CORON ADO'S MARCH. 31 1 



philo de Narvaez bad conducted to Florida, and after crossing the 

 country from one sea to the other had reached Mexico. 



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

 viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoea, that they had carefully observed the 

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

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

 roy communicating these declarations to the new governor, Francisco 

 'Vasquez de Coromido, the latter set out with haste to the province of 

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

 name Marcos de Niga, in the language of the chronicler Castafieda, was 

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

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

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

 could ascertain by personal 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 journey. Stephen, as soon as he reached 

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

 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, without 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 tilled 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 Nica, 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 Nufio de Guzman, and busied himself with preparing an expedition 

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

 ence of the monks, the provincial of the Franciscans, their pulpits re- 



logical Society, .states that the river referred to above, whose current was so strong 

 and which Xarvae/.'s party could not stein, was the Mississippi ; but this is not the view 

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

 further west than I.mf Him; which lies to tin- eastward of the Mississippi River. His 

 idea, however, that the island of Santa Rosa, at the month of I'ensaeola Hay, was 

 Malhado, I think erroneous, for the reason that ( 'aheea de Vaca expressly says this 

 island was half a league broad and lives 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 

 Cabeea de Vaca was wrecked upon it. 



* So says CastanMa ; but Marcos de Xica. in his account of his journey, distinctly 

 states that lie approached so near t lie city of ( 'ihnla that from a high el e vat ion he could 

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

 Marcos de Nica, Ternanx Oompans' Collections, p. 271). ) 



tCastancda's Relations, Ternanx Compans, p. 16. 



