The Journey of Coronado
Pedro de Castañeda (c. 1500’s)
Translated by George Parker Winship (1871-1952)
In 1540, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado led an army from Mexico is search of the fabled golden cities of Cíbola. The Spaniards found no riches—instead, the Grand Canyon, the vast buffalo plains, and the pueblos of Zuni and Pecos. The narratives in this volume are all first-hand accounts of the Coronado expedition–raw, gripping, spirit-stirring–translated from the Spanish by George Parker Winship. The primary account was written by Pedro de Castañeda, a soldier in Coronado’s army. Letters from Coronado to the viceroy of Mexico and the Spanish king are also included.
Listen to my recording here:
Read the text here:
If you have enjoyed The Journey of Coronado, you might also like
The Journey of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán
You might also enjoy this classic, The History of the Conquest of Mexico, by William H. Prescott (1796–1859). This book is a group reading, to which I contributed, among others, the chapter “Hernando Cortes, His Early Life.”
