Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján
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
Indians who claimed to have seen cities of buildings four and five stories high, decorated with
turquoises. When the four forlorn survivors of the Florida expedition of Narvaez arrived in Mexico in
1536, they reported tales of large and powerful villages, four and five stories high. Cabeza de Vaca,
annaabi.ee 
