Myths of lost cities of gold were a common component of reports from early European exploration in the New World, particularly among Spanish explorers seeking wealth and glory. None of them were ever found: El Dorado, Cibola, Quivira, and Antillia, to name a few. However, that did not stop countless explorers and adventurers from seeking them, often at a great cost in both human and material terms. Francisco Coronado launched the most concentrated effort to locate the Seven Cities of Gold, or Cibola, from 1540 to 1542. While never finding the vast riches he hoped to claim for Spain, his expedition made great strides in mapping the American Southwest.
Earliest Legends
The legend of golden cities emerged in Europe long before the New World was discovered and explored. When the Moors overran the Iberian peninsula early in the eighth century, it was said that the bishop of Oporto in Portugal and six other bishops gathered their followers with their wealth and fled westward across the Atlantic. They settled on an island farther west than any sailor had ever gone and named it Antillia. It was often shown as a rectangular island set on a north-south axis with seven deep bays. They burned the ships so no one could disclose their location, and each bishop established a great, golden city on a portion of the island at each inlet. For generations the people flourished in their hideaway, cut off from the rest of Europe.
When Christopher Columbus began exploring the Americas, many assumed that one of the Caribbean islands was the legendary Antillia. The closest any explorer came to finding vast riches was the discovery of gold earrings and jewelry worn by natives of Hispaniola. The natives, called the Taino, claimed that there were rich mines far inland in the mountainous valley of Cibao. Columbus sent several expeditions to conquer the region and find the source, but no precious metals or jewels were ever discovered. Today, Cibao is a poor agricultural region of the Dominican Republic. It is important, however, because it is the earliest usage of a term for a land of gold that resembles “Cibola.”
Cibola in the Americas
Through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, several explorers left Western Europe to cross the Atlantic. One of the lures drawing them was the hope of finding the riches of the Seven Cities of Antillia. In the sixteenth century, after Spanish explorers failed to find any sign of the Seven Cities anywhere in the Caribbean islands, some cartographers placed the cities on the mainland of North America.
Juan Ponce de León sailed on Christopher Columbus’s second expedition to the Americas in 1493. He settled in what is now the Dominican Republic, serving as a provincial governor. He heard rumors of gold on a neighboring island (Puerto Rico) and brutally claimed it for Spain. He then received orders to find and take the island of Bimini, said to contain riches and a legendary spring of water that could revive body and soul: the fountain of youth. After failing to find either on any island he encountered, he did come upon a territory he named Pascua Florida. The region quickly became the focus of intense speculation due to native stories of extraordinarily wealthy kingdoms lying far inland.
Stories of Hernán Cortés’s discovery of Tenochtitlan in 1519, a huge and magnificent city in central Mexico, spread quickly throughout Spanish colonies in the West Indies. If one opulent kingdom was found, it was only logical to assume there were more to discover. One Spanish commander after another led expeditions into Florida, determined to find riches where their predecessors had failed. One group, led by a greedy and arrogant conquistador named Pánfilo de Narváez, suffered the loss of all but four of his men. One of the remaining members was an officer named Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. After more than seven years of wandering across what is now Texas, New Mexico, and northern Mexico and living with native tribes, the four survivors finally made their way back to civilization. They were escorted to Mexico City, the Spanish capital of New Spain, built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan. They repeated the tales they had heard about a region to the distant north that was the source of the riches coveted by Europeans. They had not seen the lands, but they respected the tribes they spent so much time with and believed in their tales. The most promising story focused on a region the natives called Cibola, where seven cities each equaled or surpassed the wealth of any Aztec or Incan city in the past. Spanish Christians recognized the similarities between these stories and those of the seven golden cities of Antillia. The governor of the city wanted to find the cities and claim them for Spain, but rather than launch a major expedition, he decided to send a small scouting party first.
A priest named Fray Marcos de Niza, who had seen the riches of Cuzco, headed the expedition. Their guide was a Spanish slave named Estevan (or Estevanico), a black Moor from Morocco and one of the four survivors of the Narváez expedition. The governor wanted de Vaca to go, but he chose to return to Spain. There he continued to hint at the existence of rich Indian cities, inspiring additional ventures to the region.
As Fray Marcos’s small group reached the region of present-day Arizona, Fray Marcos sent Estevan ahead to scout the land of the Zuni. He was supposed to observe from a distance and send a runner back with a cross if he saw Cibola. Several days later, the messenger returned with a large cross, so Fray Marcos approached the city, only to hear that the suspicious Zuni had killed Estevan. Against orders to simply observe, Estevan had rushed forward to be the first to enter Cibola in the hopes of receiving a reward. He was captured, questioned, and executed. Far in the distance, Fray Marcos saw the sun reflecting on a Zuni pueblo, which he mistook for the shine of gold. He returned with stories of having seen a towering city of gold standing high on a hill with the Pacific Ocean off to the west, though he never went any closer. His story convinced the Spanish that there was great wealth in the north that could be claimed for Spain. The acting governor, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, brought them to Mexico City to tell the viceroy about the Seven Cities of Cibola.
Fray Marcos de Niza made a confidential report to Viceroy Mendoza, but the contents were difficult to suppress. While never specifically mentioning gold in his report, he said Cibola was filled with precious items, and the native Zuni were quite aggressive in protecting their wealth. Stories of the Seven Cities of Cibola spread quickly, increasing in exaggeration as they traveled. Soon, people said the doors were covered with every jewel known to mankind, the people wore silks and elegant jewelry, and they spoke Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs. Speculation flew, until the viceroy felt compelled to announce his plan to launch an expedition before anyone else could mount a campaign.
Coronado’s Search for Cibola
Viceroy Mendoza commissioned Coronado to lead an expedition to find Cibola in the spring of 1540. The group included more than 300 soldiers, cavalry, and infantry. They also brought several priests, approximately 1,000 native allies, close to 1,000 extra horses, herds of cattle and pigs for food, and several heavy cannons. The arms indicate Coronado’s orders were to conquer and claim Cibola, rather than establish trade with the cities.
At the town of Culiacán, one of the northernmost outposts of the colony, Coronado stopped and split his force into two groups. The main body stayed behind to follow at a later date, while Coronado led a smaller group of one hundred soldiers and Fray Marcos de Niza northward. After a full month of steady marching, they crossed the Gila River in western New Mexico and passed through the Colorado River plateau. Running low on supplies, Fray Marcos urged them on, claiming that Cibola was close.
In early July 1540, Coronado’s small army arrived at the walls of Hawikuh. The Spaniards, expecting to see riches and comforts equal to Mexico City, were angered to see the bare adobe buildings and plain clothes of the local Zuni people. Many of the soldiers were ready to turn on Fray Marcos for lying about what he had seen. The Zuni were equally unhappy to see the hungry strangers camped outside their town. Rather than waste valuable time in negotiation, Coronado decided to dismiss his interpreters and had his soldiers attack the town. The Zuni resisted, but their bows, arrows, and slings had little impact against the Spanish guns and crossbows. The Spanish quickly took over the town and feasted on the food stores found there. Coronado used the town as a base and renamed it Granada. The group set out to conquer surrounding towns, noting that none had much gold or precious stones. The Hopi pueblos to the north were also conquered easily. Coronado sent messengers back to Mexico City to update the viceroy and return de Niza, who had become very unpopular with the soldiers. While the military aspects of the venture were successful, the economic reward was quite disappointing.
The main body of the expedition arrived after issues with the Zuni and Hopi were settled. Coronado decided to winter in a cluster of twelve Tigua villages called Tiguex in the Rio Grande valley, near present-day Albuquerque. Relations with the natives were initially friendly, but pressures on the food supply from the Spanish occupation and attacks on the native women antagonized the Tigua and they attacked. Coronado retaliated without mercy, to serve as an example to other tribes.
Coronado refused to return to Mexico City empty-handed and split his group again. One band was sent west to search across the region that is New Mexico and Arizona today, to investigate rumors of a great river running through red mountains. These men became the first Europeans to view the Grand Canyon. Another group was sent east to find a large pueblo village called Ácoma. They explored as far as the Pecos River in Texas. They returned to the base camp with a native that they referred to as “El Turco” or the Turk. The Turk told stories of a large city called Quivira in a golden land far to the north. Quivira was a fantastic place where fish grew to the size of horses, the locals sailed on huge ships, and dinnerware was made of solid gold. He had gold bracelets from Quivira to prove it, but they had been stolen.
The winter turned very cold and the Spaniards waited for the spring thaw. Most of the natives retreated to the mountains, no longer trusting the soldiers to barter peacefully. Coronado’s men grew hungry. There were numerous skirmishes over the winter, resulting in the deaths of several of Coronado’s men and many more Native Americans.
When the spring of 1541 arrived, the Spaniards were ready to move. Why they were ready to believe the Turk’s exaggerated stories is a mystery; after all, de Niza’s more plausible tales of Cibola were proven to be lies. Coronado and his men must have been desperate to find riches to surpass those found by Cortés with the Aztecs. They set out for Quivira with the Turk as a guide, heading northeast.
The party found themselves on the Great Plains of present-day Kansas. Huge bison herds provided all the food they could eat, and the native Apache were relatively friendly, unaware of the Spaniards’ reputation. It was obvious to the men that there was no gold to be found in the plains, and they chained the Turk. Coronado split his remaining group again, suspicious of the Turk’s truthfulness. He took thirty-six men as a scouting party and sent the rest back to Tiguex. A month later, the group found themselves near present-day Dodge City, Kansas, where they encountered a hunting party from Quivira. The friendly natives brought them back and confirmed their worst fears. Instead of golden cities, they found a village of straw-thatched homes and fields of corn, squash, and beans. After questioning the natives and finding there was no wealth, Coronado ordered the Turk killed and they returned to Tiguex in time for winter.
Through another cold and dreary winter, relations between the Spanish and the natives remained low. There was also dissension within the Spanish camp. Soldiers resented the officers taking the best clothing and food. After two years in the wilderness, the men’s clothes were in tatters. To make matters worse, Coronado was almost trampled to death by a horse. He remained critically ill all winter, but was well enough by April 1542 to attempt a return trip to Mexico. Many of the soldiers were still angry with the officers and left the party at will to raid and plunder native villages on the route south.
In late autumn 1542, Coronado appeared before Viceroy Mendoza with barely one hundred men left in his army and no riches at all. He reported finding nothing but adobe villages and half-naked natives, and said that all the stories of golden cities were lies. Mendoza was infuriated, but did not blame Coronado for the lack of gold. He was reappointed governor of New Galicia. He lost the position and was forced into bankruptcy in 1544. He retired to Mexico City, where he died in 1554.
Though the quest to find the Seven Golden Cities of Cibola failed, the search for it had far-reaching consequences. Coronado and his lieutenants charted a great deal of territory across the Southwest, noting rivers, terrain, well-established native trails for easier travel, and available resources. Spanish maps became far more accurate. Coronado’s travels finally put an end to the belief that there was a golden kingdom available to plunder. As a result, Spain lost interest in the region for decades.
Jill M. Church
See also Atlantis; Fountain of Youth
Further Reading
Allen, Anne B. 1997. “Estévanico the Moor.” American History 32 (3): 36–41, 62.
Buker, George E. 1992. “The Search for the Seven Cities and Early American Exploration.” Florida Historical Quarterly 71 (2): 155–168.
Hoig, Stan. 2012. Came Men on Horses: The Conquistador Expeditions of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado and Don Juan de Oñate. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
Koch, Peter O. 2009. Imaginary Cities of Gold: The Spanish Quest for Treasure in North America. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Varnum, Robin. 2014. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca: American Trailblazer. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Cibola or Cities of Gold—Primary Document
Sir Walter Raleigh on El Dorado (1596)
During the Age of Discovery, explorers gave birth to the famous legend of El Dorado, a lost kingdom of vast wealth and riches somewhere in the region of present-day Venezuela and the Guianas. The legend began with stories circulated by Spanish conquistadores of a remote city known locally as Manoa, where precious jewels and gold coins were there for the taking. In this document, English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh, inspired by the mistaken placement of Manoa on Dutch and English maps of New Spain, sets out in 1595 to claim El Dorado for Queen Elizabeth I.
It became not the former fortune, in which I once lived, to go journeys of picory [marauding]; it had sorted ill with the offices of honour, which by her Majesty’s grace I hold this day in England, to run from cape to cape and from place to place, for the pillage of ordinary prizes. Many years since I had knowledge, by relation, of that mighty, rich, and beautiful empire of Guiana, and of that great and golden city, which the Spaniards call El Dorado, and the naturals Manoa, which city was conquered, re-edified, and enlarged by a younger son of Guayna-capac, Emperor of Peru, at such time as Francisco Pizarro and others conquered the said empire from his two elder brethren, Guascar and Atabalipa, both then contending for the same, the one being favoured by the orejones of Cuzco, the other by the people of Caxamalca. I sent my servant Jacob Whiddon, the year before, to get knowledge of the passages, and I had some light from Captain Parker, sometime my servant, and now attending on your Lordship, that such a place there was to the southward of the great bay of Charuas, or Guanipa: but I found that it was 600 miles farther off than they supposed, and many impediments to them unknown and unheard. After I had displanted Don Antonio de Berreo, who was upon the same enterprise, leaving my ships at Trinidad, at the port called Curiapan, I wandered 400 miles into the said country by land and river; the particulars I will leave to the following discourse.
The country hath more quantity of gold, by manifold, than the best parts of the Indies, or Peru. All the most of the kings of the borders are already become her Majesty’s vassals, and seem to desire nothing more than her Majesty’s protection and the return of the English nation. It hath another ground and assurance of riches and glory than the voyages of the West Indies; an easier way to invade the best parts thereof than by the common course. The king of Spain is not so impoverished by taking three or four port towns in America as we suppose; neither are the riches of Peru or Nueva Espana so left by the sea side as it can be easily washed away with a great flood, or spring tide, or left dry upon the sands on a low ebb. The port towns are few and poor in respect of the rest within the land, and are of little defence, and are only rich when the fleets are to receive the treasure for Spain; and we might think the Spaniards very simple, having so many horses and slaves, if they could not upon two days’ warning carry all the gold they have into the land, and far enough from the reach of our footmen, especially the Indies being, as they are for the most part, so mountainous, full of woods, rivers, and marishes. …
And I am resolved that if there were but a small army afoot in Guiana, marching towards Manoa, the chief city of Inga, he would yield to her Majesty by composition so many hundred thousand pounds yearly as should both defend all enemies abroad, and defray all expenses at home; and that he would besides pay a garrison of three or four thousand soldiers very royally to defend him against other nations. For he cannot but know how his predecessors, yea, how his own great uncles, Guascar and Atabalipa, sons to Guiana-Capac, emperor of Peru, were, while they contended for the empire, beaten out by the Spaniards, and that both of late years and ever since the said conquest, the Spaniards have sought the passages and entry of his country; and of their cruelties used to the borderers he cannot be ignorant. In which respects no doubt but he will be brought to tribute with great gladness; if not, he hath neither shot nor iron weapon in all his empire, and therefore may easily be conquered.
And I further remember that Berreo confessed to me and others, which I protest before the Majesty of God to be true, that there was found among the prophecies in Peru, at such time as the empire was reduced to the Spanish obedience, in their chiefest temples, amongst divers others which foreshadowed the loss of the said empire, that from Inglatierra those Ingas should be again in time to come restored, and delivered from the servitude of the said conquerors. And I hope, as we with these few hands have displanted the first garrison, and driven them out of the said country, so her Majesty will give order for the rest, and either defend it, and hold it as tributary, or conquer and keep it as empress of the same. For whatsoever prince shall possess it, shall be greatest; and if the king of Spain enjoy it, he will become unresistible. Her Majesty hereby shall confirm and strengthen the opinions of all nations as touching her great and princely actions. And where the south border of Guiana reacheth to the dominion and empire of the Amazons, those women shall hereby hear the name of a virgin, which is not only able to defend her own territories and her neighbours, but also to invade and conquer so great empires and so far removed.
To speak more at this time I fear would be but troublesome: I trust in God, this being true, will suffice, and that he which is King of all Kings, and Lord of Lords, will put it into her heart which is Lady of Ladies to possess it. If not, I will judge those men worthy to be kings thereof, that by her grace and leave will undertake it of themselves.
Source: Raleigh, Sir Walter. The Discovery of Guiana, 1596. From C. W. Eliot, ed., Voyages and travels: ancient and modern, with introductions, notes and illustrations, vol. XXXIII. The Harvard classics. New York: P. F. Collier and Son, ca. 1910.