ich they had passed, aroused a strong desire
in the Spaniards to explore it, for somewhere in that direction they
believed were the Seven Cities. According to an ancient legend, when the
Arabs invaded the Spanish peninsula, a bishop of Lisbon with many
followers fled to a group of islands in the Sea of Darkness, and on them
founded seven cities. As one of the Indian tribes had preserved a story
of Seven Caves in which their ancestors had once lived, the credulous
and romantic Spaniards easily confounded the two legends. Firmly
believing that the seven cities must exist in the north country
traversed by Vaca, Mendoza, the Spanish governor of Mexico, selected
Fray Marcos, a monk of great ability, and sent him forth with a few
followers to search for them. Directed by the Indians through whose
villages he passed, he came at last in sight of the seven Zuni
(zoo'-nyee) pueblos (pweb'-loz) of New Mexico, all of which were
inhabited in his time. But he came no nearer than just within sight of
them. For one of the party, who went on in advance, having been killed
by the Zuni, Fray Marcos hurried back to Culiacan. Understanding the
name of the city he had seen to be Cibola (see'-bo-la), he called the
pueblos the "Seven Cities of Cibola," and against them the next year
(1540) Coronado marched with 1100 men. Finding the pueblos were not the
rich cities for which he sought, Coronado pushed on eastward, and for
two years wandered to and fro over the plains and mountains of the West,
crossing the state of Kansas twice.[1]

[Footnote 1: Do not fail to read a delightful little book called _The
Spanish Pioneers_, by Charles F. Lummis. In it the story of these great
journeys is told on pp. 77-88, 101-143.]

[Illustration: The kind of cities found by Marcos and Coronado in the
Rio Grande valley.]

[Illustration: CORONADO'S EXPEDITION 1540]

%13. The Spaniards on the Mississippi.%--In 1537 De Soto was
appointed governor of Cuba, with instructions to conquer and hold all
the country discovered by Narvaez. On this mission he set out in May,
1539, and landed at Tampa Bay, on the west coast of our state of
Florida. He wandered over the swamps and marshes, the moss-grown
jungles, and the forests of the Gulf states, and spent the winter of
1541 near the Yazoo River. Crossing the Mississippi in the spring of
1542 at the Chickasaw Bluffs, he wandered about eastern Arkansas, till
he died of fever, and was buried in the Mississippi. His follower