Did the true story of Estevanico influence MCOG?

People here are generally aware that The Mysterious Cities of Gold was derived from the novel "The King's Fifth" by Scott O'Dell. I recently learned about the real historical person Estevanico, and was wondering whether O'Dell drew upon history to create his characters in The King's Fifth.

The historical Estevanico ("little Estevan") was a North African sold into slavery to the Portuguese. Eventually, he made his way to America with the Spaniards as part of the Narvaez expedition to colonize Florida in 1527. The expedition was a disaster and after a few years four survivors had managed to walk from Florida back to Mexico, one of them was Estevanico. Once back in Spanish territory, he was returned to slavery, this time to the Spanish Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza. Mendoza heard the survivors tales of large, wealthy cities and sent an expedition to investigate the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola led by Friar Marcos de Niza. Estevanico was to serve as interpreter and guide. During the expedition, he went far ahead of the main party and reached the Zuni village of Hawikuh (in modern New Mexico) where he disappeared, ostensibly killed by the Indians, but nobody knows for sure. Sometime later, Coronado mounted his expedition to the American Southwest, partly based on the reports of large wealthy cities from Estevanico and de Niza's expedition.

Anyway, the similarities in names and places between history and The King's Fifth seem too much to be coincidental. Did O'Dell create his fictional novel inspired by the historical Estevanico? Does anyone here know?