freedom, unvexed by the tampering and meddling of man. The Spaniards,
after the picturesque conquest of the luckless Aztecs, were eagerly
searching for new fields of profitable battle, and then they dreamed
of finding among the mysteries of the alluring northland, stretching
so far away into the Unknown, a repetition of towns as populous, as
wealthy in pure gold, as those of the valley of Mexico whose
despoiled treasures had fired the cupidity of Europe and had crammed
the strong boxes of the Spanish king. And there might be towns even
richer! Who could say? An Amerind named Tejo, who belonged to Guzman
when he was president of New Spain, that is, about 1530, told of
journeys he had made with his father, when a boy, to trade in the far
north where he saw very large villages like Mexico, especially seven
large towns full of silver-workers, forty days' journey through the
wilderness. This welcome story was fuel to the fire. Guzman organised
a party and started for these wonderful seven cities, but numerous
difficulties prevented the fulfilment of his plans, and caused a halt
after traversing but a small portion of the distance. Cortes had now
also returned from a visit to Spain, and he and Guzman were at the
point of the sword. Then shortly arrived from the north (1536), after
incredible wanderings between the Mississippi and the Rio Grande,
that man of wonderful endurance, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca,* with
his surviving companions, Dorantes, Maldonado, and Estevan. The
latter, a negro, was afterwards very prominent by his connection with
the fatal expedition sent out under the Friar Marcos to investigate
the north country. The negro, if not the other men, gave a highly
colored account of the lands they had traversed, and especially of
what they had heard, so that more fuel was added to the fire, and the
desire to explore the mysteries burned into execution. Cortes,
harassed by his numerous enemies in Mexico and Spain, determined on a
new effort to carry out his cherished plan of reaping further glories