Excerpt from Improvement Era, Vol. 25: July, 1922 When the exaggerated report of the wealth possessed by the Indians of the north reached Antonio de Mendoza, the Spanish Viceroy, at Mexico, the latter ordered an expedition sent to Cibola to spy out the land. Marcos de Niza, a Friar of the church, was placed in charge of the expedition, and Esteben, the negro, was sent'as guide. Niza led his party north from Sonora to the San Pedro river, near the present town of Naco, Arizona, and followed down that stream to near its junction with the Gila. Here Esteben left the expedition and hurried on. He reached Cibola, supposed tobe the present Zuni, where he was killed by the Indians. Upon hear ing of his fate, Father Marcos, on the 9th of May, took possession of the San Pedro and surrounding country in the name of the King of Spain, and returned to Sonora. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.