North Americans have been riding for pleasure for the past five centuries, ever since Hernan Cortes brought the first horses to Florida in 1538, followed by explorers such as
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and Hernando de Soto.
Pointing his horsemen in the direction from which they had come, he led them back toward his commander,
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. When they returned to Mexico in disgrace in 1542, they were denounced for having failed to find a single thing of value.
The arrival of the Spanish expedition led by
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado in the 1540s is told through the eyes of one of his soldiers, Juan Troyano, a method that Kessell will use in later chapters.
He draws from information he gathered for newspaper and magazine columns about New Mexico and its history, providing biographies of figures such as Diego de Vargas,
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Billy the Kid, George Curry, Ulysses S.
Spanish conquistador
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado wrote about his travels in 1541 through the territory as did English naturalist Thomas Nuttal.
The Spanish had made their first "entrada" into the pueblo world in 1540 with
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's two-year odyssey at the head of three hundred fifty troops and thirteen hundred Indian allies from Mexico.
1540-1542
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado leads an expedition to find the Seven Cities of Cibola.
Another park that tells the story of the early Spanish exploration of the American Southwest, Coronado National Memorial marks the countryside where explorer
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado first led his detachment into Arizona in 1540 during the search for the fabled "Seven Cities of Cibola." Although the cities were said to be "large ...
Many adventurers such as Nunez de Guzman, Cristobal de Onate, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Fray Marcos de Niza, and
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado arrived in New Mexico in search of the legendary seven cities of gold.
While
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and Hernando de Soto are well known to most Americans, Juan de Onate has not been until the completion of this book.
Bernalillo gained its niche in history as the site of conquistador
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's 1540 winter camp.