They heard of other towns called Tusayan (or Tuçano) to the north-west and men were sent there, one party under Captain Cardenas continuing on to a great river, the present Colorado, of which the people told, and these were the first white men to see the magnificent chasm of the now familiar Grand Canyon.[37] About the same time Alarçon, with his ships, endeavouring to get into communication with Coronado had discovered and for some distance explored with small boats the lower part of the same river, calling it the Rio de Buena Guia. And now Melchior Diaz, with dispatches and the discredited Friar Marcos, was sent back from Cibola, and ordered to explore from the valley of the Corazones, wherein was a small settlement of Spaniards called San Hieronimo, north-westward to look for Alarçon. This Corazones was evidently the same valley that Cabeza de Vaca had named.[38] Diaz went across the north-western corner of Mexico and the south-western corner of Arizona to the Colorado River, which he reached about eighty miles above its mouth. Alarçon had already passed down on his return, but Diaz found letters left by him at the base of a tree, from which he learned the character of the river. He determined to explore westward, and went four days beyond the river which he called Rio del Tizon, because the natives carried about with them firebrands. He did not know the name Alarçon had bestowed. While in what is now southern California he was seriously hurt by a spear which he threw at an unruly dog, and after twenty days of suffering he died, his men carrying him back through every danger, as long as life remained.