HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



17 



commanded by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, who 

 had been appointed governor of New Gallicia, in place 

 of Nuno de Guzman. The party left Culiacan on the 

 22d of April, 1540, and took their way north, follow 

 ing the course described by the friars. They found 

 the route which had been represented as easy, almost 

 impassable. They made their way over mountains, 

 and deserts, and rivers, and, in July, they reached the 

 country called Cibola by the natives, but found it a 

 half cultivated region, thinly inhabited by a people 

 destitute of the wealth and civilization they had been 

 represented as possessing. What had been represented 

 as seven great cities, were seven small towns, rudely 

 built. A few Aurquoises and some gold and silver 

 supposed to be good, constituted the amount of what 

 had been termed immense quantities of jewels, gold 

 and silver. The Spaniards took possession of the 

 country and wanted to remain and settle there. But 

 Vasquez refused to acquiesce ; and after naming one 

 of the towns he visited, Granada, he started for the 

 north-west, in search of other countries. The region 

 called Cibola by the inhabitants, which Vasquez 

 visited, is the territory now called Sonora, and is 

 situated about the head waters of the Rivers Yaqui 

 and Gila, east of the upper portion of the Gulf of 

 California. The movements of the Spaniards after 

 leaving Cibola, in August, 1540, have been the subject 

 of very vague and contradictory accounts. All that 

 is certain is, that the greater part of the force soon 

 returned to Mexico, and that Vasquez, with the 

 remainder, wandered through the interior for nearly 

 two years longer, when, being disappointed in his 

 expectations, he returned to Mexico in 1542. 



In the spring of 1542, two vessels were placed under 

 2* 



