developed water men yearly lose their lives by thirst, to
say nothing of the thousands who have been killed there by Indians. But
trifles like these only whetted the appetite of the Spaniard; and Fray
Marcos kept his footsore way, until early in June, 1539, he actually
came to the Seven Cities of Cibola. These were in the extreme west of
New Mexico, around the present strange Indian pueblo of Zuni, which is
all that is left of those famous cities, and is itself to-day very much
as the hero-priest saw it three hundred and fifty years ago. At the foot
of the wonderful cliff of Toyallahnah, the sacred thunder mountain of
Zuni, the negro Estevanico was killed by the Indians, and Fray Marcos
escaped a similar fate only by a hasty retreat. He learned what he could
of the strange terraced towns of which he got a glimpse, and returned to
Mexico with great news. He has been accused of misrepresentation and
exaggeration in his reports; but if his critics had not been so ignorant
of the locality, of the Indians and of their traditions, they never
would have spoken. Fray Marcos's statements were absolutely truthful.

When the good priest told his story, we may be sure that there was a
pricking-up of ears throughout New Spain (the general Spanish name then
for Mexico); and as soon as ever an armed expedition could be fitted
out, it started for the Seven Cities of Cibola, with Fray Marcos himself
as guide. Of that expedition you shall hear in a moment. Fray Marcos
accompanied it as far as Zuni, and then returned to Mexico, being sadly
crippled by rheumatism, from which he never fully recovered. He died in
the convent in the City of Mexico, March 25, 1558.

The man whom Fray Marcos led to the Seven Cities of Cibola was the
greatest explorer that ever trod the northern continent, though his
explorations brought to himself only disaster and bitterness,--Francisco
Vasquez de Coronado. A native of Salamanca, Spain, Coronado was young,
ambitious, and already renowned. He was governor of the Mexican province
of New Galicia when the news of the Seven Cities came. Mendoza, against
the strong opposition of Cortez, decided upon a move which would rid
the country of a few hundred daring young Spanish blades with whom peace
did not at all agree, and at the same time conquer new countries for the
Crown. So he gave Coronado command of an expedition of about two hundred
and fifty Spaniards to colonize the lands which Fray Marcos had
discovered, wit