CHAPTER III
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CORONADO AND LA GRAN QUIVIRA, 1537-1544
Coronado and tire Seven Cities of Obola. It was the cruel and san- guinary Guzman, once governor of a portion of Texas, who first heard of the seven cities that were later to be identified with Cibola. This was to be the goal of the Coronado expedition, whose disappointed men were destined to traverse a large portion of the great plains of western Texas and eastern New l\'lexico in search of the mythical kingdom of Quivira. A Tejos Indian from the valley of Oxitipar related to Guzman in 1530 how, while in his youth, he had penetrated the unexplored regions to the north of New Spain in the company of his father, who was a trader. Once or twice they had visited towns that compared favorably in size with the City of Mexico and its suburbs, where they had obtained large quantities of gold and silver in exchange for the handsome feathers they carried as their stock in trade. "He had seen seven very large towns which had streets of silver workers," the Indian declared. "It took forty days to go there from his country, through a wilderness in which nothing grew, except some very small plants. The way they went was up through the country between the two seas, following a northern direction." 1 The desire to find these rich cities had been the constant urge in the prolonged efforts of Guzman to explore and conquer the vast area to the north of Mexico. But by 1536, just before he was removed from office, he had suc- ceeded in advancing only as far as Culiacan, long to remain the northern- most Spanish settlement on the west coast. Equally anxious to reach the golden lands of the mysterious north, of which he had also heard, was the experienced and energetic conqueror of Mexico. Cortes dispatched not less than four exped itions along the western coast in the years between 1530 and 1535. With his title of Marques del Valle de Oaxaca, he obtained, in 1530, extensive privileges to continue his discoveries on the Pacific coast. But his efforts had resulted so far only in the discovery of the Peninsula of California. 2 1 Pedro de Castaneda, "Narrative," in Winship, The Coronado E xpedition, 1 540- 1542. (Fourlee11//1 American Report of t/1e Bureau of Et/1110/og,y), 472-47 3 . Ban- delier in his Contributions, 172 and notes, points out that Mexico City had hardly one thousand people of European descent fifteen years after its refounding in 1 524. 2 Bancroft, Nort/1 /lfe.rican Slates a11d Texas, I, 40-53 .
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