Such is the story of the first sight by Europeans of the Sky City of the desert. In December, when the ground was covered with three feet of snow, Coronado’s main army marched from Cíbola to Tiguex, and so passed Ácuco, as Alvarado had done. The inhabitants furnished them with provisions in friendly fashion. The Spaniards gazed at the settlement on its summit with much interest, but could not ascend (or they said they could not—it is not stated that they tried) without helping one another, while the Indians went up and down easily, and even their women would do so carrying heavy burdens. From this we infer that the Spaniards ascended the Peñol, for after describing as before the “toe-and-finger trail,” the chronicler continues, “there was a wall of large and small stones at the top, which they could roll down without showing themselves, so that no army could possibly be strong enough to capture the village. On the top they had room to sow and store a large amount of corn and cisterns to collect snow and water. They made a present of a large number of (turkey) cocks with very big wattles, much bread, tanned deerskins, piñon nuts, flour and corn.”[44] There was undoubtedly room enough to “store” provisions, but then as now there was never a particle of garden soil in which to “sow” even a little corn unless carried from the valley. Epoch-making were the results that came from the Coronado expedition, in the discovery of Cíbola,[45] of the Grand Cañon, and of the buffalo on the Plains. The discovery of the Colorado River was recognized as of the first importance. This is shown by a map made by one of Alarcón’s pilots, for the Ulpius globe of 1542 and the map of Sebastian Cabot of 1544 were changed by reason of this discovery. Yet Coronado took back to Spain no material wealth, and no promise of any except such as might be gained from the cultivation of a good soil by permanent settlers, and by some means, at that time undiscoverable, of transportation for its products. Hence Coronado was regarded not only as an unsuccessful explorer, but almost as a disgraced man, who had wasted the wealth of the realm.