Tom Hams

The 16th-century Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (c. 1510-1554) was serving as governor of an important province in New Spain (Mexico) when he heard reports of the so-called Seven Golden Cities located to the north. He followed the Sinaloan coast northward, keeping the Gulf of California on his left to the west until he reached the northernmost Spanish settlement in Mexico, San Miguel de Culiacán , about March 28, 1540, whereupon he rested his expedition before they began trekking the inland trail.

Four arduous months later, Coronado led an advance group of cavalrymen to the first city of Cíbola, which in reality was the Zuni Pueblo town of Hawikuh, located in what would become New Mexico When disney's coronado springs resort restaurants the Indians resisted Spanish efforts to subdue the town, the better-armed Spaniards forced their way in and caused the Zunis to flee; Coronado was hit by a stone and wounded during the battle.

Vázquez de Coronado set out from Compostela on February 23, 1540, at the head of a much larger expedition composed of about 400 European men-at-arms (mostly Spaniards ), 1,300 to 2,000 Mexican Indian allies, four Franciscan friars (the most notable of whom were Juan de Padilla and the newly appointed provincial superior of the Franciscan order in the New World, Marcos de Niza ), and several slaves, both natives and Africans.

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One component carried the bulk of the expedition's supplies, traveling via the Guadalupe River and Gulf of California under the leadership of Hernando de Alarcón 3 The other component traveled by land, along the trail on which Friar Marcos de Niza had followed Esteban.

A string of Indian settlements built near what is now west-central New Mexico (near the Arizona border) by the Zuni Pueblo tribes inspired tales of the Seven Golden Cities of Cíbola, the mythic empire of riches that Francisco Vázquez de Coronado was seeking in his expedition of 1540-42.