User:Joseph.r.wollard/Marcos de Niza

Fray Marcos de Niza
Fray Marcos de Niza, or Marcos de Niza (born 1495 in Nice(currently located in France) - died March 25, 1558, Mexico) was a Franciscan friar who went on several mission exploring the today, American Southwest. He is most known for his conquests and rumored sight of the legendary rumored place, Seven Cities of Cibola. His report that he wrote after viewing the Seven Cities of Cibola brought much attention and fame to Marcos de Niza, that it sparked the interest of the viceroy Antonio de Mendoza. This led to the appointee of another expedition for Marcos de Niza but this time he would be accompanied by the legendary conquistador, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado.

Background and First Expedition
Marcos de Niza first came to the Americas in 1531 because of his work as a Friar. He visited and lived in many places including Peru, Guatemala, and Culiacan, Mexico. Word of a place with multiple rich cities was starting to spread, alerting Antonio de Mendoza, this struck his interest and he looked for someone to venture on this mission to find these said cities or communities. Mendoza then sent Marcos de Niza, and two accompanied partners, one being a priest named Honorato, and a Moorish servant, Estevan Dorantes. It is believed another reasoning for the expedition was the belief that Mexico was still an island and that they would venture north/west to find the ocean or shoreline. They took off and starting venturing north in search of the long lost cities in 1838. Honorato fell ill shortly into the expedition and had to return back. As the two remaining explorers ventured into the unknown, they came across a city called Vacapa. While in Vacapa, Marcos de Niza sent Estevan ahead to analyze and preview the route they were about to journey towards. Estevan soon sent word and recalled that he had spoken to a group of natives that informed him of the existence of a northern trade center. The name of the place given was Cibola. Marcos de Niza then ventured further along the path trying to catch up to Estevan. Along the path, Marcos de Niza picks up of group of native "admirers" that accompanied on his journey to Cibola. These people only further played on to the idea of the great city ahead of them. Then, a few days out, a few of the members of the group that had be with Estevan, came back barely alive and bloodied, with news of Estevan being killed along with other accompanying members. Instead of risking his life and forfeiting the opportunity to report the information, Marcos decided not to go into the city of Cibola but to get close enough to view. He did this and described viewing the beautiful city of Cibola from a distance on a ridge. He described it as "bigger than the size of Mexico". He then wrote his report and decided to get back to Mexico to report to Mendoza on what he had heard and discovered.

Effects: Second Expedition
Due to the report that Marcos de Niza had written about what he had seen and found on his first expedition, Mendoza launched one of the biggest expeditions under the Spanish at the time with the head of the expedition being Francisco Vázquez de Coronado. Marcos de Niza accompanied Coronado and his army on the journey back to the rumored Cibola. They ended up going only a group of Zuni villages, not the Seven Cities of Cibola. At this time, Marcos de Niza was pronounced a liar and returned Mexico City. Even though his report never mentioned gold, this was one of the important reasonings on his account being fraudulent because the Spanish and Coronado did not find any gold.

Legacy and Controversy
After being outed as the scapegoat to a failed expedition to return to Cibola, Marcos de Niza went back to Mexico City, where he held a very high position within the Franciscans leadership. He later died in Mexico, City on March 25, 1558 due to persistent bad health.

Controversy still rolls on when talking about Marcos de Niza. Scholars and historians have continued to pick and poke and dissect Marcos's story of his journey to Cibola to figure out what actually happened. Many different theories have came about when trying to decipher whether or not Marcos actually made it to or saw the city of Cibola. Some theories state that Marcos simply would not have had enough time to actually reach Cibola. Another scholar came to the conclusion that he turned back way before he even came close to seeing the city based on the timeline and political conspiracies of exploration. Yet, others researchers and scholars seem to still believe he did reach the long lost City of Cibola.