The Journey of Coronado, 1540-1542, from the City of Mexico to the Grand Canon of the Colorado and the Buffalo Plains of Texas, Kansas and Nebraska Page: 43 of 288

THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO

of a province called Topira,l which was to
the north of the country of Culiacan. He
started to explore this region with several of
the conquerors and some friendly Indians,
but he did not get very far, because the
mountain chains which they had to cross
were very dit-icu.lt. lie returned without
finding the least signs of a good country, and
when he got back, lie found the friars who
had just arrived, and who told such great
things about what the negro Stephen had
discovered and what they had heard from
the Indians, and other things they had heard
about the South sea and islands and other
riches, that, without stopping for anything,
the governor set off at once for the City of
Mexico, taking Friar Marcos with him, to
tell the viceroy about it. He made the
things seem more important by not talking
about them to anyone except his particular
friends, under promise of the greatest secrecy,
until after he had reached Mexico and seen
Don Antonio de Mendoza. Then it began
to be noised abroad that the Seven Cities for
which Nuno de Guzman had searched, had
already been discovered, and a beginning
was made in collecting an armed force and
in bringing together people to go to conquer
them.
The noble viceroy arranged with the
friars of the order of Saint Francis so that
'Bandelier (Contributions, p. 104) says this was
TOpia, in Durango, a locality since noted for its rich
mines.
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