, with a partner, succeeds in transporting everything, despite storms and fierce bands of Comanches, across the Great American Desert to a ready market in Santa Fe." "Soon, Matt and his partner become prosperous and respected men. Matt again profits from the trapping and selling of hundreds of beaver skins just before the London market for beaverskin top hats collapses. Welcomed into the home of Moises Mendoza, one of the leading hacendados, Matt eventually marries Moises's daughter Celestina." "By the mid-1840s, war looms between the United States and Mexico. Matt is called to Washington by President Polk. The urgent matter: how to arrange the turnover of New Mexico and Santa Fe to the United States without causing great bloodshed. Matt develops a plan."--BOOK JACKET.