The Seven Cities 
7 
Guzman were at the point of the sword. Then shortly arrived 
from the north (1536), after incredible wanderings between the 
Mississippi and the Rio Grande, that man of wonderful endur¬ 
ance, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca,^ with his surviving com¬ 
panions, Dorantes, Maldonado, and Estevan. The latter, a 
negro, was afterwards very prominent by his connection with 
the fatal expedition sent out under the Friar Marcos to investi¬ 
gate the north country. The negro, if not the other men, gave 
a highly colored account of the lands they had traversed, and 
especially of what they had heard, so that more fuel was added 
to the fire, and the desire to explore the mysteries burned into 
execution. Cortes, harassed by his numerous enemies in 
Mexico and Spain, determined on a new effort to carry out 
his cherished plan of reaping further glories in the fascinating 
regions of the north so full of possibilities. There conse¬ 
quently sailed from Acapulco, July 8, 1539, a fleet of three 
vessels under Francisco de Ulloa. Cortes was prevented by 
circumstances from going with this expedition. After many 
difficulties Ulloa at length found himself at the very head of 
the Sea of Cortes in shallow water. 
“ And thus sailing [he writes] we always found more shallow 
water, and the sea thick, black, and very muddy, and came at 
length into five fathom water; and seeing this we determined to 
pass over to the land which we had seen on the other side, and here 
likewise we found as little depth or less, whereupon we rode all 
night in five fathom water, and we perceived the sea to run with so 
great a rage into the land that it was a thing much to be marvelled 
at; and with the like fury it returned back again with the ebb, during 
which time we found eleven fathom water, and the flood and ebb 
continued from five to six hours.” 
The next day 
“ the captain and the pilot went up to the ship’s top and saw all the 
land full of sand in a great round compass and joining itself with 
the other shore; and it was so low that whereas we were a league 
^For a full account of the experiences of Alvar Nunez, see the translation of 
Buckingham Smith. Also Bandelier, Cojth'ibutions to the History of the South¬ 
western Portions of the United States. 
