The Journey of Coronado
Pedro De Castañeda
Read by Sue Anderson
In 1540, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado led an army from Mexico is search of the fabled golden cities of Cíbola. The Spaniards found no riches—instead, the Grand Canyon, the vast buffalo plains, and the pueblos of Zuni and Pecos. The narratives in this volume are all first-hand accounts of the Coronado expedition--raw, gripping, spirit-stirring--translated from the Spanish by George Parker Winship. The primary account was written by Pedro de Castañeda, a soldier in Coronado’s army. Letters from Coronado to the viceroy of Mexico and the Spanish king are also included. (Summary by Sue Anderson) (7 hr 8 min)
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Sue Anderson is a great reader - one of my favorites on LibriVox. This is a good, but not great book. The writing is a bit self-righteous, and the later parts containing the direct correspondence of Coronado and others from the period during the expedition is practically insufferable in its humble-bragging and false flattery. Again, context makes that understandable I guess. It is a bit repetitive, giving similar accounts over and over. On the other hand it's an account of an expedition, so it describes what they were encountering. Shackleton's Antarctic book is somewhat repetitious too, but I liked that a lot. All in all this is fine though, especially if, like me, you enjoy the travel and expedition genre. Sue is great but the text not the most riveting, so I have it 4 stars.
fantastic!
B Riddle
Great first person account of the exploration of what would become the United States and of the original inhabitants. Great listen!