The Indians of the Rio Grande Valley and the Apache who controlled most of the Southwest managed an uneasy coexistence. The Pueblo Indians remained basically farmers, holding fast to the cultural advances made by their ancestors during the millennium preceding 1300. The Apache, for the most part, remained nomadic predators, living off nature’s bounty, or better still, raiding the pueblos for food. The Apache groups began to take on names and traditional areas which they called their own. In northern New Mexico were the Jicarilla Apache and in the southeast, the Lipan, the Mescalero, and the Natage Apache. In northeastern Arizona were the Navajo and in the drainage of the Gila River, the Chiricahua, the Gila, and other groups of the Western Apache. Each of these groups made its mark upon the face of the land. SPANISH CONTRIBUTIONS This was the situation in the Southwest when the sixteenth century opened, but a new force was abroad which would grow and strengthen and leave a deep imprint on New Mexico. Beginning on the wild islands of the Caribbean and then fanning out into the heart of Mexico and the South American continent, this new force spread across the face of America. Europeans, more exactly, Spaniards, came bent upon conquest for its own reward, for the glory of God, and for gold. These sturdy men from the Iberian peninsula with weapons vastly superior to the Indians’, with the horse which made them highly mobile and devastating in battle, and with tactics and precision in warfare unknown among the Indians, were to sweep without serious setback across the great cultures of Mexico and Central and South America. By 1540, they were ready to take their next leap forward. On the west coast of Mexico, at a place called Culiacan, a colorful host gathered. In their ears rang the words of the legend of the Seven Cities of Cibola, seven golden cities, a legend which had been popular in Spain for many generations. Mexico City had produced wealth, and the Spanish were ready to believe that other fabulous cities existed. One Spaniard had already crossed part of North America and had heard from the Indians tales of the rich cities. His name was Cabeza de Vaca, and the exuberance of his tales fired the imagination of the Spaniards.