>>3915382
PLUS ULTRA is the motto of the Spanish royal family. It is a play on words of the phrase
Non terrae plus ultra
Meaning No Land Further Beyond
This represents the belief that Spain was the end of the land, and beyond the ocean sea, there was nothing but monsters and a horrible void.
But the Spanish royals knew there was land where the Phoenicians had mined copper and also found gold. So they dropped the first two words and made their motto
Further Beyond
Then they sent explorers, like the Narváez expedition to settle Florida. They met with bad luck, and one of them, Cabeza de Vaca, wrote an account of his trials and tribulations with attacks by natives, hurricanes, enslavement by natives, and finally, near starving, he preached to the natives and became a messiah figure to them and walked halfway to the Pacific Ocean.