Adventure Magazine Cover, December 18, 1919 — page 73: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

there! The Seven Cities of Cibola _ “The Cities of Cibola can wait but not the governor’s banquet. Open the doors Candles for the ladies! Now, gentlemen!” And the glittering throng swept into the long hall. Great candles of yellow wax blazed in the sconces along the walls, guttering in the cold March wind. Their light was thrown back from glittering coats-of- mail, from gold and silver wine- cups that had served a Montezuma, from jew- eled hilts and tempered blades, for the best swords in all New Spain had gath- ered at Culiacan for the great venture and had been bidden by Mendoza to the banquet. The year before, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, riding in in state from Mexico, had presented to Governor Men- . doza certain letters from the king. Let- ters in which his Majesty was graciously pleased to permit him, Coronado, to discover and to conquer for Spain the Seven Cities of Cibola that all men knew “must lie in that strange wonderland far ‘to the north of the red and purple ranges that blocked the far horizon. Coronada would pay all expenses, the profits would be shared by the king. Even then, with true Spanish caution, the expedition was not to start until it was certain that the cities actually existed. Two men were at hand,—Estevanico, a giant negro who had shared with Cabeza de Vaca his ten years’ wandering from Tampa to Tampico; and Fray Marco of Nice, the friar who, more than all others, flamed with a holy zeal to christianize the savage peoples of that vast new land. - With twenty-nine men, these two had ‘gone to scout the land for news of Cibola, to verify the reports brought in by the Indians of great deposits of gold in the wonderful Siboyla far to the north. Andenow, as by a miracle, word had come from Fray Marco that he had found the eities and that the expedition could start. What were the Seven Cities of Cibola? What matters it now? They were but one of the many lures that drew Spanish valor to the West in the search for em- pire. The tales of Mexico, of Peru, of El Dorado, had been proven true. What wonder then that men should believe the lesser tale of ‘Cibola? Why not believe that a great empire lay to the north, ‘asked you- “without him. man to fill the place—the man of all $s when empires had already been con- quered to the south and west? The church itself taught that in the eS year 740 seven bishops, driven out of Spain by the Moors, had taken ship with their flocks and fled beyond the Western Ocean and had founded the Seven Cities of Cibola. No man could say -where they were, but two other empires had FE been* found—Why not Cibola? So when Indians, coming in yearly with their tribute of gold, said that their — gold came from Siboyla, was there room for doubt? Was not Siboyla of the In- dian the Cibola of the ancient church? And now Fray Marco was coming back with word that he had found them. As the halberds rose again, Mendoza laid his hand on Coronado’s arm. “It is a good omen to have a good word from a priest.” “Tt is very religious and scriptural no deubt, but a word as to water and grass upon the route would have been more practical.” To right and left the guests spread out, a great fan of color in which gold and silver, rubies from Taxico and em- eralds from the far north, flashed and elittered as the guests seated themselves about the tables. Mendoza raised a filled wine-cup and a cavalier rapped on the table with a sword-hilt for silence. : “There is now a double feason, my friends, for this banquet to which I have “A double reason?” Coronado looked puzzled. “What then?” “In part to welcome you and your men —lIs not there a vacant place? Did you not tell me that your count is complete and that all your men would be here? Hew many swords go with you?” “Three hundred Spanish swords.” “Then all the places should be filled. I see you lack a man.” “My scout-master. I fear I must go I sought one particular Spaniards the best fitted, a scholar, a caballero of blood, a hardy man of war ~ and, I hold, the best and surest sword in all the ports.” “Who is this veritable Gonsalvo de Cordoba whom you lack?” “Who? Who but: Andres de Avilez? : : 7