On the 7th March 1539, Friar Marco de Nica started from the town of San Miguel, in the province of Culiacan (Sinaloa), on his journey northward, according to instructions received from Don Antonio de Mendoca, Viceroy of New Spain. His companion was Friar Honoratus; and he carried with him a negro named Stephen, and certain Indians of the town of Cuchillo, whom the Viceroy had made free. He proceeded to Petatlan, where he rested three days, and left his companion, Honoratus, sick. Thence, "following as the Holy Ghost did lead" he travelled twenty-five or thirty leagues, seeing nothing worthy of notice, saving certain Indians from "the Island of Saint Iago," where Fernando Cortez of the valley had been. From these he learned that among the islands were "great stores of pearls".

Continuing through a desert of four days' journey, accompanied by the Indians of the islands and of the mountains through which he passed, he found other Indians, who marvelled to see him, having no knowledge of any Christians, or even of the Indians from whom they were separated by the desert. They entertained him kindly, and called him "Hayota," in their language signifying a man come from heaven. He was told by these people, whom Vasquez Coronado had named Coracones, that four or five days' journey within the country, at the foot of the mountains, "there was a large and mighty plain, wherein were many great towns, and people clad in cotton." And when he showed them certain minerals which he carried, "they took the mineral of gold," and told him '' that thereof were vessels among the people of that plain, and that they carried certain round green stones hanging at their nostrils and at their ears, and that they had certain thin plates of gold wherewith they scrape off their sweat, and that the walls of their temples are covered therewith." But as this valley (previously called a plain) was distant from the sea-coast, he deferred the "discovery thereof" until his return.

Marco de Nica travelled three days through towns inhabited by the people of the Coracones, and then came to a "town of reasonable bigness "called Vacupa, forty leagues distant from the sea. The people of Vacupa, he states, showed him "great courtesies" and gave him "great store of good victuals, because the soil is very fruitful and may be watered" Here the negro Stephen was sent in advance to reconnoitre. At the end of four days Father Marco received a message from Stephen, stating that wonderful accounts had been told him of a great city, called Cevola, thirty days' journey distant. The negro pushed on without waiting as he was ordered, and succeeded in making the discovery of that people, who finally killed him.

Upon the same day that Nica received these messages from Stephen, there came to him three Indians of those whom he called Pintados, because he saw their faces, breasts, and arms painted. "These dwell farther up into the country, towards the east, and some of them border upon the seven cities". With these Pintados he departed from Vacupa upon Easter Tuesday ; and having travelled three days northward, the way that Stephen had gone before him, he was informed that a man might travel in thirty days to the city of Cevola, which is the first of the seven. He was told also that, besides the seven cities, there were three other kingdoms, called Marata, Acus, and Totonteac. He asked of these Indians why they travelled to Cevola, so far from their houses. They said that they went for turquoises, ox-hides, and other things, which they received in payment for labour in tilling the ground. They described the dress of the inhabitants of Cevola to be "a gown of cotton down to the foot, with a button at the neck, and a long string hanging down at the same, and that the sleeves of these gowns are as broad beneath as above". They gird themselves with girdles of turquoises"; and besides these, "some wear good apparel, others hides of kine", very well dressed." The Pintados carried certain sick folks to see him, that he might heal them, and the invalids sought to touch his garments for that purpose.

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adapted from A. W. Bell
"On the Native Races of New Mexico"
1869 (Journal of the Ethnological Society of London)