Arizona region prior to the 1539 exploration of Sonora and Cibola by Fray Marcos de Niza's expedition. ... Exploration. 1539: French Franciscan friar Fray Marcos de Niza (1495–1558), sent by the Spanish governor of Mexico (New Spain), explores Arizona and New Mexico searching for the Seven Cities of Gold and foments rumor-mongering in Mexico City that he has seen the cities when he returns. Few had the resources or experience. Fray Marcos, assured of the cities’ existence by an Indian informant, claimed to have seen them in the distance. He selected a Franciscan friar named Marcos de Niza who was from an Italian town called Nice (thus the name de Niza). We show that the 1538 expedition is mythical and based on misun-derstandings of the travels of Marcos, Governor Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, and Finally, Antonio de Mendoza, Viceroy of Mexico, hit upon the idea of employing a priest for the job, thus giving the expedition the color of a missionary exploration. Marcos was born in Nice, Italy in about 1495 and grew up to become a Franciscan friar. In 1539, Friar Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan priest, reported to Spanish colonial officials in Mexico City that he’d seen the legendary city of Cibola in what is now New Mexico. Friar Marcos de Niza (ca. Historians have puzzled over early reports of a 1538 reconnaissance of the Sonora-Arizona region prior to the 1539 exploration of Sonora and Cibola by Fray Marcos de Niza's expedition. In his youth he lived at Nice in the duchy of Savoy. In 1540 Mendoza dispatched… Read More Friar Marcos de Niza. In 1539, the viceroy ordered Estevan to lead the Catholic friar and explorer Fray Marcos de Niza on a preliminary mission to investigate the rumors of cities of gold. One of the first Europeans to explore the territory now included in Arizona was the Franciscan priest, Marcos de Niza. JT Vintage/age fotostock. The birthplace of Marcos de Niza is unknown, but he was either French or Italian, probably the former. ABSTRACT. Marcos de Niza, a controversial Franciscan explorer, may have led the first European expedition to explore purposefully what is today the American Southwest. The Viceroy sent Estevanico on an expedition in 1539 with the Franciscan Fray Marcos de Niza. He emigrated to America in 1531 for exploration of new land, and after serving his order zealously in Peru and Guatemala, de Niza was chosen to explore the country north of Sonora, whose wealth was depicted in the accounts of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. In 1531, a group of friars were selected to accompany the Spanish conquistadors to the New World and Marcos De Niza was among them. Francisco de Coronado outfitted Estevanico for this trip to find the fabled seven cities of Cibola. …an expedition in 1539 under Estéban, a black slave who had been shipwrecked with Cabeza de Vaca, and Fray Marcos de Niza to verify de Vaca’s reports. His report of having seen one of the Seven Cities of Cíbola in 1539 launched the first large-scale Spanish exploration … European Exploration and Settlement. 1500-1558), Franciscan missionary in Spanish America, set the route to the fabled "Seven Cities of Cibola" for the expedition of Coronado.. On this trip, Estevanico was killed by Zuni Indians as he entered … A former slave called Estéban, who reportedly had explored the region earlier, led the way northward from Mexico in 1539. 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