Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján
The Legend of the Seven Cities
The Legend of the Seven Cities of Gold dates back to the eighth century, when the Moors of Africa
conquered Spain for Islam. The archbishop of Porto in Portugual was believed to have set sail with six
other bishops and a group of colonists and their cattle and supplies. The Christians reached land, so
the story goes, burned their ships so that no one would be tempted to return to Spain, and each
bishop built a fabulously rich city. Spanish cartographers had traditionally placed these cities on an
island somewhere in the Atlantic, but as more and more islands were explored and no cities turned up,
they began to position them at various places on the huge land mass representing the New World--
often in North America. There was also an Aztec legend of Chicomoztoc, the Seven Caves, which
seemed to give substance to the Spanish hopes.
As these stories circulated as part of the Spanish lore, tales were coming down from the north from
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