Coronado meanwhile had arrived at Cibola on July 7th (or 10th) and had therefore been among the villages of the Rio Grande del Norte nearly two months. The route to these towns from the lower Colorado, that is, by the great intertribal highway of southern Arizona, followed the Gila River, destined afterwards to be traversed by the wandering trappers, by the weary gold-seeker bound for California, and finally, for a considerable distance, by the steam locomotive. But it was an unknown quantity at the time of Alarçon’s visit, so far as white men were concerned. Farther up, Alarçon met with another man who understood his interpreter, and this man said he had been to Cibola, or Cevola,[2] as Alarçon writes it, and that it was a month’s journey, “by a path that went along that river.” Alarçon must now have been about at the mouth of the Gila, and the river referred to was, of course, the Gila. This man described the towns of Cibola as all who had seen them described them; that is, large towns of three- or four-storey houses, with windows on the sides,[3] and encompassed by walls some seven or eight feet in height. The pueblos of the Rio Grande valley were well known in every direction and for long distances. The Apaches, harassing the villagers on every side, and having themselves a wide range, alone carried the knowledge of them to the four winds. In every tribe, too, there are born travellers who constantly visit distant regions, bringing back detailed descriptions of their adventures and the sights beheld, with which to regale an admiring crowd during the winter evenings. Their descriptions are usually fairly accurate from the standpoint of their own understanding. In this case the native gave a good description of the Cibola towns, and the Tusayan people had meanwhile given Cardenas a description of these very natives on the lower Colorado. A day or two later Alarçon received further information of Cibola, and this informant told about a chief who had four green earthen plates like Alarçon’s, except in color, and also a dog like Alarçon’s, as well as other things, which a black man had brought into the country. This black man was Estevan, who had been killed about a year before. The news of this man and his execution had travelled rapidly, showing frequent intercourse with the pueblos beyond the mountains. Still farther on he met another man who had been at Cibola, and who also told him of a great river in which there were crocodiles. This was the Mississippi, of course, and the crocodiles were alligators. As Alarçon had never seen an alligator he took the description to mean crocodile. A little farther and he heard of the negro Estevan again and the reason why the Cibolans had killed him, which was to prevent the Spaniards, whom he described, from finding their way into the Cibola country. This man also described the bison and a people who lived in painted tents in summer and in winter in houses of wood two or three storeys high.