CORONADO

I’m calling this item School Daze because that’s what it is, really: So called "American" history in the U.S. is generally taught as beginning with the establishment of British colonies. The first permanent British settlement was Jamestown (in Virginia) begun in 1607. The ship Mayflower, bringing English pilgrims to Plymouth (in Massachusetts), landed in 1620.

However: Starting from what is now called Mexico City, Coronado’s expedition reached the Indian village of Alcanfor (at present-day Albuquerque) in 1540. Since what he was seeking was the presumed wealth of the Seven Cities of Cibola, the military force did not locate the kinds of riches they expected, and so Coronado led it back to Mexico without founding a colony. This expedition did provide information that led to Don Juan de Onate’s founding in 1595 of San Juan (in New Mexico) at what had been to that time the Tiguex pueblo of Caypa.

Herbert E. Bolton, Coronado: Knight of Pueblos and Plains, (Albuquerque: Univ. of New Mexico Press, 1949), pp. 410-411, provides a more detailed account, some of which you’ve already heard.