10. The myth of the Seven Cities extended back centuries and was rooted in the Muslim occupation of Spain. In Universalior Cogniti Orbis Tabula (1508), Jan Ruysch, a German geographer, told of seven bishops who during the eighth century had fled westward by ship reaching "the island of Antilia (a name echoed today in the Antilles Islands), where each built an opulent city brimming with treasure." Ibid., p. 13. See also Bandelier, The Discovery of New Mexico , p. 65.

11. Esteban had been a member of the ill-fated Pánfilo de Narváez expedition to Florida in 1528. Shipwrecked on the west coast of the peninsula, he, Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, and a few other survivors spent eight years making their way back to Mexico on foot and heard tales of the Seven Cities as they traveled.

12. Bolton, Coronado, Knight of Pueblo and Plains , pp. 35-36; cited in Simmons, New Mexico , p. 18.