MARCOS DE NIZA (c. 14951558)

This article appears in Volume V17, Page 693 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MAL-MAR

MARCOS DE NIZA (c. 14951558) , a Franciscan friar born in Nice about 1495. He went to America in 1531, and after serving his order zealously in Peru, Guatemala and

Mexico

, was chosen to explore the country north of Sonora, whose wealth was pictured in the hearsay stories of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. Preceded by Estevanico, the negro companion of Cabeza de Vaca in his wanderings and the " Black Mexican " of Zuni traditions, Fray Marcos left Culiacan in March 1539, crossed south-eastern Arizona, penetrated to Zuni or the "Seven Cities of Cibola," and in September returned to Culiacan. He saw Zuni only from a distance, and his description of it as equal in size to the city of

Mexico

was probably exact; but he embodied much mere hearsay in his report, the Descubrimiento de las siete ciudades, which led F. V. de Coronado to make his famous expedition next year to Zuni, of which Fray Marcos was the guide; and the realities proved a

great

GREAT

disappointment. Fray Marcos was made Provincial of his order for Mexico before the second trip to Zuni, and returned in 1541 to the

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

, where he died on the 25th of March 1558
The Descubrimiento is one of the world's famous narratives of travel. It may be found in J. F. Pacheco's Documentos (vol. iii.) and Hakluyt's Voyages (vol. iii.) ; also in G. Ramusio, Navigazione (vol. iii.) and H. Ternaux-Compans, Voyages (vol. iii.). See A. F. A. Bandelier, The Gilded Man (El Dorado), (New

York

YORK
YORK (
HOUSE
- HOUSE
- HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in
  Gothic
  - GOTHIC
  it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)
OF)
YORK, EDMUND OF
LANGLEY
- LANGLEY, SAMUEL PIERPONT (1834-1906)
, DUKE OF (1341-1402)
YORK, EDWARD
YORK, FREDERICK
AUGUSTUS
- AUGUSTUS (a name 1 derived from Lat. augeo, increase, i.e. venerable, majestic, Gr. Ee0avr6s)
, DUKE OF (1763-1827)
YORK, RICHARD, DUKE

, 1893) ; H. H. Bancroft, Arizona and New Mexico (San Francisco, 1888), and, for

critical

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

opinions, G. P. Winship, " The Coronado Expedition," in U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, Fourteenth Annual Report (for 18921893), (Washington, 1896).

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