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Show A RETROSPECT. 21 by that sovereign. Tradition tells us that he went in search of the seven cities of Cibolla, that were supposed to be situated in a peaceful, luxurious sort of " Happy Valley of Rassalas," enclosed by huge mountains of solid gold. History, however, gives no record of his having discovered the key to the suspected treasure vaults. The name Colorado has been by some mistakenly supposed to be a corruption of Coronado; but, on the contrary, it is a common Spanish word, from the verb colorar, to color, usually to color red, and means colored red, ruddy. It is a name frequently applied to rivers, mountains and localities in Spanish America, where the prevalence of red rocks and soil constitutes a characteristic physical feature of many portions of the country. This portion of our continent was a sealed book for nearly three centuries after Coronado; and was generally designated the Great American Desert. In 1803 the United States purchased from France the immense territory known as Louisiana, the price being fifteen millions of dollars-one of the largest real estate transactions on record. In 1806, Captain Zebulon Pike was sent with a party of Government explorers to ascertain the resources of this new acquisition. They camped where Pueblo now stands. On the day of their arrival the Captain and a few of his company started out with the idea of scaling the Big Mountain, as they called it, and returning the same evening. When night closed around them they found themselves at the foot of Cheyenne Mountain, and the next day toiled to the top of it. On reaching the summit, the Big Mountain appeared to be as far away as when they first began. The enterprise resulted in igno- |