CORONADO'S MARCH IN SEARCH OF THE "SEVEN CITIES OF CIBOLA" AND 

 DISCUSSION OF THEIR PROBABLE LOCATION. 



By Brevet Brigadier General J. H. Simpson, Colonel of Engineers, U. S. A^ 



The early Spanish explorations in Mexico in search of the " seven cities 

 of Cibola " have always been of great interest to students of American 

 history. Eeceut publications have dravrn my attention anew to the 

 vast geograi^hical field embraced in the toilsome march of Yasquez de 

 Coronado and his adventurous followers, and, having in years past been 

 engaged officially in the United States service in exploring that remote 

 region, I have been tempted to reinvestigate the grand enterprise of the 

 Mexican government in 1540, and venture to offer the following essay as 

 an expression of my well-considered views, derived, in earlj^ life, from 

 observation of the field itself, and confirmed by careful study of all the 

 authorities within my reach. Besides this, friends, in whose opinion I 

 trust, believe that my reconnoissauces of a large part of the country 

 traversed by Coronado and his followers give me some advantages in 

 the discussion of this subject over other investigators, who have not been 

 favored by personal inspection and scientific location of the important 

 points embraced in the adventurers' march, so that I now submit my 

 conclusions with less diffidence than I should have done had I not re- 

 ceived in advance their cordial encouragement. 



I must acknowledge my indebtedness to the library of the Peabody 

 Institute of this city, to the library of the Historical Society of Mary- 

 land, and to the private library of the president of this last-mentioned 

 society. Colonel Brantz Mayer, all of which have been thrown open to 

 me in my researches. I must also express my particular obligations to 

 Colonel Mayer for the very valuable aid he has afibrded me in the pre- 

 paration of this article, by the use of his excellent translation (yet in 

 manuscript) of Ternaux Compans' version of the " Eelation du Voyage 

 de Cibola," entrepris en 1540, par Pedro do Castaiieda de Nagera," pub- 

 lished in Paris in 1838. 



The arrangement of the following essay is, first, a brief narrative of 

 the march of Coronado from the city of Mexico to the " seven cities of 

 Cibola" and the province of Quivira, together with an account of the ex- 

 peditions of his subordinate officers, naval and military ; and second, 

 the discussion of the subject of the location of the important places 

 visited in the several expeditions ; and, in order to a clear understanding 

 of the text, I accompany.it with a map, for which, under my direction 

 as to details of route, I am indebted to Mr. N. H. Ilutton, civil engineer, 

 whose knowledge of IS'ew Mexico and Arizona, derived from his associa- 

 tion with Generals Whipple and Parke, as assistant engineer, in their 

 ex])lorations in ISTew Mexico and Arizona in 1853-50, has been of mate- 

 rial service to me. 



In the year 1530, Nuno de Guzman, president of New Spain, was in- 

 formed by his slave, an Indian, from the province of Tejos, situated 

 somewhere north from Mexico, that in his travels he had seen cities so 

 large that they might compare with the city of Mexico j that these 



