Includes bibliographical references (pages 147-151).

This book will disturb many who hold to the opinion that Fray Marcos de Nice was the first foreign explorer to enter Arizona and New Mexico. According to John Upton Terrell, not only does Fray Marcos fall considerably short of what historians claim for him, but was not, as purported, the discoverer of the so-called Seven Cities of Cibola. The first man of Old World blood to traverse the region was Estevanico the Black. Estevanico went ahead of Fray Marcos from Mexico, crossed Arizona, and reached Hawikuh, the most westerly pueblo of Cibola, in New Mexico, in 1539--several days' journey beyond the padre's farthest point of advance. It was Estevanico, a Moor, a negro, who actually opened the land gate to the American Southwest. And for this great accomplishment, he paid with his life. Earlier--with Cabeza de Vaca, Andres Dorantes and Alonzo de Castillo-- he made the greatest journey into the unknown and unmapped wilderness in North American history ... the first crossing of the Atlantic to the Pacific north of Mexico. Estevanico was truly one of the most intrepid, brave, indomitable and accomplished explorers of the New World. And, up to now, there has been no monument raised to the name of this remarkable man. Estevanico the Black is written in the same incisive, inimitable style which has made Terrell one of America's most popular and widely read historians and biographers.--Jacket flap

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