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They said that they had been down about
athird of the way and that the river
seemed very large from the place which
they reached, and that from what they saw
they thought the Indians had given the
width correctly. Those who stayed above
had estimated that some huge rocks on
the sides of the cliffs seemed to be about
as tall as a man, but those who went down
swore that when they reached these rocks
they were bigger than the great tower of
Seville.Cárdenas and his men soon went on their
way, more in need of drinking water than
interested in exploring the giant chasm block-
ing their way. Some 135 years passed before
another European, Francisco Tomás Garcés,
would explore the Grand Canyon.
“ALARCÓN CAME
THIS FAR”
Cíbola was not the only geography trans-
formed by Fray Niza’s imagination. The friar’s
report had created the false impression that
Cíbola was close enough to the Pacific coast to
be supplied by sea. On May 9, 1540, Mendoza
dispatched an exploratory fleet north into the
Gulf of California. At the same time Cárdenas
was searching for a river passage to the ocean,
supply-laden ships commanded by Hernando
de Alarcón reached the mouth of the Colorado
River, whose waters were colored red by silt.
Alarcón tried sailing upriver. He met Yuma
(Quechan) Indians, who had heard of
Estéban’s death and Coronado’s expedition.
When the Yuma convinced Alarcón that Coro-
nado was hundreds of miles inland, he aban-
doned his mission.
Meanwhile, Coronado surmised correctly
that a reddish river he had crossed—the Lit-
tle Colorado—eventually drained into the
sea; in fact, the Little Colorado joins the main
Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. He
ordered Melchior Díaz to find Alarcón’s
ships, whose supply mission was part of the
original plan. Díaz backtracked hundreds of
miles south before taking an unknown route
west to the Colorado. About 40 miles from
the gulf, Díaz found a tree inscribed two
months earlier, “Alarcón came this far; there
are letters at the foot of this tree.” Díaz
explored upriver for six days before crossing
the Colorado and riding south into deserts of(^112) B Discovery of the Americas, 1492–1800
Hernando de Alarcón, shown here, turned around
his ships full of supplies intended for Coronado’s
expedition after being convinced by the Yuma that
he would not be able to reach them from the
Colorado River.(Library of Congress, Prints and
Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-99997])
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