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The year was 1540, and conquistador Francisco V谩zquez de Coronado was leading an expedition of 2,000 from Mexico City/Tenochtitlan to 鈥淭he Mysterious North.鈥�

His objective was to find the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola and their purported vast amount of gold.

The plan was also to set up encomiendas 鈥� private estates owned by aristocrats and worked by Natives 鈥� and have accompanying friars convert Natives to Christianity.

On the expedition were caballeros (Spanish for gentlemen) on horseback, mounted lancers, foot soldiers, Aztec warriors, slaves and wranglers for the cattle and sheep needed to feed the travelers.

The famous expedition led by Captain-General Coronado is the subject of Peter Stark鈥檚 vibrant, spirited narrative history 鈥淭he Lost Cities of El Norte: Coronado鈥檚 Quest, the Unconquered West, and the Birth of American Indian Resistance.鈥�

The 鈥渃ities鈥� really weren鈥檛 lost. They just weren鈥檛 known to the Spanish explorers at the time. There were rumors of gold, but nothing was confirmed.

Coronado didn鈥檛 know if those fabled cities existed, how to get there, or what obstacles he would face.

He had no map of the northern territory because it was unexplored.

The expedition had gone 250 miles to reach Culiac谩n, the farthest outpost on Mexico鈥檚 northern frontier. At that point Coronado understood it was going to take 鈥渢ons upon tons鈥� of food and forage every day simply to survive and he was putting the expedition at risk of starvation.

He concluded from a scouting party report that Native settlements and food grew scarce as his force, smaller than the main army, ventured 700 miles through a dangerously dry region to the north called Desplobado. Translate that to unpopulated.

It was so cold in the region that a number of Coronado鈥檚 thinly dressed Aztec allies died, and two underdressed Spaniards were on the brink of death.

Worse news: Native peoples claimed that the Seven Cities of Cibola existed, but they didn鈥檛 see any precious stones or shiny metals, other than the armor the Spaniards wore. That was at odds with an earlier claim of gold from a Franciscan priest now part of the expedition.

鈥淐oronado had invested his future in (this vision of the Seven Cities) 鈥� the chance to gain honor, fame and a lofty perch in the Spanish aristocracy 鈥� and had bet his wife鈥檚 inheritance on a heady return,鈥� Stark writes.

The book is packed with informative, fascinating asides. Like this one about the horse. It says that the horses that Coronado and his party rode 鈥� the small, sturdy Spanish Barbs 鈥� were the first to appear in this region in thousands of years.

The horse, Stark writes, had originally evolved in North America tens of millions of years ago from a small forest creature to a wide-ranging mammal on the grassy plains. It had migrated 鈥� what we today might think of as reverse migration 鈥� to Asia over the Bering Strait.

The ancient horse in North America, Equus scotti, then went extinct, in part because of climate change and because of the Ice Age鈥檚 end, he writes.

The trans-Atlantic voyages from Spain starting in the 1490s returned the horse to the New World.

Coronado鈥檚 expedition was supposed to hook up with three sailing ships laden with supplies for the expeditionary forces. But the ships fell behind.

Meanwhile, Coronado鈥檚 forces, desperate for food, crossed the dessicated Despoblado (parts of northern Mexico and southern Arizona) to reach Hawikku, the largest of a group of seven multistoried Zuni (aka Cibola) pueblos.

The Spaniards confronted the Zuni, attacking their multistory pueblo.

The Zuni dropped 鈥渁n avalanche of stones and large rocks鈥� down the rungs of a ladder striking Coronado.

鈥淓ager to make his name in this first conflict in the conquest of the Tierra Nueva (New Land), the determined young leader started up once more. 鈥� It was then that a precisely aimed boulder 鈥� a slab of stone, in one eyewitness description 鈥� arced from above and clanged directly onto his golden helmet,鈥� Stark writes.

The captain-general tumbled off the ladder and landed on the ground.

More dropped rocks pounded his limbs as arrows flew around him and into the crevices of his dented armor, Stark writes.

When Spanish soldiers and Aztec warriors finally stormed Hawikku鈥檚 walls, they discovered the Zuni defenders had fled.

Coronado inventoried the items his men had found at Hawikku and other pueblos officials in Mexico City might consider precious 鈥� two bits of emerald, a few worthless red stones the color of garnet, some rock crystals and a tiny piece of gold. Enough to fill a tin cup.

A disappointed Coronado concluded that no, these pueblos were not the fabled cities.

Making Hawikku his base, Coronado sent out four advance parties to explore for gold and the actual cluster of the fantastical cities.

One party returned with exciting geographical information about a large crack in the earth. They would be the first known Europeans to see the Grand Canyon.

Then Coronado ordered a fifth advance party, guided by two Puebloans, nicknamed Bigotes and the Governor. They headed east toward Cicuique, the Puebloans鈥� home and a major trading center for Native people of the plains, the mountains and the desert.

Cicuique, about 30 miles southeast of what is today Santa Fe, grew to cosmopolitan status.

These guides, too, advised Coronado there was no gold to be found.

En route, the party encountered lava rocks (malpais), impregnable Acoma Pueblo, and a broad river. Stark writes that Spaniards named it R铆o de Nuestra Se帽ora. In the Tewa language it was called P鈥檕soge or 鈥淏ig River.鈥� Today it is the Rio Grande.

Eventually, Coronado led a small group to the river where he witnessed 鈥渢he irrigated fertility of the Rio Grande Valley. Worked for centuries by Puebloans, the sprawling patchwork of cornfields and squash gardens in the bottomlands had sprouted a bumper crop after a moist growing season,鈥� Stark writes.

The party met the people at pueblos in the Tiguex province in the heart of some 100 pueblos in the valley, stretching north to south through today鈥檚 New Mexico.

Gold remained the foremost though elusive goal for Coronado.

Replacing Bigotes and the Governor as guides were two Cicuique captives from other tribes: Ysopete, who was from Quivira, which was home to thousands of roaming woolly beasts (buffalo), and the Turk, who was from a tribe further to the northeast. The Turk claimed gold awaited in the east.

Coronado鈥檚 advance party made its way through what is now Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, its farthest northern point. Still no gold.

Cold was approaching in 1542. Coronado and his subordinate officers voted to turn back to New Spain.

鈥淭hey would return to cultivate these rich lands, bringing the whole army, to truly claim it for King Carlos and make it the soil of Spain,鈥� Stark writes of Coronado鈥檚 promise.

The Spaniards waited out the winter in Coofor, a pueblo near what is now Bernalillo. They hoped to return to Quivira.

However, Coronado suffered an unexpected injury. Celebrating a saint鈥檚 day, Coronado and Capt. Rodrigo Maldonado competed in a horse race.

Coronado pulled ahead of Maldonado when the worn-out strap holding the saddle in place snapped. Coronado slipped down between the two horses just ahead of Maldonado鈥檚. He fell to the ground, tumbled and came to rest in a limp, motionless heap.

A hoof of Maldonado鈥檚 horse had hit Coronado squarely in the head. The general fell into a coma or near-coma.

He slowly recovered but suffered several relapses before orchestrating a secret plot to return to Mexico City.

At Culiac谩n in 1542, Stark writes, 鈥淚nstead of cannon blasts and bugle riffs, (the expedition) received the muted welcome afforded to losing armies and defeated championship teams who set off with high hopes of triumph but returned bearing only the honor of having tried their hardest.鈥�

Stark quotes expedition chronicler Pedro de Casta帽eda as writing that in late 1542, 鈥�(Coronado) arrived in Mexico (City) with less than 100 men to report to the viceroy and was not well-received by him, although he presented his excuses.鈥�

Mexico鈥檚 high hopes for the expedition were dashed. No gold was discovered.

The Puebloans鈥� resistance to Coronado was so strong 鈥渢hey broke the man and his expedition. For the next 300 years, the Puebloans and nearby tribes would create a barrier, in effect, that thwarted any serious European colonization of the American West.鈥�