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: 29 of 288

PREFACE
To me it seems very certain, my very
noble lord, that it is a worthy ambition for
great men to desire to know and wish to
preserve for posterity correct information
concerning the things that have happened
in distant parts, about which little is known.
I do not blame those inquisitive persons
who, perchance with good intentions, have
many times troubled me not a little with
their requests that I clear up for them some
doubts which they have had about different
things that have been commonly related con-
cerning the events and occurrences that took
place during the expedition to Cibola, or the
New Land, which the good viceroy-may he
be with God in His glory'-Don Antonio
de Mendoza, ordered and arranged, and on
which he sent Francisco Vazquez de Corona-
do as captain-general.
In truth, they have reason for wishing to
know the truth, because most people very
often make things of which they have heard,
and about which they have perchance no
knowledge, appear either greater or less than
they are. They make nothing of those
1 Mendoza died in Lima, July 21, 1552.
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