The story of Fray Marcos and the Seven Cities of Cibola was a favorite of Adolph Bandelier (1840-1914). Bandelier's combination of methodological sophistication and control of the archival data makes the Marcos de Niza paper important, not only as a landmark in Southwestern ethnohistory, but as a work of scholarship in its own rights, with insights on Cabeza de Vaca, Marcos, and early Southwestern exploration that are still valid today.

The University of Arizona Press's Century Collection employs the latest in digital technology to make previously out-of-print books from our notable...