From the time of the appearance in Mexico, in 1536, of Alvar NuÑez Cabeza de Vaca of the ill-fated Narvaez expedition of nine years before, with definite news of the hitherto unknown north, there had been a strong desire to explore that region, but nothing of importance was accomplished until 1539. In that year Fray Marcos of Nice, the Father Provincial of the Franciscan order in New Spain, with EstÉvan, the negro companion of Cabeza de Vaca, as a guide, penetrated the country to the northwest as far as the Seven Cities of Cibola, the villages of the ancestors of the present ZuÑi Indians in western New Mexico. EstÉvan, preceding Fray Marcos by a few days and accompanied by natives whom he gathered en route, reached Hawikuh, the southernmost of the seven towns, where he and all but three of his Indian followers were killed. The survivors of this massacre fled back to Fray Marcos, whose life was now threatened by those who had lost their kindred at the hands of the ZuÑis; but the friar, fearful that the world would lose the knowledge of his discoveries, appeased the wrath of his Indians by dividing among them the goods he had brought and induced them to continue until he reached a mesa from which was gained a view of the village in which EstÉvan had met his fate. Here Fray Marcos erected a cross, took possession of the region in the name of Spain, and hastened back to Mexico "with more fear than victuals."

The glowing accounts which the friar gave of what he had seen, and particularly of what he believed the Indians intended to communicate to him, resulted in another expedition in the following year (1540). This was planned by the Viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza, and the command was given to Francisco Vazquez de Coronado.

The elaborate expedition of Coronado is the subject of the narrative of a private soldier in his army, Pedro de CastaÑeda, a native of NÁjera, in the province of LogroÑo, in the upper valley of the Ebro, in Old Castile. Of the narrator little is known beyond the fact that he was one of the colonists who settled at San Miguel Culiacan, founded by NuÑo de Guzman in 1531, where he doubtless lived when Coronado's force reached that point in its northward journey, and where, more than twenty years later, he wrote his account of the expedition and its achievements. The dates of CastaÑeda's birth and death are not known, but he was born probably between 1510 and 1518. In 1554, according to a document published in the Coleccion de Documentos InÉditos del Archivo de Indias (XIV. 206), his wife, MarÍa de Acosta, with her four sons and four daughters, filed a claim against the treasury of New Spain for payment for the service the husband and father had rendered in behalf of the King.

As a rhetorician and geographer CastaÑeda was not a paragon, as he himself confesses; but although his narration leaves the impression that its author was somewhat at odds with the world, it bears every evidence of honesty and a sincere desire to tell all he knew of the most remarkable expedition that ever traversed American soil—even of exploits in which the writer did not directly participate. CastaÑeda's narration is by far the most important of the several documents bearing on the expedition, and in some respects is one of the most noteworthy contributions to early American history.

The accompanying translation, by Mr. George Parker Winship of the John Carter Brown Library, was first published, together with other documents pertaining to the expedition, in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1896), now out of print. Barring a few corrections, most of which were communicated to the present writer by Mr. Winship in 1899, the translation is here printed as it first appeared.

Mr. Winship's translation of CastaÑeda, together with the letters and the other narratives pertaining to the expedition, was reprinted, with an introduction, under the title The Journey of Coronado, 1540-1542, from the City of Mexico to the Grand CaÑon of the Colorado and the Buffalo Plains of Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska, as a volume of the "Trail Makers" series (New York, 1904).

The original manuscript of CastaÑeda is not known to exist, the Winship translation being that of a manuscript copy made at Seville in 1596. This copy, which is now in the Lenox branch of the New York Public Library, was first translated into French by Henri Ternaux-Compans, who found it in the Uguina collection in Paris and published it in Volume IX. of his Voyages (Paris, 1838).

In addition to CastaÑeda's narration there are several letters and reports that shed important light on the route traversed by the expedition, the aborigines encountered, and other noteworthy details which the student should consult. These are as follows:

1. The Relation by Fray Marcos of his entrada during the preceding year (1539), Coronado following the same route as far as the first of the Seven Cities of Cibola with Marcos as both guide and spiritual adviser. A brief bibliography of this narration is given in a note on p. 290.

2. A letter from the viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza, to the King, dated Jacona (Mexico), April 17, 1540, in which is set forth the progress of Coronado's expedition from Culiacan, and containing extracts from a report by Melchior Diaz, who had been sent forward in November, 1539, to explore the route from Culiacan to Chichilticalli, in the valley of the present Gila River, Arizona, for the purpose of verifying the reports of Fray Marcos. This letter appears in the Documentos InÉditos de Indias, II. 356, and in English in Winship's memoir in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 547, as well as in his Journey of Coronado, p. 149.

3. An important and extended letter from Coronado to Mendoza, written at Granada (as Coronado called Hawikuh, the first of the Seven Cities of Cibola), August 3, 1540. This letter appears in Italian in Ramusio's Terzo Volume delle Navigationi et Viaggi (ed. 1556), fol. 359, translated by Hakluyt, Voyages, IX. 145-169 (ed. 1904); reprinted in Old South Leaflets, Gen. Ser., No. 20. A translation from Ramusio into English appears in both of Mr. Winship's works on the expedition. It should perhaps here be mentioned that the Hakluyt translations of the Coronado documents, at least, are so unreliable as to warrant careful use.

4. The Traslado de las Nuevas, an anonymous "Copy of the Reports and Descriptions that have been received regarding the Discovery of a City which is called Cibola, situated in the New Country." This important document was written evidently by a member of the expedition while the Spaniards were at Cibola. It appears in Spanish in the Documentos InÉditos de Indias, XIX. 529, from which it was translated into English by Mr. Winship and printed in each of his memoirs.

5. The important letter of Coronado to the King, dated Tiguex (the present Bernalillo, New Mexico), October 20, 1541, after the return of the expedition from Quivira. Printed in the Documentos InÉditos de Indias, III. 363; XIII. 261; in French in Ternaux-Compans' Voyages, IX. 355; translated into English by Mr. Winship and printed in each of his memoirs, as well as in American History Leaflets, No. 13.

6. The RelaciÓn Postrera de SÍbola, y de mas de Cuatrocientas Leguas Adelante (the "Latest Account of Cibola, and of more than Four Hundred Leagues Beyond"). This important anonymous account, written apparently in New Mexico in 1541 by one of the Franciscans who accompanied the expedition, was published, both in Spanish and in English, for the first time, in Mr. Winship's Coronado Expedition (Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 566-571). In his Journey of Coronado only the translation appears (pp. 190-196).

7. The anonymous RelaciÓn del Suceso, an "Account of what happened on the Journey which Francisco Vazquez made to discover Cibola." First printed, in Spanish, in Buckingham Smith's ColecciÓn de Varios Documentos para la Historia de la Florida (1857), I. 147; it appears also, under the erroneous date 1531, in the Documentos InÉditos de Indias, XIV. 318, whereas the account was written apparently in 1541 or early in 1542. An English translation appears in each of Mr. Winship's works, and also in American History Leaflets, No. 13.

8. "Account given by Captain Juan Jaramillo of the Journey which he made to the New Country, on which Francisco Vazquez Coronado was the General." Next to CastaÑeda's narration this is the most important document pertaining to the expedition, inasmuch as it contains many references to directions, distances, streams, etc., that are not noted in the other accounts. The Jaramillo narration was written long after the events transpired, and is based on the keen memory of the writer. It is printed in Spanish in Buckingham Smith's Coleccion, I. 154, and in the Documentos InÉditos, XIV. 304. A French translation is given by Ternaux-Compans, IX. 364, and an English translation in both of Mr. Winship's works.

9. "Account of what Hernando de Alvarado and Friar Juan de Padilla discovered going in Search of the South Sea." A brief account of the journey of Alvarado from Hawikuh (Coronado's Granada) to the Rio Grande pueblos in 1540. Printed in Spanish in Buckingham Smith's Coleccion, I. 65, and in the Documentos InÉditos, III. 511. An English translation by Mr. Winship is included in each of his works on the expedition, and was printed also in the Boston Transcript, October 14, 1893. The title of this document is a misnomer, as Alvarado did not go in search of the Pacific.

10. "Testimony concerning those who went on the Expedition with Francisco Vazquez Coronado." This testimony is printed in the Documentos InÉditos de Indias, XIV. 373, and an abridgment, freely translated, is included in Mr. Winship's works.

11. Although the account of the voyage of the fleet under Hernando de Alarcon does not directly concern us, reference should perhaps be made to the sources of information regarding it. These are: Herrera's Historia General, dec. VI., lib. IX., cap. XIII. (1601-1615), and in various subsequent editions; Ramusio's Navigationi et Viaggi (1556), III., fol. 363-370; Hakluyt's Voyages, IX. 279-318 (1904); Ternaux-Compans' Voyages, IX. 299-348; Coleccion de Documentos InÉditos para la Historia de EspaÑa, IV. 218-219.

The Coronado expedition was of far-reaching importance from a geographical point of view, for it combined with the journey of De Soto in giving to the world an insight into the hitherto unknown vast interior of the northern continent and formed the basis of the cartography of that region. It was the means also of making known the sedentary Pueblo tribes of our Southwest and the hunting tribes of the Great Plains, the Grand CaÑon of the Colorado and the lower reaches of that stream, and the teeming herds of bison and the absolute dependence on them by the hunting Indians for every want. But alas for the Spaniards, the grand pageant resulted in disappointment for all, and its indefatigable leader ended his days practically forgotten by his country for which he had accomplished so much.

F. W. Hodge.