Francisco Vázquez de Coronado was a Spanish explorer who lived in the 16th century. (1510 – 1554). He led an expedition through the south-western parts of the United States. The goal of this expedition was to reach the mythical “Seven Cities of Gold”. However, the wealth of these cities (known today as the Zuni-Cibola Complex) was far below the expectations of the Spaniards, so the discovery of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River remained the most important achievements of the expedition. The rumors of “Seven Cities of Gold” were mainly caused by the tales told by the survivors of the failed expedition of José María Narváez who traveled across the region when they were on their way back to Mexico City. Marcos de Niza, one of these four…show more content… The newly-appointed commander set out from the city of Compostela in 1540. He decided to split up his men in order to let the lands around the trail recover and established camps held by soldiers along the way to secure the supply route. The expedition followed river valleys to find passages across the mountains and managed to arrive to Cíbola in the same year. But to the great disappointment of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado and his men, the city looked nothing like the exaggerated description of Marcos de Niza, who was consequently sent back. Further in their way to the north, the members of the expedition had to fight their way through the regions inhabited by the Zuni people who refused to let the starving men rest and eat in their villages. Using the conquered villages as bases, Vázquez de Coronado sent a few smaller scouting expeditions to find the Colorado River they learned about from the natives. After some time, one of these expeditions, led by Garcia López de Cárdenas found the Grand Canyon. Despite discovering the river, they knew they couldn’t use it to transport supplies from Mexico, as they found out it was impossible to climb down into the