In 1538 Cabeza de Vaca, after following the disastrous expedition of Pánfilo de Narvaez to Florida, set forth with four men to penetrate the vast unknown wastes to the west, and without compass or provisions they made their way, crossing the Mississippi two years before its discovery by De Soto, reached the Moqui country, and finally arrived in Sinolao with glowing tales that excited the enterprise of the Spanish conquerors and led to the founding of another expedition authorized by the viceroy, Mendoza. It fared forth under the leadership of Padre Marcos de Nizza, who (in 1539) entered the country of the Pimas, passed up the valley of the Santa Ana, and set up the cross, giving the country the name of the New Kingdom of San Francisco.
Padre de Nizza's men were all massacred by the Moquis, but he returned, as if bearing a charmed life, and set all New Spain aflame with his tales of gold and of glory, and the great opportunity to extend the work of the Holy Cross.
Mendoza then proceeded to organize two other expeditions, one under the intrepid Vasquez de Coronado and the other under Fernando Alarçon. Coronado visited the ruins of Casa Grande and at last reached the "Seven Cities," but their fabled wealth had shrunk to the sordid actualities of insignificant huts, and Coronado returned to New Spain in 1542, disappointed and dejected.
In the meantime the expedition of Alarçon had sailed up the Gulf of California (then known as the Sea of Cortez), and he discovered the Colorado and the Gila rivers, ascending the Colorado in boats up to the foot of the Grand Cañon. Then for nearly half a century no further efforts to explore this region were made. But it is interesting to note that some eighty years before the landing of the Pilgrims a Spanish expedition had penetrated into the country which is now Arizona, and have left definite record of their discoveries.
In 1582 Antonio de Espejio explored the pueblos of the Zuñi and Moqui tribes, visiting seventy-four in all, and discovering a mountain rich in silver ore. From this time New Mexico was under the rule of the Spanish conquerors.
Juan de Oñate, who married Isabel, a daughter of Cortez and a great-granddaughter of Montezuma, assumed the leadership, and about 1605 the town of Santa Fé was founded, and within the succeeding decade the Mission Fathers had built a dozen churches and their converts composed over fourteen thousand. A prominent padre in this movement was Eusebio Francisco Kino.
Santa Fé has the distinction of being the oldest town in the United States, having been established fifteen years before the landing of the Pilgrims.
The mission church of San Xavier del Bac was established at so early a date that it was in ruins in 1768, and on its site was built the present one, in the valley of Santa Cruz, some ten miles south of Tucson. This mission is a rare mingling of Ionic and Byzantine architecture, with a dome, two minarets, and castellated exterior. The front bears the coat-of-arms of the Franciscan monks—a cross with a coil of rope and two arms below—one of Cohant and the other of St. Francis d'Assisi. There are four fresco paintings, and there are more than fifty pieces of sculpture around the high altar.
"WATCH TOWER." CLIFF DWELLERS, NEW MEXICO