went with him once or twice, and saw some very large villages, which he compared to Mexico and its environs. He had seen seven very large towns which had streets of silver workers. It took forty days to go there from his country, through a wilderness in which nothing grew, except some very small plants about a span high. The way they went was up through the country between the two seas, following the northern direction. Acting on this information, Nuño de Guzman got together nearly 400 Spaniards and 20,000 friendly Indians of New Spain, and, as he happened to be in Mexico, he crossed Tarasca, which is in the province of Michoacan, so as to get into the region which the Indian said was to be crossed toward the North sea, in this way getting to the country which they were looking for, which was already named "The Seven Cities."[1] He thought, from the forty days of which the Tejo had spoken, that it would be found to be about 200 leagues, and that they would easily be able to cross the country. Omitting several things that occurred on this journey, as soon as they had reached the province of Culiacan, where his government ended, and where the New Kingdom of Galicia is now, they tried to cross the country, but found the difficulties very great, because the mountain chains which are near that sea are so rough that it was impossible, after great labor, to find a passageway in that region. His whole army had to stay in the district of Culiacan for so long on this account that some rich men who were with him, who had possessions in Mexico, changed their minds, and every day became more anxious to return. Besides this, Nuño de Guzman received word that the Marquis of the Valley, Don Fernando Cortes, had come from Spain with his new title,[2] and with great favors and estates, and as Nuño de Guzman had been a great rival of his at the time he was president,[3] and had done much damage to his property and to that of his friends, he feared that Don Fernando Cortes would want to pay him back in the same way, or worse. So he decided to establish the town of Culiacan there and to go back with the other men, without doing anything more. After his return from this expedition, he settled at Xalisco, where the city of Compostela situated, and at Tonala, which is called Guadalaxara,[4] and now this is the New Kingdom of Galicia. The guide they had, who was called Tejo, died about this time, and thus the name of these Seven Cities and the search for them remains until now, since they have not been discovered.[5]
- ↑ The Segunda Relacion Anónima de la Jornada que hizo Nuño de Guzman, 1529, Icazbelceta'a Docamentos para la Historia de Mexico, vol. 11, p. 303, also implies that the Dame of the "Seven Cities" had already been given to the country which he was trying to discover.
- ↑ Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca y Capitan General de la Nueva España y de la Costa del Sur.
- ↑ Guzman had presided over the trial of Cortes, who was in Spain at the time, for the murder of bis first wife seven years previously (October, 1522). See Zaragoza's edition of Suarez de Peralta's Tratado, p. 315.
- ↑ The name was changed in 1540.
- ↑ The best discussion of the stories of the Seven Caves and the Seven Cities is in Bandolier's Contributions, p. 9, ff.
