Without presenting further details of this first traverse by white men of a part of the Wilderness, it may be stated that after passing some mountains, a beautiful river, some rough dry country, many sorts of people, and divers languages, through fixed habitations and cultivated fields, they arrived at a place where the people presented them with a great many hearts of deer. In consequence they named the spot, Valle de los Corazones, and it figured conspicuously in the explorations that were to follow. It was the "entrance to the South Sea," that is, it was here they first came to waters flowing into the Pacific, via the Gulf of California; where, in fact, they crossed the great divide of the Sierra Madre of Mexico. The river they reached was the Yaqui. Here, too, they beheld the first signal of nearing their countrymen in the shape of a metallic buckle, of Spanish make, while the natives described white men with beards, of whom, with good cause, they were much afraid. The Spaniards were slave hunters. A few days later Cabeza, who with Dorantes and Maldonado resembled white men no more than did the negro Estevan, met Spaniards on horseback. They were Captain Alcaraz and several of his slave-hunting gang. The captain tried to use Cabeza as a decoy, but he was not successful. Cabeza spread a warning and his Amerind friends made their escape much to the wrath of the captain, who thereupon treated them all badly, and prevented their advance. At last, however, the four were sent on to the settlement of San Miguel de Culiacan, where they fell in with that brave and sensible officer, Melchior Diaz, and their troubles were at an end.
These wanderings, so briefly outlined, beginning at the landing on Malhado, and terminating at Culiacan, covered a space of a little over five years. The time of the continuous journey toward the Pacific Coast was about ten months. The Narvaez expedition broke up at the end of 1530. Cabeza started about August, 1535, for Mexico, and arrived among the Spaniards early in 1536. His general route was across the southern part of Texas to the Rio Grande, then perhaps some distance up that stream, and across to the great central mountain range of Mexico. Bandelier traces the route up the Conchas and over the pass of Mulatos, but it may have been, and I believe was, more to the northward.
A brilliant picture was now painted for the Spanish people by the returned wanderers, particularly by the negro Estevan, who had been specially active in securing information on the journey, for Cabeza says he "was in constant conversation with them (the natives), he informed himself about the ways we wished to take, of the towns that there were, and concerning the things of which we desired to know."[34] That is, Estevan practically made himself the guide of the party while the others attended to the "medicine" business, hence he could tell a longer story about the "populous towns" of which the people had spoken. Much was made of these "great" towns where emeralds were dug out of the mountains, and it all appeared to confirm earlier rumours of Seven Cities of fabulous wealth somewhere in the midst of the Northern Mystery. The fate of Narvaez was now forgotten in the intoxicating dream of a country rivalling the riches of the Aztecs.
There is some confusion as to one or two minor expeditions then sent northwards; evidently they did not proceed far. But in 1539 Viceroy Mendoza directed Friar Marcos of Niza to march under the guidance of Estevan and reconnoitre, with a view of following this reconnaissance by an elaborate exploration. Marcos had with him a brother friar and a number of native Mexicans. Just where he went and what he actually saw is rather uncertain, but he apparently arrived somewhere near or in the region now Arizona-New Mexico. Estevan had gone ahead and was killed for his arrogance at the first Pueblo village. Marcos soon had word of it and beat a precipitate retreat, though he claims to have approached near enough to view from a hill the wonderful magnificence of the Seven Cities.[35]
Character of the Seven Cities which Friar Marcos so glowingly Described.
Drawing by F. S. Dellenbaugh.
At this time Francis Vasquez de Coronado, an even-tempered gentleman, but withal a capable one, was governor of the infant province of New Galicia, and to him came the monk with so wonderful a tale, that Coronado immediately set out with the enthusiastic prevaricator for Mexico, and held a secret conference with Mendoza. But instructions were given to the clear-headed Melchior Diaz to follow back the friar's trail and verify his statements, and he proceeded north as far as Chichilticalli before he was obliged to return on account of extreme cold. He found nothing important. This he reported by letter to Mendoza, and with his usual good sense, he included a careful description of the now notorious Seven Cities of Cibola, obtained from natives who had lived there fifteen or twenty years, and some who had been with Estevan on his disastrous entrada. The account thus derived was absolutely truthful and accurate; it was likewise a serious damper on the enthusiasm of the soldiers of the new expedition, for it became known in spite of efforts to keep it secret. Marcos again repeated his gorgeous fabrication and expectation once more rose to the boiling point, for what was the word of a common officer against that of the distinguished monk!
Under Coronado the army went forward early in 1540, "the most brilliant company," says Castañeda,[36] "ever collected in the Indies to go in search of new lands"; and three ships were sent up the coast under Hernando de Alarçon. When they finally stood aghast before the first "city" of Cibola worn and famished, many were the curses bestowed on the imaginative friar, till Coronado, fearing he might be killed, sent him at the first opportunity back to Mexico. There were no great cities, no stores of gold, no precious stones; nothing but a common adobe village. It was easily conquered, and its capture, July 4, 1540, marks the first battle between Amerinds and Europeans on the soil of the Wilderness, now the region of Arizona-New Mexico. There was luckily plenty of maize here, and the hungry Spaniards were sadly in need of it. Though their dreams received a heavy shock, they soon again expanded with the hope of better prospects ahead, just as the gambler repeats his risk with the idea that a turn of luck is sure to retrieve waning fortune.