(1510–54), Spanish conquistador, first explorer of North America’s Southwest, and so-called conqueror of the legendary Seven Cities of Cíbola.

Early Career.

Coronado was born about 1510 in Salamanca. He arrived in New Spain (now Mexico) in 1535 and four years later became governor of the province of Nueva Galicia (largely the modern states of Aguascalientes, Jalisco, and Zacatecas). There he learned of the tales of the Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca about the Seven Cities of Cíbola, believed to be fabulously rich Indian settlements that were to be found northeast of the province. Coronado was chosen to head an overland expedition to explore and conquer the region for Spain.

Expedition to Cíbola.

A fleet commanded by Hernando de Alarcón, in search of an inland waterway to Cíbola, maintained a parallel course along the coast. With about 300 Spanish soldiers and many Indians under his command, on Feb. 23, 1540, Coronado left Compostela (now in Nayarit State) and followed the western slope of the Sierra Madre Occidental northward to the present border of the state of Arizona. He then headed northeastward to Cíbola, which he found to be only pueblos of the Zuñi Indians, containing no wealth. From Cíbola, Coronado dispatched a small party westward under García López de Cárdenas (fl. 1540). It was the first band of Europeans to see the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. The entire party wintered near what is now Santa Fe, N.Mex.

Crossing the Great Plains.

In the spring of 1541 the expedition traveled eastward, crossing the upper Rio Grande and the Great Plains of what is now northern Texas, where they saw the American bison, or buffalo, and described it for the first time. Turning northward, Coronado crossed the Canadian and Arkansas rivers, seeking a supposedly wealthy kingdom called Quivira, which was actually only a village of the Wichita Indians in what is now Kansas.

Final Years.

The disappointed expedition returned to New Spain in 1542 and was coolly received by the authorities. In 1544 Coronado was relieved as governor, and thereafter he lived quietly in Mexico City, where he died on Sept. 22, 1554. The account of his explorations, valued for the unique description of the southwestern U.S. before the European conquest, was published in the 14th report (1896) of the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology. In 1952 the Coronado National Memorial commemorating the expedition was established near Bisbee, Ariz.