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In the revival of the myths of “The Seven Cities” it was said that other parties from the Spanish settlements had visited the rich countries of the North, especially after the return of the shipwrecked wanderers. Of what they saw there, of what they reported, we are not certain. But there was a growing desire to know what those hidden regions held. Mendoza determined to find out. He sent forth an expedition commanded by Friar Marcos de Niza, who is said to have made a prior journey into that land on his own account. He had came into Mexico from […]

The march of Coronado having for its immediate object the discovery of Quivira began at Cicuye. This pueblo had been by many identified with the ruins of Pecos. If we accept Mr. Dellenbaugh’s location of Tiguex, the village of Cicuye was far south of the Pecos ruin. The direction from Cicuye was to the east by south, coming out on the Llano Estacado, where the buffalo herds were found in such numbers. Following the buffalo were found two plains tribes, the Querechos and the Teyas, now supposed to have been the Tonkawas of West-central Texas, and the Comanches. The Turk

For two generations the Spaniards sent expeditions to explore the Great Plains. They rode up and down in this magnificent land from the Ozarks to the Rocky Mountains, and from Texas to the Platte River. Vast sums were expended in these onerous ventures. But so far as the territory now embraced in Kansas is concerned, the result was nothing. The right accruing from discovery and explorations was permitted to lapse—in fact, it never was asserted. No claim of proprietorship was established to any portion of what is now Kansas. When it was determined that the plains afforded no cities to

The Spaniards called the pueblos on the Rio Grande the “first settlements.” In the year 1601, Don Juan de Onate, being at the first settlements, determined to go on an expedition “to the interior, by a northern route and direction, both because of the splendid reports which the native Indians ware giving of this land, and also because of what an Indian named Joseph, who was born and reared in New Spain and who speaks the Mexican tongue, saw while going with Captain Umana.” The force was assembled at San Gabriel, and on the 23d of June detachments began the