LAS CASAS AND THE GOLDEN CITIES

In the Apologetica Historia Sumaria written around 1560, Bartolom6 de Las Casas describes the region of northern Sonora as having large towns, a sophisticated social, political, and religious organization and an advanced technology. It is suggested here that Las Casas' information (most probably taken at least in part from either a lost account or from verbal information of Marcos de Niza) is substantially correct, and incipient urbanism, consider