6 
The Colorado River 
intertribal highways which are found in all districts, but it was 
neither one thing nor another to him. 
So the river rolled on through its solemn canyons in prim¬ 
eval freedom, unvexed by the tampering and meddling of man. 
The Spaniards, after the picturesque conquest of the luckless 
Aztecs, were eagerly searching for new fields of profitable bat¬ 
tle, and then they 
dreamed of finding 
among the mysteries of 
the alluring northland, 
stretching so far away 
into the Unknown, a 
repetition of towns as 
populous, as wealthy in 
pure gold, as those of 
the valley of Mexico 
whose despoiled treas¬ 
ures had fired the cu¬ 
pidity of Europe and 
had crammed the strong 
boxes of the Spanish 
king. And there might 
be towns even richer! 
Who could say? An 
Amerind named Tejo, 
who belonged to Guz¬ 
man when he was presi¬ 
dent of New Spain, that 
is, about 1530, told of 
journeys he had made 
with his father, when a boy, to trade in the far north where he 
saw very large villages like Mexico, especially seven large towns 
full of silver-workers, forty days’ journey through the wilder¬ 
ness. This welcome story was fuel to the fire. Guzman organ¬ 
ised a party and started for these wonderful seven cities, but 
numerous difficulties prevented the fulfilment of his plans, and 
caused a halt after traversing but a small portion of the distance. 
Cortes had now also returned from a visit to Spain, and he and 
House Ruins on Cliff of Glen Canyon. 
There were habitations also under the heavy top 
ledge. 
Photograph by J. Fennemore, U. S. Geol. Survey. 
