The men could do nothing for him except to carry him along, which for twenty days they did, fighting hostile natives all the time.

Then he died.

On the 18th of January they arrived without their leader at the settlement from which they had started some three months before.
Cardenas with twelve men had meanwhile gone from Cibola to a place called Tusayan, or Tucano, situated some twenty or twenty-five leagues north-westerly from Cibola, from whence he was to strike out toward the great river these natives had described to Don Pedro de Tobar, who recently had paid them a visit, and incidentally shot a few of them to invite submission.

Cardenas was kindly received by the people of Tusayan, who readily supplied him with guides.

Having lived in the country for centuries, they of course knew it and the many trails very well.