Editing Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (section)

====Search for Quivira====
From an indigenous informant the Spanish called "The Turk" (''el turco''), Vázquez de Coronado heard of a wealthy nation called [[Quivira]] far to the east. In spring 1541, he led his army and priests and indigenous allies onto the [[Great Plains]] to search for Quivira. The Turk was probably either [[Wichita people|Wichita]] or [[Pawnee people|Pawnee]] and his intention seems to have been to lead Vázquez de Coronado astray and hope that he got lost in the Great Plains. Alternately, it is possible that the Turk was leading Coronado to the large mound-building kingdoms of the southeast.<ref>Kehoe, Alice Beck. ''America before the European invasions''. Routledge, 2014.</ref>

With the Turk guiding him, Vázquez de Coronado and his army might have crossed the flat and featureless steppe called the [[Llano Estacado]] in the [[Texas Panhandle]] and [[Eastern New Mexico]], passing through the present-day communities of [[Hereford, Texas|Hereford]] and [[Canadian, Texas|Canadian]]. The Spanish were awed by the Llano. "The country they [the buffalo] traveled over was so smooth that if one looked at them the sky could be seen between their legs." Men and horses became lost in the featureless plain and Vázquez de Coronado felt like he had been swallowed up by the sea.<ref>Winship, George Parker (Ed. and Translator) ''The Journey of Coronado, 1540–1542, from the City of Mexico to the Grand Canyon of the Colorado and the Buffalo Plains of Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska, As Told by Himself and his Followers.'' New York: A.S. Barnes & Co, 1904, 142–215</ref>

On the Llano, Vázquez de Coronado encountered vast herds of [[bison]]—the American buffalo. "I found such a quantity of cows ... that it is impossible to number them, for while I was journeying through these plains ... there was not a day that I lost sight of them."<ref>Winship, 214</ref>