unities
came to be called by the Spaniards, was at once begun.

Guzman, just then at the head of affairs in New Spain, zealously set
forth at the head of four hundred Spanish soldiers, and a large
following of Indians, to search for this marvelous country. But the
farther north the army marched the more distant became Cibola in the
report of the natives whom they met on the way; until at last the
invaders became involved in the pathless deserts of New Mexico and the
intricate ravines of the foothills beyond. The soldiers grew mutinous,
and Guzman returned, crestfallen, to Mexico.

In April, 1528, three hundred enthusiastic young nobles and gentlemen
from Spain landed at Tampa Bay, under the leadership of Narvaez, whom
Cortez supplanted in the conquest of Mexico. Narvaez had been given a
commission to hold Florida, with its supposed wealth of mines and
precious stones, and to become its governor. Led by the customary
fables of the natives, who told only such tales as they supposed their
Spanish tormentors wished most to hear, the brilliant company wandered
hither and thither through the vast swamps and forests, wasted by
fatigue, famine, disease, and frequent assaults of savages. At last,
after many distressing adventures, but four men were left--Cabeza de
Vaca, treasurer of the expedition, and three others. For eight long
years did these bruised and ragged Spaniards wearily roam across the
region now divided into Texas, Indian Territory, Oklahoma, New Mexico,
and Arizona--through tangled forests, across broad rivers, morasses,
and desert stretches beset by wild beasts and men; but ever spurred on
by vague reports of a colony of their countrymen to the southwest. At
last (May, 1536), the miserable wanderers, first to make the
transcontinental trip in northern latitudes, reached the Gulf of
California, where they met some of their fellow countrymen, who bore
them in triumph to the City of Mexico, as the guests of the
province....

In that golden age of romance travelers were expected to gild their
tales, and in this respect seldom failed to meet the popular demand.
The Spanish conquistadores, in particular, lived in an atmosphere of
fancy. They looked at American savages and their ways through Spanish
spectacles; and knowing nothing of the modern science of ethnology,
quite misunderstood the import of what they saw. Beset by the national
vice of flowery embellishment, they were also pardonably ignorant of
savage life,