COEONADOS MARCH. 311 



pliilo de Karvaez had conducted to Florida, and after crossing the 

 conutry from one sea to the other had reached Mexico. 



The tales they told were qnite marvelous. They stated to the then 

 nceroy, Don Antonio de Mendo^a, that they had carefully observed the 

 country through which they had passed, and had been told of great and 

 powerful cities, containing houses of foiir or five stories, &c. The vice- 

 roy' communicating these declarations to the new governor, Francisco 

 Vasquez de Coronado, the latter set out with haste to the i)rovince of 

 Culiacan, taking with him three Franciscan friars, one of whom, by 

 name Marcos de Ni^a, in the language of the chronicler Castaneda, was 

 theologian* and priest. As soon as he reached Culiacan he dispatched 

 the three Franciscans, with the negro Stephen before mentioned, on a 

 journej' of discovery, with orders to return and report to him all they 

 could ascertain by persona;l observation of the seven celebrated cities. 

 The monks, not being well pleased with the negro on account of his 

 excessive avarice, sent him in advance to pacify the Indians through 

 whose country he had previously passed, and to prepare the way for the 

 successful prosecution of their joiu^ney. Stephen, as soon as he reached 

 the country of the " seven cities of Cibola," demanded, as Castaiieda 

 says, not only their wealth but their women. 



The inhabitants not relishing this killed him and sent back all the 

 others that had accompanied him, except the youths, whom they retained. 

 The former, flying to their homes, encountered the monks before men- 

 tioned, in the desert sixty leagues from Cibola.* When the holy fathers 

 heard the sorrowful intelligence of the death of Stephen, they became 

 so greatly alarmed that, no longer trusting even the Indians who had 

 accompanied the negro, they gave them all they possessed except the 

 ornaments used in the celebration of the mass, and forthwith returned, 

 by double-days' journey, witliout knowing more of the country than the 

 Indians had told them. The monks returning to Culiacan, reported 

 the results of their attempted journey to Coronado, and gave 

 him such a glowing description of all the negro had discovered and of 

 what the Indians had told them, "as well as of the islands filled with 

 treasure, which they were assured existed in the Southern sea," t that he 

 decided to depart immediately for Mexico, taking with him Friar Mar- 

 cos de M§a, in order that he might narrate all he had seen to the vice- 

 roy. He also magnified the importance of the discovery by disclosing 

 it only to his nearest friends, and by pledging them to secrecy. 



Arrived at Mexico, he had an interview with the viceroy, and pro- 

 claimed everywhere that he had found "the seven cities" searched for 

 by jSTuiio de Guzman, and busied himself with i)reparing an exi^edition 

 for their conquest. Friar Marcos having been made, through the influ- 

 ence of the monks, the pi'ovincial of the Franciscans, their pulpits re- 



logical Society, states tliat the river referred to above, wliose current vras so strong 

 and which Narvaez's party could not stem, was the Mississippi ; hut this is not the view 

 of Mr. Smith, who has laid down the routes of Narvaez and party as extending no 

 further west than Leaf River, which lies to the eastward of the Mississippi Eiver. His 

 idea, however, that the island of Santa Eosa, at the mouth of Pensacola Baj-, was 

 Malliado, I think erroneous, for the reason that Cahega de Vaca expressly says this 

 island was " half a league broad and five leagues (or seventeen miles) long," whereas 

 Santa Rosa Island, according to the maps, is as much as forty-seven miles long. It is 

 possible, however, that by accretions the island may,have attained this length since 

 Cabega de Vaca was wrecked upon it. 



* So says Castaneda ; but Marcos de Niga, in his account of his journey, distinctly 

 states that he approached so near the city of Cibola that from a liigli elevation he could 

 see the houses, and gives quite a particular description of them. (Relation of Friar 

 Marcos de Nifa, Ternaux Compaus' Collections, p. 279.) 



tCastaiieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 16. 



