[Footnote 2: Rio Grande del Norte---Great River of the North.]

%12. "The Seven Cities of Cibola."%--The story these men told of the
strange country through which they had passed, aroused a strong desire
in the Spaniards to explore it, for somewhere in that direction they
believed were the Seven Cities. According to an ancient legend, when the
Arabs invaded the Spanish peninsula, a bishop of Lisbon with many
followers fled to a group of islands in the Sea of Darkness, and on them
founded seven cities. As one of the Indian tribes had preserved a story
of Seven Caves in which their ancestors had once lived, the credulous
and romantic Spaniards easily confounded the two legends. Firmly
believing that the seven cities must exist in the north country
traversed by Vaca, Mendoza, the Spanish governor of Mexico, selected
Fray Marcos, a monk of great ability, and sent him forth with a few
followers to search for them. Directed by the Indians through whose
villages he passed, he came at last in sight of the seven Zuñi
(zoo'-nyee) pueblos (pweb'-loz) of New Mexico, all of which were
inhabited in his time. But he came no nearer than just within sight of
them. For one of the party, who went on in advance, having been killed
by the Zuñi, Fray Marcos hurried back to Culiacan. Understanding the
name of the city he had seen to be Cibola (see'-bo-la), he called the
pueblos the "Seven Cities of Cibola," and against them the next year
(1540) Coronado marched with 1100 men. Finding the pueblos were not the
rich cities for which he sought, Coronado pushed on eastward, and for
two years wandered to and fro over the plains and mountains of the West,
crossing the state of Kansas twice.[1]

[Footnote 1: Do not fail to read a delightful little book called _The
Spanish Pioneers_, by Charles F. Lummis. In it the story of these great