s
"keen" or "keening."

CORONADO, FRANCISCO VASQUEZ DE (c. 1500-c. 1545), Spanish explorer of
the south-western part of the United States of America. He accompanied
Antonio de Mendoza to New Spain in 1535; by a brilliant marriage, became
a leading grandee, and in 1539 was appointed governor of the province of
New Galicia. The report presented by Fray Marcos de Niza concerning the
"Seven cities of Cibola" (now identified almost certainly with the Zuni
pueblos of New Mexico) aroused great interest in Mexico; Melchior Diaz
was sent late in 1539 to retrace Fray Marcos's route and report on his
story; and an expedition under Coronado left Compostela for the "Seven
Cities" in February 1540. This expedition consisted of a provision train
and droves of live-stock; several hundred friendly Indians, Spanish
footmen, and more than 250 horsemen. Coronado, with a part of this
force, captured the "Seven Cities." The fabled wealth, however, was not
there. In the autumn (1540) Coronado was joined by the rest of his army.
Meanwhile exploring parties were sent out: Tusayan, the Hopi or Moki
(Moqui) country of north-eastern Arizona, was visited; Garcia Lopez de
Cardenas discovered and described the Grand Canyon of the Colorado; and
expeditions were sent along the Rio Grande (Tuguez), where the army
wintered. The Indians revolted but were put down. The army, reinspirited
by the tales of a plains-Indian slave[1] about vast herds of cows
(bison) on the plains, and about an Eldorado called "Quivira" far to the
N.E., started thither in April 1541, and, with a few horsemen,
penetrated at least to what is now central Kansas. Here Coronado found a
few permanent settlements of Indians; in October he was again on the Rio
Grande; and in the spring of 1542 he led his followers home. Thereafter
he practically disappears from history. The first description of the
bison and the prairie plains, the first trustworthy account of the Zuni
pueblos, the discovery of the Grand Canyon, a vast increase of the
nominal dominion of Spain and Christianity (the priests did not return
from Cibola), and a notable addition to geographical knowledge, which,
however, was long forgotten, were the results of this expedition; which
is, besides, for its duration and the vast distance covered, over
mountains, desert and plains, one of the most remarkable expeditions in
the history of American discovery. In connexion with it, in 1540,
Hernando de Alarcon ascended the Gulf