Editing Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (section)

===Preparation===
Vázquez de Coronado was the Governor of the Kingdom of [[Nueva Galicia]] (New Galicia), a province of New Spain located northwest of Mexico and comprising the contemporary [[Mexican state]]s of [[Jalisco]], [[Sinaloa]] and [[Nayarit]]. In 1539, he dispatched Friar [[Marcos de Niza]] and [[Estevanico]] (more properly known as Estevan), one of only four survivors of the [[Narváez expedition]], on an expedition north from [[Compostela, Nayarit|Compostela]] toward present-day [[New Mexico]]. When de Niza returned, he told of a city of vast wealth, a golden city called [[Zuni-Cibola Complex|Cíbola]], whose [[Zuni people|Zuni]] residents were assumed to have murdered Estevan. Though he did not claim to have entered the city of Cíbola, he mentioned that it stood on a high hill and that it appeared wealthy and as large as Mexico City.

Vázquez de Coronado assembled an expedition with two components. One component carried the bulk of the expedition's supplies, traveling via the Guadalupe River and Gulf of California under the leadership of [[Hernando de Alarcón]].<ref>Winship. pp. 39–40</ref> The other component traveled by land, along the trail on which Friar Marcos de Niza had followed Esteban. Vázquez de Coronado and Viceroy [[Antonio de Mendoza]] invested large sums of their own money in the venture. Mendoza appointed Vázquez de Coronado the commander of the expedition, with the mission to find the mythical [[Seven Cities of Gold]]. This is the reason he pawned his wife's estates and was lent 70,000 pesos.

In the autumn of 1539, Mendoza ordered [[Melchior Díaz]], commander of the Spanish outpost at [[Culiacán|San Miguel de Culiacán]], to investigate Friar de Niza's findings, and on November 17, 1539, Díaz departed for Cíbola with fifteen horsemen.<ref name="autogenerated1">Winship. p. 38</ref> At the ruins of Chichilticalli, he turned around because of "snows and fierce winds from across the wilderness".<ref name="autogenerated1" /> Díaz had encountered Vázquez de Coronado before he had departed San Miguel de Culiacán, and reported that initial investigations into Friar de Niza's report disproved the existence of the bountiful land he had described. Díaz's report was delivered to Viceroy Mendoza on March 20, 1540.<ref name="autogenerated1" />