Pedro de Castaneda de Najera on the Search for the Seven Cities of Cibola, 1540

857 Words4 Pages
PEDRO DE CASTANEDA DE NAJERA ON THE SEARCH FOR THE SEVEN CITIES OF CIBOLA,1540 In the 1530 when the president of New Spain was Nuno de Guzman. There was a an indian person born in the valley of Oxitipar who spainards called Tejo. Told a story of when he was a child how he and his father had traveled inland an brought back huge amounts of gold and silver, which there was said to be a great amount in that land. A couple years after this Guzman went on an expedition and only made it to Casaneda’s Town of culiacan, far south from the rio grande. By 1538, Tejo died and Guzman had been removed from his postion and Antonio Mednoza appointed Coronado as governor. At this time 3 spainards had arrived traveling from the road Culican. One called Cabeza de Vaca, the other Donates, and Castillo Maldonado, and also a Negro. They had all come from a lost fleet of Panfilo de Narvaez in Florida. They informed Don Antonio de Mendoza that the land they travelled through had heard of powerful cities, four to five stories high. Antonio then informed Cornado who then set out to find the Cities. As soon as Coronado arrived at Culican. He sent his people out to search for the city. Once separated from the others Estaban the negro brought along for the search, decided he wanted to go for the honorr and reputation for discovering the high and mighty cities. He then took followers from the villages with him on his journey. However when he came to Cibola the villagers there lodge him in a closed space while elders and rulers sought out to understand why he had come. After him telling them the story of who sent him they consulted and thought of Estaban as a spy and ended up killing him. After Estaban’s death those followers of his who were left to leave and return home ran into some of Cornado’s men, who were also sent out in search and were told the sad news by Estaban’s followers. As word

More about Pedro de Castaneda de Najera on the Search for the Seven Cities of Cibola, 1540

Open Document