Cibola - C.W. Armbrust

Set in the sixteenth century in a field in central Guatemala, Franciscan friar Marcos de Niza is busy working with the local people, teaching them efficient farming methods aimed at increasing production to cope with the rapidly growing population of New Spain. He also enjoys teaching the local villagers common languages used for trade with the Spanish settlers and the population throughout the New World. From Mexico City, a thousand miles away, the bishop has selected the friar, drafting him into service on an expedition to explore the unknown regions far north of the subtropical region where he has served his mission so well. He is to join the expedition where he will explore new territories and encounter the people of Tierra Nueva.

Through unexpected events and turns of fortune, the friar becomes the leader of a massive expedition commissioned by the viceroy of New Spain. His new mission was to seek out the riches of these new lands and establish contact with Indigenous people who had not been previously encountered.

The unsuspecting friar blazes a trail into history with his expedition that triggers a shift in the future of New Spain and the new land of Tierra Nueva, eventually to become the lands of Mexico and the southwest US.

The friar has long since faded into the background of history, despite being an influential figure in the transformation of Spain's economic structure and paving the way for Francisco Vázquez de Coronado's infamous mission to conquer the cities of Cibola, which followed in his footsteps.