472 THE CORONADO EXPEDITION, 1540-1542 [eth.ann. u 



it. Although not in a polished style, I write that which happened — 

 that which I heard, experienced, saw, and did. 



I always notice, and it is a fact, that for t he most part when we have 

 something valuable in our hands, ami deal with it without hindrance, 

 we do not value or prize it as highly as if we understood how much we 

 would miss it after we. had lost it, and the longer we continue to have it 

 the less we, value it; hut alter we have lost it ami miss the advantages 

 of it, we have a great pain in the heart, and we are all the time imag- 

 ining and trying to find ways and means by which to get it back again. 

 It seems to me that this has happened to all or most of those who 

 went on the expedition which, in the year of our Savior Jesus Christ 

 1540. Francisco Vazquez Coronado led in search of the Seven Cities. 

 Granted that they did not find the riches of which they had been told, 

 they found a place in which to search for them and the beginning of a 

 good country to settle in, so as to go on farther from there. Since they 

 came back from the country which they conquered and abandoned, time 

 has given them a chance to understand the direction and locality in which 

 they were, and the borders of the good country they hail in their hands, 

 and their hearts weep for having lost so favorable an opportunity. Just 

 as men see more at the bullfight when they are upon the seats than 

 when they are around in the ring,' now when they know and understand 

 the direction and situation in which they were, and see, indeed, that 

 they can not enjoy it nor recover it, now when it is too late they enjoy 

 telling about what they saw, and even of what they realize that they 

 lost, especially those who are now as poor as when they went there. 

 They have never ceased their labors and have spent their time to no 

 advantage. I say this because I have known several of those who came 

 back from there who amuse themselves now by talking of how it would 

 be to go back and proceed to recover that which is lost, while others 

 enjoy trying to find the reason why it was discovered at all. And now 

 I will proceed to relate all that happened from the beginning. 



FIRST PART. 



Chapter I, which treats <>f the way ice Jirst came to know about the Seven 

 Cities, and of how Nuiio de Guzman made an expedition to discover them. 



In the year 1530 Nuno de Guzman, who was President of New Spain, 2 

 had in his possession an Indian, a native of the valley or valleys of 

 Oxitipar, who was called Tejo by the Spaniards. This Indian said he 

 was the son of a trader who was dead, but that when he was a little 

 boy his father had gone into the back country with fine feathers to trade 

 for ornaments, and that when he came back he brought a large amount 

 of gold and silver, of which there is a good deal in that country. He 



1 Ternanx renders thin: "C'estainHi i|u*- 1 hom me qui HoplucederrierelaDarrierequi dans lescouraes 



di b >" h. par*- li- Hpectateur de» < omiiaiiaiits, voit blen nUeaxla position dauw laqnelle line 



tniu vait lorsqu'il Combattait <| n a]or* im-ine c | ■ j il (Halt daiiH la carrierc." 



'President, or bead, of the Audiencia, the administrative and judicial board which governed the 



province. 



