uperb Coconino Forest, where he had wood, water, and grass in
abundance. The locality he reached was very dry, and they were obliged
to go each night a long distance back from the brink to procure water.
For this reason, Cardenas gave up trying to follow the canyon, and
returned again, by way of Tusayan, to Cibola, passing on the way a
waterfall, which possibly was in the Havasupai (Cataract) Canyon.
Castaneda, the chief chronicler of the Coronado expedition, says the
river Cardenas found was the Tizon, "much nearer its source than where
Melchior Diaz crossed it," thus showing that its identity was well
surmised, if not understood, at that time. Nothing, however, was
known of its upper course; at least there is no evidence of any such
knowledge, though the natives had doubtless given the Spaniards some
information regarding it. The special record of the Cardenas expedition
was kept by one Pedro de Sotomayor, but it has apparently never been
seen in modern times. It is probably in the archives of Spain or Mexico,
and its discovery would throw needed light on the location of Tusayan
and the course Cardenas followed.*** The distance of this whole region
from a convenient base of supplies, and its repellent character,
prevented further operations at this period, and when these explorers
traced their disappointed way homeward, the Colorado was not seen again
by white men for over half a century; and it was more than two hundred
years before European eyes again looked upon the Grand Canyon.

* "A las barrancas del rio que puestos a el bado [lado?] de ellas
parecia al otro bordo que auia mas de tres o quatro leguas por el
ayre."--Castaneda, in Winship's monograph. Fourteenth Ann. Rep. Bureau
of Ethnology, p. 429.

** For the author's views on Coronado's route see the Bulletin of the
American Geographical Society, December, 1897. Those views have been
confirmed by later study, the only change being the shifting of Cibola
from the Florida Mountains north-westerly to the region of the Gila. See
map p. 115, Breaking the Wilderness.

*** It may be noted here with reference to the location of Cibola,
Tiguex, Tusayan, etc., that too much heretofore has been ASSUMED. The
explanations presented are often very lame and unsatisfactory when
critically examined. So many writers are now committed to the errors, on
this subject that it will be a hard matter to arrive at the truth.

Coronado proceeded eastward to about