Spanish Las Siete Ciudades Doradas De Cíbola, legendary cities of splendour and riches sought in the 16th century by Spanish conquistadores in North America. The fabulous cities were first reported by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca who, after being shipwrecked off Florida in 1528, had wandered through what later became Texas and northern Mexico before his rescue in 1536. The viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, sent an expedition in 1539 under Estéban, a black slave who had been shipwrecked with Cabeza de Vaca, and Fray Marcos de Niza to verify de Vaca's reports. Fray Marcos, assured of the cities' existence by an Indian informant, claimed to have seen them in the distance. In 1540 Mendoza dispatched Francisco Vázquez de Coronado to search for the cities; he found only a group of Zuni pueblos, although he had explored as far north as modern Kansas.

Legend said that the seven cities were founded by seven bishops who came to the new world in advance of the Spanish conquest. Theosophists identify the seven bishops with the Sagtarishi, the seven sages or ascended masters (see IAm).

See Also

• The SevenCities