CORONADO

Though the four survivors of the Narvaez expedition to Florida had been fortunate to return to “civilization” with their lives, they also brought news that there might be something worth looking for north of New Spain as then known.

DeVaca reported seeing in the “Village of Hearts” coral beads reportedly from the South Sea (Pacific) and turquoises and emeralds (probably malachite) reportedly from

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, “La Relación… ,” trans. Fanny Bandelier, The Journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and his Companions from Florida to the Pacific, 1528-1536,” (New York: A. S. Barnes & Company, 1905), p. 157:

… some very high mountains toward the north, where they traded for them with feather-bashes and parrot plumes, and they said also that there were villages with many people and very big houses.

p. 166:

"From … the river of Petutan to the river which Diego de Guzman [the Spaniard slave catcher/marauder] reached, there may be, from the place where we first heard of the Christians, eighty leagues; thence to the village where the rain overtook us, twelve 1eagues; and from there to the South Sea [Pacific] twelve leagues. Throughout all that country, wherever it is mountainous, we saw many signs of gold, antimony, iron, copper and other metals.

pp. 182-183:

During all that time we crossed from one ocean to the other, and from what we very carefully ascertained there may be, from one coast to the other and across the greatest width, two hundred leagues. We heard that on the shores of the South there are pearls, great wealth, and that the richest and best is near there.

● Get book