The route to these towns from the lower Colorado, that is, by the great intertribal highway of southern Arizona, followed the Gila River, destined afterwards to be traversed by the wandering trappers, by the weary gold-seeker bound for California, and finally, for a considerable distance, by the steam locomotive.

But it was an unknown quantity at the time of Alarcon's visit, so far as white men were concerned.

Farther up, Alarcon met with another man who understood his interpreter, and this man said he had been to Cibola, or Cevola,* as Alarcon writes it, and that it was a month's journey, "by a path that went along that river." Alarcon must now have been about at the mouth of the Gila, and the river referred to was, of course, the Gila.

This man described the towns of Cibola as all who had seen them described them; that is, large towns of three- or four-storey houses, with windows on the sides,** and encompassed by walls some seven or eight feet in height.

The pueblos of the Rio Grande valley were well known in every direction and for long distances.