Seven Cities of Cíbola

Seven Cities of Cíbola, legendary cities of splendor and riches sought in the 16th century by Spanish conquistadores in North America. These cities were first reported by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca who, after being shipwrecked off Florida in 1528, had wandered through what later became Texas and northern Mexico before his rescue in 1536. The viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, sent an expedition in 1539 under Estéban de Dorantes, an enslaved Moroccan man who had been shipwrecked with Cabeza de Vaca, and Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan friar, to verify de Vaca’s reports. Estéban, who was the expedition’s guide, sent messages to Marcos suggesting the cities’ existence; Marcos’s subsequent reports to the viceroy resulted in another expedition, in 1540, when Mendoza dispatched Francisco Vázquez de Coronado to search for the cities. Instead of finding the legendary cities, though, Coronado encountered only Native settlements—including A:Shiwi (Zuni) pueblos, which originally had inspired the false legend—even though he explored as far north as modern Kansas.