60 VOYAGE OF ALARCON. [1540. 



adorned with jewels ; yet he was assured, by the people, that this 

 was the smallest of the cities, and far inferior, in extent arid mag- 

 nificence, to one called Totonteac, situated more towards the north- 

 west. The inhabitants of Cibola had, at first, been hostile to the 

 Spaniards, and had killed the negro ; but they had, in the end, 

 manifested a disposition to embrace Christianity, and to submit to 

 the authority of the king of Spain, in whose name Friar Marcos 

 had taken possession of the whole country, by secretly erecting 

 crosses in many places. 



These, and other things of a similar kind, gravely related by a 

 respectable priest, who professed to have witnessed what he described, 

 were universally admitted to be true ; and the viceroy Mendoza, 

 having communicated them to his sovereign, began to prepare for 

 the reduction of the new countries, and the conversion of their 

 inhabitants to Christianity. Cortes, however, insisted on continuing 

 his discoveries in the same direction, apparently giving little credit 

 to the statements of Friar Marcos ; while his old companion in arms, 

 the redoubtable Pedro de Alvarado, claimed to undertake the con- 

 quest in virtue of a capitulation recently concluded between himself 

 and the emperor. Hernando de Soto, likewise, who had just 

 obtained a commission for the discovery of Florida, declared the 

 seven cities to be within his jurisdiction ; and Nurio de Guzman 

 protested that his own right was the best, and with some reason, in 

 consequence of his labors in the subjugation and settlement of New 

 Galicia, of which he maintained that the rich countries formed 

 part. After these disputes had lasted some months, a compromise 

 was made between the viceroy and Alvarado, agreeably to which 

 the latter was to command the expedition destined for the reduction 

 of the rich territories in the north-west ; and, about the same time, 

 Cortes returned in disgust to Spain, where he passed the remaining 

 seven years of his life in vain efforts to recover his authority in 

 Mexico, or to obtain indemnification for his losses. 



The viceroy Mendoza had, however, immediately on receiving the 

 news of the discoveries from Friar Marcos, sent two bodies of armed 

 forces, the one by land, the other by sea, to reconnoitre the rich 

 countries, and prepare the way for their conquest. 



The marine armament consisted of two ships, commanded by 

 Fernando de Alarcon, who sailed from the port of Santiago on the 

 9th of May, 1540, and, proceeding along the coast towards the 

 north-west, reached the extremity of the Gulf of California in 

 August following. There he discovered a great river, which he 



