126 
SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
outside by means of stairs, which, for security, are removed at 
night. 
The country not being strewn with gold and gems, how¬ 
ever, as the soldiers anticipated, they propose to return. But 
Coronado sends a body of them three hundred leagues farther 
north, in search of two cities, called Quivira and Axa. They 
find only a rich country abounding in fruit, cattle and wild 
beasts. Meeting with nothing, therefore, in all these regions 
to gratify their cupidity during a search of three years, they 
return to Mexico and report to that effect. This expedition 
has traversed the interior of Upper California. The arma¬ 
ment, meantime, has sailed to the place of rendezvous on the 
Pacific coast of Oregon, and awaited in idleness the arrival 
of the land expedition. But as Grijalva was spending his time 
in searching for a land of gold, and the fabled cities of 
Quivira and Axa, instead of seeking his countrymen at the 
appointed place, the commander of the fleet found it conve¬ 
nient to return to Mexico. He is soon after disgraced and dies 
of chagrin. Thus terminate the Viceroy’s expeditions ! 
The friends of Cortez bruit this failure of his enemy to de¬ 
fraud their chief of his rights. But the star of that great 
man is sinking ; and they cannot stay its fall. Thwarted and 
overreached by his enemies, and finding the mind of his sove¬ 
reign poisoned by their machinations, he resolves to present 
himself again at Court and demand his rights. Accordingly, 
in 1540, he embarks with his two sons for Spain ; attends the 
King in his unfortunate expedition to Algiers; and after 
spending seven years in vain efforts to regain the favor of his 
monarch, expires of grief and disappointment at Castillya de 
la Cuesta, while on his way to meet his daughter at Cadiz. 
Thus dies the conqueror of Mexico and discoverer of 
California ! 
