CORONADO, WHO PENETRATED SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES BUT FOUND NOTHING BUT BEAUTIFUL SCENERY
17. Coronado's Search for Rich Cities. Stories of rich cities to the north of Mexico led Francisco Coronado with a thousand men into the rocky regions now known as New Mexico and Arizona. They looked with wonder at the Grand Cañon of the Colorado, but they found no wealthy cities or temples ornamented with gold and silver.
They pushed farther north into what is now Kansas and Nebraska, into the great western prairies with their vast seas of waving grass and herds of countless buffalo. "Crooked-back oxen" the Spaniards named the buffalo.
Coronado finds no gold or silver
But Coronado was after gold and silver, and cared nothing for beautiful and interesting scenes. Disappointed, he turned southward and in 1542, after three years of wandering, reached home in Mexico. He reported to the King of Spain that the region he had explored was too poor a place for him to plant colonies.
DE SOTO, THE DISCOVERER OF THE MISSISSIPPI
18. The Expedition to Florida. While Coronado and his men were searching in vain for hidden cities with golden temples, another band of men was wandering through the forests farther to the eastward. Hernando de Soto had been one of Pizarro's bravest soldiers. The news that this bold adventurer was to lead an expedition to Florida stirred all Spain. Many nobles sold their lands to fit out their sons to fight under so great a leader.
HERNANDO DE SOTO