Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján
turquoises and knew of larger and wealthier villages than their own.
The first European to enter what is now Arizona was probably Fray Marcos de Niza in 1539.* The
viceroy, Antonio de Mendoza, had selected the Franciscan to lead a small party north. Accompanying
Fray Marcos was a Negro who was one of the survivors in Cabeza de Vaca's party. This Negro, now a
slave of Mendoza, was still called Estevan de Dorantes, after his former master. The party also
included Fray Onorato and a number of Piman Indians who had come to Mexico with Cabeza de Vaca.
Traveling northward the friar sent Estevan ahead with instructions to send back reports on what he
found. According to Marcos' report he went up the Sonora river valley and, after traveling eighty miles
across Sonora, reached the San Pedro river. There he found the Indians he called Pintados (because
his Pima guides called them Rsarsavina meaning spotted.) As the friar continued for five days down
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