Page:The Coronado expedition, 1540-1542.djvu/230

 Chapter 4, of how the noble Don Antonio de Mendoza made an expedition to discover Cibola.

After Francisco Vazquez Coronado had sent Friar Marcos of Nice and his party on the search already related, be was engaged in Culiacan about some business that related to his government, when he heard an account of a province called Topira, which was to the north of the country of Culiacan. He started to explore this region with several of the conquerors and some friendly Indians, but be did not get very far, because the mountain chains which they had to cross were very difficult. He returned without finding the least signs of a good country, and when he got back, he found the friars who had just arrived, and who told such great things about what the negro Stephen had discovered and what they bad beard from the Indians, and other things they had heard about the South sea and islands and other riches, that, without stopping for anything, the governor set off at once for the City of Mexico, taking Friar Marcos with him, to tell the viceroy about it. He made the things seem more important by not talking about them to anyone except his particular friends, under promise of the greatest secrecy, until after he had reached Mexico and seen Don Antonio de Mendoza. Then be began to announce that they had really found the Seven Cities, which Nuño de Guzman had tried to find, and for the conquest of which be had collected a force. The noble viceroy arranged with the friars of the order of Saint Francis so that Friar Marcos was made father provincial, as a result of which the pulpits of that order were filled with such accounts of marvels and wonders that more than 300 Spaniards and about 800 natives of New Spain collected in a few days. There were so many men of such high quality among the Spaniards, that such a noble body was never collected in the Indies, nor so many men of quality in such a small body, there being 300 men. Francisco Vazquez Coronado, governor of New Galicia, was captain general, because be had been the author of it all. The good viceroy Don Antonio did this because at this time Francisco Vazquez was his closest and most intimate friend, and because he considered him to be wise, skillful, and intelligent, besides being a gentleman. Had he paid more attention and regard to the position in which he was placed and the charge over which be was placed, and less to the estates he left behind in New Spain, or, at least, more to the honor be had and might secure from having such gentlemen under his command, things would not have turned out as they did. When this narrative is ended, it will be seen that he did not know bow to keep his position nor the government that be held.