had settled in Haiti. Hearing that there was gold in Porto Rico, he
explored it for Spain, in 1509 was made its governor, and in 1511 founded
the city of San Juan (sahn hoo-ahn'). After he was removed from the
governorship, he obtained leave to search for the island of Bimini.

[14] He now obtained authority to colonize the supposed island; but
several years passed before he was ready to make the attempt. He then set
off with arms, tools, horses, and two hundred men, landed on the west
coast of Florida, lost many men in a fight with the Indians, and received
a wound of which he died soon after in Cuba.

[15] The story of this remarkable march across the continent is told in
_The Spanish Pioneers_, by C. F. Lummis.

[16] There was a tradition in Europe that when the Arabs conquered Spain
in the eighth century, a certain bishop with a goodly following fled to
some islands far out in the Sea of Darkness and founded seven cities. When
the Spaniards came in contact with the Indians of Mexico, they were told
of seven caves from which the ancestors of the natives had issued, and
jumped to the conclusion that the seven caves were the seven cities; and
when Cabeza de Vaca came with his story of the wonderful cities of the
north, it was believed that they were the towns built by the bishop.

[17] At an Indian village in Mexico, Marcos heard of a country to the
northward where there were seven cities with houses of two, three, and
four stories, and that of the chief with five. On the doorsills and
lintels of the best houses, he was told, were turquoise stones.

[18] Read _The Spanish Pioneers_, by C. F. Lummis, pp. 77-88, 101-143. The
year that Coronado returned to Mexico (1542) an expedition under Cabrillo