arro, attempted to find a second Peru in
the north, and became the discoverer of the Mississippi. From Mexico other
adventurers set out, with equal hopes, in search of empire and treasure.
Some went south to the conquest of Central America, others north to
California and New Mexico. The latter region was the seat of the fancied
Seven Cities of Cibola, the search for which it is here proposed to
describe.

In 1538 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was appointed governor of New
Galicia, as the country lying north of Mexico was named, and sent out a
certain Fray Marcos, a monk who had been with Pizarro in Peru, on a
journey of exploration to the north. With him were some Indian guides and
a negro named Estevanico, or Stephen, who had been one of the survivors of
the Narvaez expedition to Florida and had travelled for years among the
Indians of the north. He was expected to be of great assistance. As the
worthy friar went on he was told of rich regions beyond, where the people
wore ornaments of gold, and at length he sent the negro in advance to
investigate and report. Stephen was to send back by the Indians a cross,
the size of which would indicate the importance of what he had learned.
Within four days messengers returned with a great cross the height of a
man, significant of great and important discoveries.

One of the Indians told the friar that thirty days' journey from the point
they had reached was a populous country called Cibola, in which were seven
great cities under one lord, peopled by a civilized nation that dwelt in
large houses well built of stone and lime, some of them several stories in
height. The entrances to the principal houses were richly wrought with
turquoise, which was there in great abundance. Farther on they had been
told were other provinces, each of them much greater than that of the
seven cities.

Two days after Easter, 1539, Fray Marcos set out on the track of his
pioneer, eager to reach the land of wonders and riches of which he had
been told. Doubtless there rose in his mind dreams of a second Mexico or
Peru. The land through which lay his route was strange and picturesque.
Here were fertile valleys, watered by streams and walled in by mountains;
there were narrow canons through which ran rapid streams, with rock-walls
hundreds of feet high and cut into strange forms of turrets and towers.

As he went on he heard more of the seven cities and the distant kingdoms,
and of the abundance of turqu