February 25, 1510

Salamanca, Spain

September 22, 1554

Mexico City, Mexico

Spanish conquistador

"Neither gold nor silver nor any trace of either was found."

A member of Coronado's exploration party.

Francisco Vásquez de Coronado was a Spanish conquistador (Spanish military leader) who was duped into believing that he could find fabulous cities filled with gold in the New World (a European term for the continents of North America and South America). In 1538, as governor of New Galicia (a province northwest of present-day Mexico City), Coronado headed an expedition to locate these cities full of gold and claim their treasures for Spain. During his three-year search for riches he explored parts of the Rio Grande River Valley and Kansas, and became the first European to reach Palo Duro Canyon (near present-day Amarillo, Texas). Yet...