Chapter 1

_Which treats of the way we first came to know about the Seven Cities, and of how Nuño de Guzman made an expedition to discover them._

In the year 1530 Nuño de Guzman, who was President of New Spain,[336] had in his possession an Indian, a native of the valley or valleys of Oxitipar, who was called Tejo by the Spaniards. This Indian said he was the son of a trader who was dead, but that when he was a little boy his father had gone into the back country with fine feathers to trade for ornaments, and that when he came back he brought a large amount of gold and silver, of which there is a good deal in that country. He 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." 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,[337] and with great favors and estates, and as Nuño de Guzman had been a great rival of his at the time he was president, 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 founded Xalisco, where the city of Compostela is situated, and Tonala, which is called Guadalaxara, 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.[338]

[336] Nuño Beltrán de Guzman was appointed governor of Pánuco, Mexico, in 1526, assuming the office in May, 1527. In December he became president of the Audiencia, the administrative and judicial board which governed the province, and in the following year participated in the trial of Cortés, his personal and political enemy, for strangling his wife to death in 1522. Guzman's barbarous cruelty, especially to the natives, whom he enslaved and bartered for his personal gain, resulted in a protest to the crown by Bishop Zumárraga, and in the hope of finding new fields for the gratification of his avarice he raised a large force, including 10,000 Aztecs and Tlascaltecs, and started from Mexico late in 1529 to explore the northwest (later known as Nueva Galicia), notwithstanding Cortés had already penetrated the region.

He conquered the territory through which he passed, laying waste the settlements and fields and inflicting unspeakable punishment on the native inhabitants. Guzman built a chapel at Tonalá, which formed the beginning of the settlement of the present city of Guadalajara, named from his native town in Spain; he also founded the towns of Santiago de Compostela and San Miguel Culiacan, in Tepic and Sinaloa respectively, and started on his return journey late in 1531. Meanwhile a new Audiencia had arrived in New Spain, and Guzman was summoned to appear at the capital. This he refused to do, and when Luis de Castilla was sent by Cortés, the captain-general of the province, to subdue him, Guzman captured him and his force of 100 men by a ruse. In May, 1533, the king commanded him to submit to the provincial authorities; many of his friends and adherents deserted him, and he was stripped of his title as governor of Pánuco. In 1536 (March 17) the licentiate Diego Perez de la Torre was appointed _juez de residencia_, an officer whose duty was to conduct a rigid investigation of the accounts and administration of governmental officials--this time with special reference to Guzman. By Torre's order, Guzman was arrested and confined in jail until 1538, when his case was appealed to Spain; but from this he received no comfort. He was banished to Torrejon de Velasco, where he died in 1544, penniless and despised.

[337] Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca y Capitan General de la Nueva España y de la Costa del Sur. He arrived at Vera Cruz in July, 1529.

[338] The best discussion of the stories of the Seven Caves and the Seven Cities is in A. F. Bandelier's _Contributions to the History of the Southwestern Portion of the United States_, in _Papers of the Archaeological Institute of America_, American Series, V. (Cambridge, 1890).