Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 2 (of 8) / Spanish Explorations and Settlements in America from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century

by Unknown

CHAPTER VII.

EARLY EXPLORATIONS OF NEW MEXICO.

BY HENRY W. HAYNES.

Archæological Institute of America.

AT the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico there were living, some fifteen hundred miles to the north of the city so named, in the upper valley of the Rio del Norte, and upon some of the eastern affluents of the Colorado of the West, certain native tribes, who had attained to a degree of culture superior to that of any people in North America, with the exception of the semi-civilized Aztec and Maya races. These were the Sedentary or Pueblo Indians,—village communities dwelling together in large buildings constructed of stone or adobe,—whose home lay principally within the present limits of New Mexico and Arizona, although extending somewhat into southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah. The first rumors of the existence of this people which had reached the ears of the Spaniards grew out of a tale told to Nuño de Guzman in 1530, when he was at the head of the Royal Audience then governing New Spain.[1412] He had an Indian slave, called by the Spaniards Tejos, who represented himself to be a son of a trader in feathers, such as were used by the natives for head-dresses. Tejos said that it was his father’s habit to travel about, exchanging his wares for silver and gold, which were abundant in certain regions. Once or twice he had accompanied his father on these journeys, and then he had seen cities large enough to be compared with Mexico. They were seven in number, and entire streets in them were occupied by jewellers. To reach them it was necessary to travel northward forty days’ journey through a desert region lying between the two seas.

Guzman placed confidence in this narrative; and collecting a force of four hundred Spaniards and twenty thousand Indians, he set out from Mexico in search of this country. It was believed to be only about six hundred miles distant, and already the name of The Land of the Seven Cities had been given to it. There were also other strange stories current, that had been told to Cortés a few years before, about a region called Ciguatan, lying somewhere in the north, near to which was an island inhabited solely by Amazons. In this, also, there was said to be gold in abundance; and it was quite as much the hope of finding the Island of the Amazons, with its gold, that inspired Guzman’s expedition, as of gaining access to the treasures of The Seven Cities. But on his march confirmatory reports about these cities kept reaching him; and eventually the expedition succeeded in penetrating to Ciguatan, and even as far within the province of Culiacan, the extreme limit of Spanish discovery, as to Colombo. Nevertheless, they did not find the Island of the Amazons, and The Seven Cities kept receding farther toward the north.[1413] Meanwhile one of his captains made a reconnoissance some seventy leagues in an easterly direction without any satisfactory result. At last, the difficulties of an advance through a wild country and amid pathless mountains brought the expedition to a halt, which soon dampened the ardor of the soldiers, who grew clamorous to return to Mexico. But in the mean time news had reached Guzman that Cortés was once more there, clothed with new titles and authority, and he did not dare to brave the anger which his hostile proceedings during Cortés’ absence were sure to have provoked. Accordingly he retraced his steps no farther than to Compostella and Guadalaxara, where he remained, and established the colonies from which was formed the province known afterwards as New Gallicia.[1414] Not long after, he was deposed from his authority as governor of this province by direct commands from Spain; and Antonio de Mendoza, who had now been created Viceroy of New Spain, appointed Francisco Vasquez de Coronado to the vacant post.

Meanwhile the Indian Tejos had died, and the mysterious Seven Cities would have remained only a name, if the interest in them had not been revived by a remarkable occurrence. This was the arrival in the province of Culiacan, in 1536, of Antonio Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, with three companions. They were the sole survivors of the numerous company who had followed Pamphilo de Narvaez, in 1527, to the shores of Florida. During nine years of almost incredible perils and hardships, after traversing in their wanderings all the great unknown region lying north of the Gulf of Mexico, they had at last reached the shores of the southern sea. They brought back accounts of having fallen in with civilized peoples, dwelling in permanent habitations, where were “populous towns with very large houses.”[1415] The story of their strange adventures is told elsewhere in more detail,[1416] so that here it suffices to put on record simply that they were the first Europeans to tread the soil of New Mexico. As soon as they reached Mexico, the intelligence of their discoveries was communicated to the Viceroy Mendoza, by whom it was at once transmitted to Coronado, the new governor of New Gallicia. He was a gentleman of good family, from Salamanca, but long established in Mexico, where he had married a daughter of Alonzo d’Estrada, former governor of that place, who was generally believed to be a natural son of Ferdinand the Catholic. Coronado at this time was occupied in travelling through New Spain; but he repaired immediately to his province to investigate the reports, taking with him one of Cabeza de Vaca’s companions, a negro named Stephen, and also three Franciscan monks, missionaries to the natives. After a brief interval a proposition was made to one of these monks, Fray Marcos de Nizza (of Nice), to undertake a preliminary exploration of the country. He was selected for this task on account of his character and attainments, and because of the experience he had acquired in Peru, under Alvarado. Elaborate instructions were sent to him by the Viceroy, which seem inspired by a spirit of humanity as well as intelligence.[1417] He was told that the expedition was to be undertaken for the spread of the holy Catholic faith, and that he must exhort the Spaniards to treat the natives with kindness, and threaten them with the Viceroy’s displeasure if this command should be disobeyed. The natives were to be informed of the Emperor’s indignation at the cruelties that had been inflicted upon them, and to be assured that they should no longer be enslaved or removed from their homes. He was ordered to take the negro Stephen as his guide, and cautioned against giving any ground of offence to the natives. He was to take special note of their numbers and manner of life, and whether they were at peace or war among themselves. He was also to observe particularly the nature of the country, the fertility of the soil, and the character of its products; to learn what wild animals were to be found there, and whether there were any rivers, great or small. He was to search for precious stones and metals, and if possible to bring back specimens of them; and to make inquiry whether the natives had any knowledge of a neighboring sea. If he should succeed in reaching the southern sea, he was to leave an account of his discoveries buried at the foot of some conspicuous tree marked with a cross, and to do the same thing at the mouths of all rivers, so that any future maritime expedition might be instructed to be on the lookout for such a sign. Especially was he ordered to send back constant reports as to the route he had taken, and how he was received; and if he should discover any great city, he was to return immediately to give private information about it. Finally, he was told to take possession of the new country in the name of the Emperor, and to make the natives understand that they must submit themselves to him.

In accordance with these instructions, Fray Marcos set out from S. Miguel de Culiacan on the 7th of March, 1539, with Fray Honoratus for a companion, and the negro Stephen for a guide. The monks were not greatly pleased with this man, on account of his avaricious and sensual nature; but they hoped to reap some benefit from his ability to communicate with the natives, several of whom, who had been brought away from their homes by Cabeza de Vaca, but who had been redeemed and set free by the Viceroy, also accompanied the party. There was, besides, a much larger company of natives from the neighboring regions, who were induced to join the expedition on account of the favorable representations made to them by those whom the Viceroy had freed.

Fray Marcos, upon his return, made a formal report of all his doings;[1418] and to this we must look for the first definite information in regard to the early exploration and history of the region with which we are now concerned, since Cabeza de Vaca’s narrative is too confused to furnish any sure indications of locality, and he has even been charged by Castañeda with “representing things very differently from what he had found them in reality.”[1419] The monk relates how they reached Petatlan, after having met with great kindness from the natives on their way; and while resting there for three days Fray Honoratus fell ill, and was obliged to be left behind. He himself continued his journey for some thirty leagues, still finding the natives most friendly, and even willing to share with him their supply of food, although it was but scanty, owing to no rain having fallen for three years. On his way he was met by some inhabitants of the island, which had previously been visited by Cortés, by whom he was assured that it was indeed an island, and not a continent as some had supposed. Still other people came to visit him from a larger island, but more distant, who informed him that there were still thirty islands more, but that they were only poorly supplied with food.[1420] These Indians wore shells suspended from their necks, like those in which pearls are found; and when a pearl was shown to them, they said they had an abundance of them, although the friar admits that he himself did not see any. After this his route lay for four days through a desert, during which he was accompanied by the Indians from the islands and the inhabitants of the villages through which he had passed. Finally he came to a people who were astonished to see him, as they had no intercourse with the people on the other side of the desert, and had no knowledge whatsoever of Europeans. Nevertheless, they received him kindly, and supplied him with food, and endeavored to touch his garments, calling him “a man sent from heaven.” In return, he endeavored, as best he might by means of interpreters, to teach them about “God in heaven, and his Majesty upon earth.” Upon being asked if they knew of any country more populous and civilized than their own, they replied that four or five days’ journey into the interior, in a great plain at the foot of the mountains, there were many large cities, inhabited by a people who wore garments made of cotton. When specimens of different metals were shown to them, they selected the gold, and said that this people had their common dishes made of this material, and wore balls of it suspended from their ears and noses, and even used “thin plates of it to scrape off their sweat.” However, as this plain was quite remote from the sea, and as it was his purpose never to be far away from it during his journeyings, the monk decided to defer the exploration of this country until his return.

Meanwhile Fray Marcos continued to travel for three days through the territories of the same tribe, until he arrived at a town of moderate size, called Vacapa, situated in a fertile region about forty leagues from the sea.[1421] Here he rested for several days, while three exploring parties were despatched to the coast with directions to bring back some of the natives dwelling there as well as upon the neighboring islands, in order that he might obtain more definite information about those regions. The negro was ordered to advance in a northerly direction fifty or sixty leagues, and to send back a report of what he should discover. In four days’ time a messenger came from him bringing news of “a country the finest in the world;” and with him came an Indian, who professed to have visited it, and who reported that it was a thirty days’ journey from the place where Stephen then was to the first city of this province. The name of this province was Cibola,[1422] and it contained seven great cities, all under the rule of one lord. The houses were built of stone and lime; some of them were three stories high, and had their doorways ornamented with turquoises, of which there was an abundance in that country; beyond this, there were still other provinces all greater than that of The Seven Cities. This tale was all the more readily credited by the monk, as the man appeared to be “of good understanding.” Nevertheless, he deferred his departure until the exploring parties should return from the coast. After a short time they came back, bringing with them some of the dwellers upon the coast and on two of the islands, who reported that there were thirty-four islands in all, near to one another; but that all, as well as the main land, were deficient in food supplies. They said that the islanders held intercourse with each other by means of rafts, and that the coast stretched due north. On the same day there came to Vacapa, to visit the monk, three Indians who had their faces, hands, and breasts painted. They said that they dwelt in the eastern country, in the neighborhood of Cibola, and they confirmed all the reports in regard to it.

As fresh messengers had now come from Stephen, urging the monk to hasten his departure, he sent the natives of the coast back to their homes and resumed his journey, taking with him two of the islanders—who begged to accompany him for several days—and the painted Indians. In three days’ time he arrived among the people who had given the negro his information about Cibola. They confirmed all that had been said about it; and they also told about three other great kingdoms, called Marata, Acus, and Totonteac. They said they were in the habit of going to these countries to labor in the fields, and that they received in payment turquoises and skins of cattle. All the people there wore turquoises in their ears and noses, and were clad in long cotton robes reaching to their feet, with a girdle of turquoises around the waist. Over these cotton garments they wore mantles made of skins, which were considered to be the clothing best suited to the country. They gave the monk several of these skins, which were said to come from Cibola, and which proved to be as well dressed and tanned as those prepared by the most highly civilized people. The people here treated him with very great kindness, and brought the sick to him to be healed, and endeavored to touch his garments as he recited the Gospels over them. The next day he continued his journey, still attended by the painted Indians, and arrived at another village, where the same scenes were repeated. He was told that Stephen had gone on four or five days’ journey, accompanied by many of the natives, and that he had left word for Fray Marcos to hasten forward. As this appeared to be the finest country he had found thus far, he proceeded to erect two crosses, and to take formal possession of it in the name of the Emperor, in accordance with his instructions. He then continued on his journey for five days more, passing through one village after another, everywhere treated with great kindness, and receiving presents of turquoises and of skins, until at last he was told that he was on the point of coming to a desert region. To cross this would be five days’ march; but he was assured that provisions would be transported for him, and places provided in which he could sleep. This all turned out as had been promised, and he then reached a populous valley, where the people all wore turquoises in greater profusion than ever, and talked about Cibola as familiarly as did the Spaniards about Mexico or Quito. They said that in it all the products of civilization could be procured, and they explained the method by which the houses were constructed of several stories.

Up to this point the coast had continued to run due north; but here, in the latitude of 35°, Fray Marcos found, from personal examination, that it began to trend westward. For five days he journeyed through this fertile and well-watered valley, finding villages in it at every half-league, when there met him a native of Cibola, who had fled hither from the governor of that place. He was a man advanced in years, and of good appearance and capacity; and from him were obtained even more definite and detailed accounts of Cibola and the neighboring kingdoms, their condition and mode of government; and he begged to be allowed to return home in the friar’s company, in order to obtain pardon through his intercession. The monk pursued his way for three days more through this rich and populous valley, when he was informed that soon another desert stretch, fifteen long days’ march in extent, would begin. Accordingly, as he had now travelled one hundred and twelve leagues from the place where he had first learned of this new country, he determined to rest here a short time. He was told that Stephen had taken along with him more than three hundred men as his escort, and to carry provisions across the desert; and he was advised to do likewise, as the natives all expected to return laden with riches. But Fray Marcos declined; and selecting only thirty of the principal men, and the necessary porters, he entered upon the desert in the month of May, and travelled for twelve days, finding at all the halting-places the cabins which had been occupied by Stephen and other travellers. Of a sudden an Indian came in sight, covered with dust and sweat, with grief and terror stamped upon his countenance. He had been one of Stephen’s party, and was the son of one of the chiefs who were escorting the friar. This was the tale he told: On the day before Stephen’s arrival at Cibola, according to his custom, he sent forward messengers to announce his approach. These carried his staff of office, made of a gourd, to which was attached a string of bells and two feathers, one white and one red, which signified that he had come with peaceful intentions and to heal the sick. But when this was delivered to the governor, he angrily dashed it to the ground, saying he knew the strangers, and forbade their entering the city, upon pain of death. This message was brought back to Stephen, who nevertheless continued on, but was prevented from entering the city. He was conducted to a large house outside the walls, where everything was taken from him; and the whole party passed the night without food or drink. The following morning, while the narrator had gone to the river which flowed near by, to quench his thirst, suddenly he saw Stephen in full flight, pursued by the people of Cibola, who were slaying all of his companions; whereupon he hid himself under the bank, and finally succeeded in escaping across the desert. When they heard this pitiful story, the Indians began to wail, and the monk to tremble for his own life; but he says he was troubled still more at the thought of not being able to bring back information about this important country. Nevertheless, he proceeded to cut the cords of some of his packages, from which he had as yet given nothing away, and to distribute all the contents among the chief men, bidding them fear nothing, but continue on with him still farther; which they did, until they came within a day’s journey of Cibola. Here there met them two more of Stephen’s Indian companions, still bleeding from their wounds, who told the same story about his death and the destruction of his company, supposing that they alone had escaped, by hiding themselves under the heaps of those who had been slain by flights of arrows.[1423]

The monk goes on to relate that he tried to comfort the weeping natives, by telling them that God would punish the people of Cibola, and the Emperor would send an army to chastise them; but they refused to believe him, saying no power could resist that of Cibola. He thereupon distributed everything he had left among them to appease them, and endeavored to persuade some of them to go nearer the city, in order to make sure of the fate of the party; and upon their refusal, he said that he should at all events endeavor to obtain a sight of Cibola. Seeing his determination, two of the chiefs consented to accompany him; and they came to a hill, from which they could look down upon the city. It is situated in a plain, he says, and seemed to be handsomer and more important than any city he had yet seen, and even larger than Mexico. The houses were built of stone, and were of several stories, as the natives had told him, and with flat roofs; and upon his expressing his admiration of it, his companions said that it was the smallest of The Seven Cities, and that Totonteac, one of the neighboring towns, was still larger and finer. With the help of the Indians he proceeded to raise a great pile of stones, upon which he planted a cross as large as he was able to make, and in the name of the Viceroy and Governor of New Spain, on behalf of the Emperor, he took possession of the Land of the Seven Cities, and the realms of Totonteac, Acus, and Marata; and to the whole country he gave the name of the New Kingdom of St. Francis. Upon retracing his steps across the desert, he failed to receive as friendly a reception as before, for all the people were in tears for the loss of their murdered relatives; so that he became alarmed, and hastened through the valley so rapidly that in three days’ time he had crossed the second desert. From this point he made a detour in the direction of the country lying to the East, about which he had been told on his first coming. Without venturing to penetrate into it, he contented himself with observing the approaches, when he found seven small villages in a verdant valley, but in the distance he could see the smoke of a fine city. He was informed that the country was very rich in gold, but that the inhabitants refused all intercourse with strangers. Nevertheless, he planted two more crosses here, and took formal possession of the country. From this point he retraced his steps as speedily as possible to Compostella, where he rejoined Coronado, and sent immediate notice of his return to the Viceroy.

While Fray Marcos had been absent upon his journey, Coronado had himself been occupied in searching for a province lying somewhere to the north of his own dominions, called Topira. After a toilsome march through a mountain region this was reached, and proved to be entirely different from what it had been reported; and he had just returned from this fruitless expedition, when the monk arrived. So glowing were the accounts he gave of what he had himself seen and what the natives had told him, as well as of the wealth to be found in the islands of the southern seas, that Coronado determined to take the monk at once with himself to Mexico and lay the matter before the Viceroy. There, on the 2d of September, 1539, according to the notaries’ attest, Fray Marcos presented a report in writing to Mendoza, by whom it was transmitted to the Emperor Charles V., accompanied by a letter from himself containing a brief narrative of the previous attempts that had been made for the exploration of the country.[1424] In a very short time Coronado began to proclaim openly what hitherto he had only whispered in strictest confidence to his most intimate friends,—that the marvellous Seven Cities had been discovered which Nuño de Guzman had sought for in vain; and he proceeded forthwith to make preparations and to collect a military force for their conquest. Meanwhile the Franciscans chose Fray Marcos for their general; and soon all the pulpits of that Order were resounding to such good purpose, that before long an army of three hundred Spaniards and eight hundred Indians of New Spain had been collected. So many gentlemen of noble birth volunteered for this service that the Viceroy was much embarrassed in selecting officers; but at last he decided upon the principal ones, and appointed Coronado, as was only his due, general-in-chief. Compostella, the capital of New Gallicia, was named as the place of rendezvous for the army; and in the mean time Hernando Alarcon received instructions to sail along the coast of the southern sea in order to accompany the march of the expedition. He was directed to transport the heavy stores and to keep up communications by means of the rivers that empty into it. This part of the plan, however, failed of success, as Coronado’s line of march soon led him to a distance from the coast.[1425]

AUTOGRAPH OF CORONADO.

In the last days of February, 1540, the Viceroy himself came to Compostella, and from there he accompanied the army for two days on its march. But soon the difficulties of the route began to tell upon the inexperienced cavaliers, who were obliged each to carry his own provisions and baggage, so that when they had reached Chiametla, they were compelled to halt for several days in order to procure a supply of food. In doing this a collision with the natives occurred, in which one of the superior officers was slain; and in revenge, all who were believed to be inhabitants of the village where it happened were hanged. Soon after this, dissatisfaction began to manifest itself among the troops, which was heightened by the discouraging reports which were spread on the return of Melchior Diaz and his party, whom Coronado had sent by Mendoza’s orders on a reconnoitring expedition during his own absence in Mexico. They had penetrated two hundred leagues beyond Culiacan, as far as the edge of the desert, and they gave very different accounts from those of Fray Marcos. Very few inhabitants were seen, except in two or three little villages of some thirty huts, and everywhere was a great scarcity of provisions; while the mountainous nature of the country rendered it almost impassable.[1426] The friar, however, strove to encourage their drooping spirits, promising them that they should not return empty handed; and the march was continued to Culiacan, where the expedition was received with great hospitality by the Spanish colonists. Here Coronado left the main body of the army under the command of Tristan d’Arellano, with orders to follow him in a fortnight, while he himself set out on the 22d of April, 1540, with fifty horse and a few foot-soldiers and the monks who did not choose to be left behind. In somewhat more than a month’s time he came to the last inhabited place on the borders of the desert, having everywhere met with a friendly reception from the natives. At an intervening village, in the valley which Cabeza de Vaca had called Corazones, he had halted, and despatched messengers to the sea-coast, which was five days’ journey distant, and learned that a vessel had been seen passing by. The place which he had now reached bore the name of Chichilticalli, or The Red House, and it proved to be something very different from what Fray Marcos had reported. Instead of a populous town at a distance of five leagues from the sea, he found merely a single ruinous, roofless structure, at least ten days’ journey from the coast. Nevertheless, it bore the appearance of having once been a fortified work which had been constructed out of red earth by a civilized people, but had been destroyed in former times by some barbarous enemy.[1427] Here Coronado entered upon the desert, and proceeding in a northeasterly direction he came in a fortnight’s time to a river, to which the name of the Vermejo was given, on account of its turbid waters. This was only eight leagues distant from Cibola, where they arrived on the following day, sometime early in July, having only escaped by the general’s prudence from falling into an ambuscade of hostile natives.[1428]

Cibola turned out to be even a greater disappointment than the Red House, and many were the maledictions showered upon the monk by the soldiers. Instead of the great city which he had reported, it proved to be only a little village of not more than two hundred inhabitants, situated upon a rocky eminence, and difficult of access.[1429] From its resemblance in situation, Coronado gave the name of Granada to the village; and he states that the name Cibola properly belonged to the whole district containing seven towns, and not to any particular place. As the natives continued to manifest a hostile disposition, and the army was almost famished from lack of food, it was resolved to attempt to carry it at once by assault, in order to get at the abundance of provisions stored there. But the inhabitants made such a stout resistance with missiles and showers of stones, that it would have gone hard with the Spaniards if it had not been for the protection of their armor. As it was, Coronado himself was twice felled to the earth, and his life was only saved by the devotion of one of his officers, who shielded him with his own body. However, in less than an hour’s time the place was captured, though several of the horses of the Spaniards were killed, and a few of the assailants wounded. But when once possession of this strong point was secured, the whole district was speedily reduced to submission.

Here Coronado awaited the arrival of the main body of his army before attempting to penetrate farther into the country; and from this place he transmitted to the Viceroy, under date of Aug. 3, 1540, a report of what he had already accomplished, in which his disappointment about the character of the region through which he had journeyed was very plainly expressed, as well as his entire disbelief in the truth of the reports which Fray Marcos had brought back respecting the rich and powerful kingdoms lying at a distance. He shows that he had discovered the inherent defect of the country by laying particular stress upon the “great want of pasture;” and says that he had learned that “what the Indians worship is water, for it causeth their corn to grow and maintaineth their life.”[1430] With this despatch he sent specimens of the garments worn by the natives and of their weapons, and also “two cloths painted with the beasts of the country;” he also reports that the natives possessed a certain amount of gold and silver, but that he could not discover whence they procured it.

While waiting at Cibola the arrival of the main body of the army, Coronado sent out a small party under Pedro de Tobar to explore a province lying some twenty leagues or more to the northwest, called Tusayan,[1431] where there were said to be seven cities, with houses built like those of Cibola, and inhabited by a warlike people. Tobar succeeded in approaching close to the first of these without being observed, as the natives now seldom ventured far from their houses on account of the fear inspired by the rumors spread abroad that Cibola had been captured by a fierce people mounted upon animals that devoured human flesh. However, as soon as the Spaniards were discovered, the natives showed a bold front, advancing to meet them in good order, and well armed. Drawing a line in the sand, they forbade the Spaniards crossing it, and wounded the horse of a soldier who ventured to leap over it; whereupon a friar named Juan de Padilla, who had been a soldier in his youth, urged the captain to make an onslaught upon them, and the natives were soon put to flight and many of them slain. In a short time all this province gave in its submission, and peaceable relations were once more established. The natives brought as gifts to the Spaniards turquoises, tanned skins, maize, and other provisions, and especially cotton stuffs, which were regarded by them as the choicest present, since it did not grow in their own country. They also gave information about a large river lying farther to the west, on whose banks, at some days’ journey down the stream, there dwelt a race of very large men. Tobar returned to Cibola with this report, and Coronado immediately despatched a second exploring party to verify it, under García Lopez de Cardenas. These were well received on their way by the people of Tusayan, who supplied them with guides and provisions for the journey. For twenty days their march lay through a desert, at the end of which they came to the banks of a river which seemed to them to be elevated “three or four leagues in the air.” So steep were these banks that it was impossible to descend to the water, which appeared so far away as to seem to be only an arm’s-length in width, and yet their guides assured them that it was over half a league broad. Although it was summer time, it was quite cold, and the country was covered with a growth of stunted pines. For three days they followed the bank in search of a passage; and some volunteers who made the attempt returned with the report that they had only been able to accomplish a third of the descent, and that rocks which had seemed scarcely as high as a man, were found to be loftier than the towers of Seville Cathedral. For three or four days more they continued on; but at length they were forced to return by want of water, which they had been obliged to seek for every night a league or two back from the river, and retraced their steps to Cibola.[1432]

CORONADO’S EXPEDITION.

The map given in Ruge’s Das Zeitalter der Entdeckungen, p. 417. With slight corrections, this is as accurate as our present information permits. Melchior Diaz penetrated farther north, and crossed the Colorado. Tiguex should be placed west of the Rio Grande, between Acoma and Quirex. The Rio “Sangra” is probably a mistake for “Sonora.”

In the mean time the main body of the army, which had been left at Culiacan under the command of Tristan d’Arellano, with orders to follow Coronado in a fortnight, set out, and slowly advancing reached at length Cabeza de Vaca’s province of Corazones. Here it was thought best to attempt to establish a colony; but owing to the difficulty of procuring a sufficient supply of food, it was subsequently transferred to the spot in the valley of the river which is now called Sonora. From here Don Roderigo Maldonado was despatched down the river in the hope of finding Alarcon’s vessels. He returned without having accomplished his purpose, but brought back with him a native of huge stature, and reported that a nation of still larger men dwelt farther down the coast. The whole army now transferred itself across the river to the new colony, and there waited for further orders from Coronado.

About the middle of September, 1540,[1433] Melchior Diaz and Juan Gallegos arrived from Cibola with instructions for the army to proceed thither at once. Gallegos continued on to Mexico, carrying to the Viceroy an account of the discoveries; and with him went Fray Marcos, who dared not remain any longer with the army, so incensed were they with him for his gross misrepresentations. Diaz was ordered to remain at the new colony in the capacity of governor, and to seek to put himself in communication with Alarcon’s vessels. Immediately the army took up its march for Cibola, but Arellano remained behind. As soon as they had departed, Diaz set out to explore the sea-coast, leaving Diego d’Alcarraz in command in his stead, who turned out to be very poorly fitted to exercise authority, so that disorders and mutinies broke out. Diaz himself, after marching one hundred and fifty leagues in a southwesterly direction (as Castañeda reports),[1434] struck the Tizon at some distance from its mouth, at a place where it was at least half a league wide. Here he found a race of huge men dwelling together in large numbers in underground cabins roofed with straw, from whom he learned that the vessels had been seen three days’ march down the stream. Upon reaching the spot indicated, which the natives told him was fifteen leagues from its mouth, he came upon a tree with an inscription upon it, and buried under it he found a writing stating that Alarcon had come so far,[1435] and after waiting there awhile had returned to New Spain. It also contained the information that this supposed south sea was actually a gulf which separated the mainland from what had been called the Island of California. With the intention of exploring this peninsula, Diaz proceeded up the river five or six days’ march in the hope of finding a ford, and at length attempted to cross by means of rafts. The natives, whose assistance he had called in to help construct them, proved treacherous, and laid a plot to attack the Spaniards on both banks of the river, while a portion were in the act of crossing. When this was detected, they made their assault boldly, but were speedily put to flight. Diaz then continued his journey along the coast, which took here a southeasterly direction, until he reached a volcanic region where farther progress became impossible. While retracing his steps, he met with an accident which put an end to his life; but the rest of his party returned to Sonora in safety.

While Diaz was making these explorations, the main body of the army had continued on to Chichilticalli without having encountered any other peril than being severely poisoned from having eaten preserved fruits that had been given to them by the natives. Castañeda records their falling in with a flock of large mountain sheep, which ran so swiftly that they could not be captured. When within a day’s march of Cibola they were overtaken by a terrible storm, accompanied by a heavy snow-fall, which caused the Spaniards great suffering, and nearly cost the lives of their Indian allies, natives of a warm country. But on arriving they found comfortable quarters provided by Coronado, and the whole force was now reunited, with the exception of a detachment which had been sent upon an expedition in an entirely different direction.

A party of natives had come to Cibola from a village called Cicuyé, situated some seventy leagues away toward the east, under a chief to whom the Spaniards gave the name of Bigotes, from the long mustache he wore. They proffered their friendly services to the strangers and invited them to visit their country, at the same time making them presents of tanned bison-skins. One of them had the figure of this animal painted on his body, which gave the Spaniards their first knowledge of its appearance. Coronado made them in return presents of glass beads and bells, and ordered Hernando d’Alvarado to take twenty men with him and explore that region, and after eighty days to return and report what he had discovered. After five days’ travel Alvarado came to a village called Acuco, situated on a precipitous cliff so high that an arquebus-ball could scarcely reach the top. The only approach to it was by an artificial stairway cut in the rock, of more than three hundred steps, and for the last eighteen feet there were only holes into which to insert the toes.[1436] By showing a bold front, friendly relations were established with the inhabitants of this formidable stronghold, who numbered some two hundred fighting men, and a large supply of provisions was received from them. Three days’ march farther brought them to a province called Tiguex, containing twelve villages situated on the banks of a great river.[1437] The presence in the party of Bigotes, who was a renowned warrior well known in all that region, conciliated the favor of the people of Tiguex; and the country pleased Alvarado so much, that he sent a messenger to Coronado to persuade him to make it his winter quarters.[1438] Continuing his journey, in five days more he reached Cicuyé, which he found to be a strongly fortified village of four-story terraced houses, built around a large square. It was also protected by a low stone wall, and was capable of putting five hundred warriors into the field.[1439] Here they were welcomed with great demonstrations of friendship, and received many gifts of turquoises, which were abundant in that country.[1440] While resting here for several days they fell in with an Indian slave,—a native of the region lying toward Florida, which De Soto afterward explored,—who told them marvellous tales about the stores of gold and silver to be found in the great cities of his own country.

THE BUFFALO (after Thevet).

[This is one of the earliest engravings—if not the earliest—of the buffalo, occurring on folio 144 verso, of Thevet’s Les Singularitez de la France Antarctique, Antwerp, 1558. Davis (Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, p. 67) says Cabeza de Vaca is the earliest to mention the buffalo.—Ed.]

This man they named “the Turk,” from his resemblance to men of that nation; and such implicit credence did they place in his stories, that after penetrating a little way into the plains under his guidance,—where for the first time they saw the bisons, with whose skins they had become familiar,—they retraced their steps in order to bring this information to Coronado. On reaching Tiguex, Alvarado found Cardenas there, who had been sent on by the General, in accordance with his advice, to prepare winter quarters for the army now on its march from Sonora. Alvarado accordingly decided to remain in that province and wait for the coming of the army; but in making their preparations for its comfort the Spaniards showed very little consideration for the natives, forcing them to abandon one of their villages, taking only the clothes that they were wearing.

SKETCH OF THE BUFFALO.

[By the kindness of the Rev. Edward E. Hale, D. D., a tracing by him from a sketch made about 1599 by order of Oñate, and by his Sergeant-Major Vincente de Galdivia Mendoza, is here copied. The original is inscribed, “Trasunto de como son las Bacos de Gibola.” See ante, p. 477, note.—Ed.]

By this time Arellano had arrived at Cibola, coming from Sonora; and to him Coronado once more intrusted the command of the main force, with instructions for it to rest twenty days at Cibola, and then to proceed direct to Tiguex. He himself, having heard of a province containing eight towns called Tutahaco, took a party of his hardiest men and set out to explore it. On his way thither, which took the direction of the route to Tiguex, for two days and a half they were without water, and were forced to seek for it in a chain of snow-covered mountains. After eight days’ march they reached this place, and there they heard of other villages situated still farther down the river. The people were found to be a friendly race, dwelling in buildings constructed of earth, like those at Tiguex, which province Coronado reached by following up the course of the river.[1441]

On his arrival there he found Alvarado and the Turk, who repeated his story about the marvellous wealth to be found in his country, adding many fanciful embellishments,—which were the more readily believed, as he was able to distinguish copper from gold. He pretended that the people of Cicuyé had taken some gold bracelets from him when they made him prisoner, and Coronado accordingly sent Alvarado back to Cicuyé to reclaim them. The people there received him again in a friendly way, but denied all knowledge of the gold bracelets, and declared the Turk to be a liar. Upon this, Alvarado threw the chief men of the town and Bigotes into chains and brought them to Tiguex, where they were kept prisoners more than six months, to the great grief and indignation of the natives, who endeavored in vain to rescue them. This affair did much to discredit the Spaniards in the estimation of the natives, whom their subsequent harsh treatment soon stirred up to active resistance.

After the twenty days had expired, Arellano and the army started for Tiguex, passing on their way the rock of Acuco, which many of the Spaniards ascended to enjoy the view,—but with great difficulty, although the native women accomplished it easily, carrying their water-jars. They had rested, after their first day’s march, at the finest town in all the province, where were private houses seven stories high. Here it began to snow. It was now early in December (1540), and for ten days of their journey the snow fell every night. But there was wood in plenty for their fires, and they did not suffer, even finding the snow a protection. But when they reached the village in the province of Tiguex, where their winter quarters had been prepared, they forgot all their past toils in listening to the delusive fables told them by the Turk. The whole province, however, was found to be in a state of revolt, occasioned by the severity of exactions imposed by Coronado in his anxiety for the comfort of his men, together with the brutality of officers and soldiers alike in carrying out his orders. The General had made requisition for three hundred pieces of cloth; and without allowing time for the natives to allot their several proportions to the different villages to complete the amount, the soldiers stripped the garments off whomsoever they met, without regard to rank or condition, and had added to the injury by offering violence to the women. The people of one of the villages had slain one of the Indian allies and driven off several of the horses, whereupon Coronado had sent Cardenas with the greater part of the force to attack it; and only after more than twenty-four hours of hard fighting, and when many of the Spaniards had been wounded by arrows, were the defenders at last forced to surrender by a device of the Indian allies, who drove a mine into the lower portion of the houses, and filled them with the smoke of burning combustibles. By an act of base treachery they were put to death after having been promised quarter; and at once the report was spread far and wide that the Spaniards were violators of their solemn engagements.

It was just at the time of the capture of this village that the main body of the army arrived; and then the snow began to fall and continued to do so for two months, so that it was impossible to undertake any new enterprise. Attempts were made, however, to conciliate the natives; but they refused to place any confidence in the representations made to them Force was thereupon resorted to; and Cardenas, after an ineffectual attempt upon one of the villages, came near losing his life by treachery before the principal town of Tiguex, to which Coronado finally determined to lay regular siege. This lasted for fifty days, during which the besieged suffered greatly from want of water; and finally, in attempting to escape by night they were discovered, and a great many of them were driven into the river and perished. The Spaniards themselves suffered considerably, more than twenty being wounded by arrows, several of whom died from bad medical treatment. Two of the officers perished,—one killed in battle, the other taken prisoner and carried into the town.[1442]

During the siege Coronado himself made a brief visit to Cicuyé, for the purpose of examining the country and restoring to his home the chieftain whom Alvarado had brought away. At this time he promised to set Bigotes also at liberty, when he should pass by the place on his way to the rich countries which the Turk had told about. This delighted the people, and he returned to the camp before Tiguex, leaving them in a very friendly state of mind toward him.

About this time there arrived messengers from Alcarraz and the colony at Sonora, bringing information of the death of Melchior Diaz, and of the disorderly condition prevailing there. Coronado immediately despatched Tobar to take command at that place, and to escort the messengers whom he sent to the Viceroy to report what had already been accomplished and the marvellous information received from the Turk. Tobar soon found himself involved in hostilities with the natives, and lost seventeen of his men by their poisoned arrows. Not feeling himself sufficiently secure at Sonora, he transferred the colony to the valley of Suya, forty leagues nearer to Cibola; and not long afterward he received orders from Coronado to rejoin the army with the best of his force.

When the siege was over, an expedition was sent out to receive the submission of the people of Chia, a large town situated four leagues west of the river, in whose charge were left four bronze cannon which were in a bad condition. Another expedition was equally successful in a province of seven villages called Quirex.[1443]

For four months the river had been closed by ice strong enough to bear a horse; but now it had melted, and Coronado prepared to start for the lands called Quivira, Arche, and the country of the Guyas, which the Turk declared abounded to a greater or less degree with gold and silver. Many of the Spaniards, however, began to have their suspicions about these fine stories.

The army left Tiguex, April 23, 1541,[1444] for Cicuyé, twenty-five leagues distant; and with them went Bigotes, who was set at liberty on arriving there, to the great joy of his countrymen. Provisions in abundance were supplied by them, besides a guide, named Xabe, a native of Quivira, who confirmed to some extent the stories of the Turk. On quitting Cicuyé they immediately entered the mountains, and after four days’ march came to a broad river over which they were forced to build a bridge, which occupied four days more.[1445] From here they journeyed in a direction north-northeast over the plains, and in a few days fell in with immense herds of bisons. At first there were only bulls, but some days later they came upon the cows and calves; and at this time, after seventeen days’ march, they came upon a band of nomads called Querechos, busy in the pursuit of the animals. This people dwelt in tents made of tanned bison-skins stretched around poles planted in the earth and fastened above and below. They possessed large packs of dogs, by whom the tents were transported, and obtained their whole sustenance by hunting the bison. Castañeda relates that on one occasion he saw an arrow driven completely through the body of one of these animals. The Querechos were intelligent and perfectly fearless, but friendly; and by signs they confirmed what the Turk had said, adding that to the eastward was a large river whose banks were thickly inhabited, and that the nearest village was called Haxa. Two days’ march farther on, the same tribe was again met, and they said that the villages lay still more to the east.

As the Turk now represented that Haxa was only two days’ march distant, Diego Lopez was sent in advance, with ten light-armed men, to explore it; while the army, continuing on in the same direction, fell in with an innumerable quantity of bisons, and lost several horses in chasing them. Lopez, after marching twenty leagues without seeing anything but the sky and the bisons, was at last brought back by the friendly natives; and his ill success contributed still more to discredit the Turk. One of the force, a native of Quivira named Sopete, had given quite different information about the route; and Coronado therefore sent out another exploring party under Rodrigo Maldonado, who came to a village in a great ravine, where a blind old man gave them to understand by signs that a long while before he had seen four of their countrymen: these were believed to be Cabeza de Vaca and his companions.[1446] This people were very friendly, and gave to the Spaniards a great quantity of tanned skins and other objects, including a tent as large as a house. Forthwith a messenger was despatched to bring the whole body of the soldiers to this spot, who, on arriving, proceeded at once to divide the skins among themselves, to the great chagrin of the natives, who had supposed that they would only bless the skins, as Cabeza de Vaca had done, and then return them. While the army was resting here there came a terrible storm, in which hailstones fell of such enormous size as would have done great mischief if it had been encountered in the open plain. A party sent out to reconnoitre came upon another wandering tribe, called Teyas, who conducted the army for three days’ march to their town, which was called Cona. This people were hostile to the Querechos, and had their faces and bodies painted; and from them guides were procured, who were not permitted to have any communication with the Turk. These confirmed what Sopete had said, that Quivira lay some forty days’ march in a northerly direction; and they led the way to another great valley, a league broad, watered by a little stream, where were vines and fruit-trees in abundance; and here the army rested some time. As it had now become evident that the Turk had deceived them, and as their supply of food began to run short, Coronado called a council of war, at which it was decided that he should take thirty of the bravest and best mounted horsemen and push on in search of Quivira, and that the rest of the army should return to Tiguex, under the command of Arellano. This decision, however, was not well received by the soldiers, who besought their General not to leave them, declaring that they were ready to die with him. But Coronado would not yield to their wishes, and set out with his party, promising to send back word in eight days if they might rejoin him.

The army waited fifteen days, during which they killed a large number of bisons; but several of their number lost the way and were never found, although cannon were fired and every means taken to recover them. Then messengers arrived repeating the order to return to Tiguex, and they quitted the valley for the country of the Teyas. This nomadic people knew the region perfectly, and supplied them with guides, by whom they were conducted back in twenty-five days to the river of Cicuyé, which they struck more than thirty leagues below where they had built the bridge, passing on their way great salt marshes. The guides told them that the river flowed toward the east, and fell into the river of Tiguex more than twenty days’ journey away. From this point they marched up the river to Cicuyé, where they were no longer well received by the inhabitants, who refused to furnish them with provisions. Accordingly they returned to Tiguex, arriving about the middle of July, 1541.

In the mean time Coronado, after marching in a northerly direction over the plains for thirty days, came to a large river, which was named for Saints Peter and Paul. All this time he and his men had lived entirely upon the flesh of bisons, and often had only their milk to drink. Sopete said there were villages farther down the river; and accordingly he followed the northern bank for three days or more in a northeasterly direction, until he came to one situated upon a branch of the great river. Journeying for four or five days more, he reached in succession six or seven other villages similarly situated, until he arrived at one which he was told was called Quivira.[1447] Here he heard of other villages still farther distant on the banks of a yet larger river called Teucarea. Great was Coronado’s disappointment at finding that Quivira, instead of being as he had been informed a city of stone houses of many stories, consisted only of a collection of straw-built huts, and that its people were the most barbarous of any that he had hitherto encountered. They ate their meat raw, like the Querechos and the Teyas, and were clad in tanned bison-skins, not having any cotton; but they cultivated maize. The Turk, who had for some time been conducted in chains with the rear-guard, was now interrogated as to his motives in so misrepresenting the nature of the country, and misleading the Spaniards. He replied that his own country lay beyond Quivira, and that the people of Cibola had begged him to lead the strangers astray upon the plains, so that they might perish by famine, as it was supposed that they relied upon maize for their food, and did not know how to chase the bison. One night he endeavored to stir up the people of Quivira to massacre the Spaniards; but being put upon their guard, the Spaniards strangled him, to the great delight of Sopete. No gold or silver was found in the country; but one of the chiefs wore a plate of copper suspended from his neck, by which he set great store. Coronado says that Quivira was nine hundred and fifty leagues distant from Mexico, and was situated in latitude 40°. The soil was rich and black, watered by many streams, and bore an abundance of grapes and plums.[1448] Here he remained for twenty-five days, sending out exploring parties in all directions, who found great difficulty in communicating with the natives, owing to the diversity of languages spoken by them, and the want of interpreters. It was now the latter part of July,[1449] and it was time to start to rejoin the army at Tiguex. So, after collecting a supply of maize for the journey, and erecting a cross with an inscription saying that Coronado had been there, he procured fresh guides, leaving Sopete in his home, and returned by the route he had come, as far as to the river named for Saints Peter and Paul. At that point, bending more towards the west, they reached the country where they had first fallen in with the Querechos, and had been turned from the direct course by the Turk; and in forty days they reached Cicuyé.

In the mean time, Arellano and the main portion of the force had been making preparations for passing the winter at Tiguex, and had been despatching parties in different directions to procure supplies of provisions. One under Francisco de Barrio-Nuevo was sent in a northerly direction up the river and visited two provinces, of which one, called Hemez, contained seven villages; the other, named Yuque-Yunque, two fine ones on the bank of the river, and four others strongly fortified and difficult of access in the mountains.[1450] Twenty leagues farther up the river was a large and powerful village called Braba, to which the Spaniards gave the name of Valladolid. It was built on both banks of a deep and rapid stream, which was crossed by a bridge of well-squared pine timber; and contained large rooms that could be heated, supported by huge pillars, superior to anything of the kind that had been seen in the country.[1451] Another expedition was sent down the river, as has been already related.

By this time some apprehension began to be felt for Coronado’s safety, as the time fixed for his return had expired and nothing had yet been heard from him. Accordingly Arellano started with a small party in search of him, and at Cicuyé he was attacked by the inhabitants, with whom he kept up a contest for four days. Tidings then came from the General; and, contenting himself with guarding the passes, Arellano waited there for his arrival. Coronado soon succeeded in re-establishing friendly relations, and continued on immediately to Tiguex. As soon as he reached that place he set about in earnest to pacify the whole province, and to persuade the inhabitants to return to their homes. The most strenuous exertions were made to procure a supply of clothing for the troops, who were in great distress for it, and to provide in every way for their comfort; so that Castañeda says, “Never was Spanish general in the Indies more beloved or better obeyed than he.” In the spring he promised his men that they should start again in search of the unknown countries, about which the Turk had set their imaginations on fire. The greater part were firm in the conviction that the natives were familiar with gold, despite their assurances to the contrary, and that they should find it in abundance. But it is plain from Coronado’s report that he did not share in this belief; and the sequel proved that others agreed with him. The region of Tiguex he found far too cold and too distant from the sea to make it a desirable situation for a colony.

About this time Tobar arrived with the reinforcements which, as we have seen, he had been ordered to bring from the valley of Suya. He had taken only the best soldiers, leaving many discontented and mutinous ones behind; and these arrived in the full expectation of finding the General already established in the rich countries about which the marvellous reports had reached them. But their disappointment was somewhat consoled when they learned that in the spring the whole army would start in the search of them. Tobar had brought despatches from the Viceroy, and private letters,—among them one informing Cardenas that he had fallen heir to his elder brother’s estate. Cardenas accordingly obtained leave to return to Mexico, and several others went with him. Castañeda says that many more would have been glad to do so, if they had not been restrained by fear of being accused of cowardice. This shows the divided feeling that prevailed. And soon trouble arose between the General, who studied only the welfare of the whole army, and certain of the officers, who selfishly looked more after the interests of their own men; so that some already began to talk of abandoning the expedition and returning to New Spain.

When the winter was over, Coronado ordered preparations to be made to start for Quivira, on the way to the unknown countries. But fate had ordained a different termination for his enterprise. On a holiday, while he was amusing himself by tilting at the ring with Maldonado, Coronado’s saddle-girths broke, and he fell to the ground, where he received a blow on the head from Maldonado’s horse, which nearly cost him his life. A long illness followed, during which Cardenas suddenly returned in haste from Suya, with the news that he had found that post broken up and the inhabitants massacred. It seems that the discontented element left behind by Tobar,—pretending that they had been abandoned, and that the route for New Spain had left them on one side,—had deserted Alcarraz and the sick men under his charge, and had fled to Culiacan. Upon this the natives became insubordinate, and one night made an attack upon the enfeebled force with poisoned arrows, killing a number of them. The rest escaped on foot to Corazones, whose people, always friendly to the Spaniards, aided them on their way to Culiacan, where they, as well as the mutineers, were found by Gallegos not long afterward, when he arrived there with reinforcements.

The news of this calamity was so afflicting to Coronado that he grew worse, or, as Castañeda intimates, feigned to do so, as he had allowed himself to give way to the influence of superstitious terrors. In his youth the prediction had been made that he would become lord of a distant land, and that he would lose his life there by a fall. This now seemed to him to be in the way of accomplishment, and he longed to return to die with his wife and children. The surgeon had kept him informed of the discontent that prevailed among a portion of his force, and he accordingly took secret counsel with certain of the officers, in which it was agreed that they should persuade their men to present a petition, praying that they might be allowed to return to New Spain. A council of war was then held, at which the conclusion was reached that the country was neither sufficiently rich nor populous to make it worth the holding. Coronado thereupon issued the necessary orders for the return march. Some of the officers, however, repented of their decision, and asked the General to give them sixty picked men, with which to maintain themselves until reinforcements should be sent by the Viceroy; or for him to take that number of men for his escort, and leave the command of the expedition to some other person. But the army would not listen to either of these propositions, as they had no inclination to make the trial of any new commander. The consequence was that the zeal and affection of some of the officers for their chief disappeared, though that of the men still held firm.

It was in the early part of April, 1542, that the army began its return march to New Spain. Two of the missionaries remained behind, in the hope of making proselytes of the natives. One of them, a lay brother named Luis, remained at Cicuyé; the other, Juan de Padilla, who had led the charge at Tusayan, continued on to Quivira with some native converts; where, in the words of Castañeda, he speedily “received the martyr’s crown.” To better insure the safety of the priests, Coronado ordered his men to set at liberty their native slaves, and then started for Cibola. On the journey thither the horses, which thus far had kept in excellent condition, began to die in great numbers. The army accordingly rested a while there before entering upon the desert lying between that place and Chichilticalli; and some Christianized Indians from Mexico remained behind at Cibola, where they were found by Antonio de Espejo, forty-one years afterward, in 1583.[1452]

The crossing of the desert was uneventful, and two days after they reached Chichilticalli, Gallegos arrived there from the Viceroy with reinforcements of men and munitions of war. Great was his dismay at finding the army on its way back, and all the splendid visions dissipated that the Turk had conjured up. Those of the officers who had offered to remain and hold the country until the Viceroy’s commands should be received, now renewed their proposition; but the soldiers refused to return, and clamored to be led back to New Spain. Coronado found himself powerless to constrain them, even if he possessed the inclination to do so; nor was his authority sufficient to enable him to inflict any punishment upon the deserters who had abandoned Alcarraz at Suya. During the march, Castañeda says that Coronado kept up the fiction of being ill, and only allowed his intimates access to his person. The natives, seeing that the country was being abandoned by the Spaniards, kept up a succession of hostile encounters, in which several of the force perished. As provisions began to fail, the army hastened on to Petatlan, thirty leagues from Culiacan, the seat of Coronado’s government. All the bonds of discipline had now become relaxed, and even his authority there as governor was not sufficient to reinforce it; but by begging his friends to use their influence with the men, he was able to bring about one hundred of the force back with himself to Mexico. Here he was received but coolly by the Viceroy, Mendoza; his reputation was gone, and soon after he was deprived of his position as Governor of New Gallicia.

Such was the end of an expedition which, as General Simpson says, “for extent in distance travelled, duration in time, and the multiplicity of its co-operating expeditions, equalled, if it did not exceed, any land expedition that has been undertaken in modern times.”[1453]

[CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION.]

THE original sources of information in regard to the early Spanish explorations of New Mexico have been made available for students within the last thirty years by the publication of several collections of documents, preserved either in Mexico or in the Archivo de Indias, at Seville, or in the great national repository at Simancas. The first to appear was the one entitled Documentos para la historia de Mejico, published by order of the Mexican Government between 1853 and 1857.[1454] This is distributed into four series, of which the third and the fourth contain important historical material bearing upon this subject. Next came the well-selected Coleccion de varios documentos para la historia de la Florida y tierras adyacentes, undertaken by the late Buckingham Smith, of which, however, only the first volume appeared in Madrid, in 1857.[1455] Then Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta, the accomplished translator of Prescott’s Conquest of Peru, published in Mexico a valuable Coleccion de documentos para la historia de México, in two volumes, the first in 1858 and the second in 1866.[1456] But by far the most important of all is the great Coleccion de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y colonizacion de las posesiones Españolas en América y Oceanía, sacados en su mayor parte del real Archivo de Indias. Forty volumes of this indispensable repertory have already appeared at Madrid, between 1864 and 1884, edited by Joaquin Francesco Pacheco and other scholars.[1457] A most essential service, however, had been rendered to the students of early American history at a still earlier date by the publication of Henri Ternaux-Compans’ admirable series of Voyages, relations, et mémoires originaux pour servir à l’histoire de la découverte de l’Amérique, publiés pour la première fois en Français, of which twenty parts appeared in Paris between 1837 and 1841.[1458] Prior to this our knowledge had been mainly restricted to Italian translations of original narratives published by Giovanni Battista Ramusio in the third volume of his Navigationi et Viaggi, Venice, 1556 (reprinted in 1565 and subsequently); of most of which Richard Hakluyt has given an English version in the third volume of his Voyages, nauigations, traffiques, and discoueries, London, 1600 (reprinted in 1810).

The different expeditions, in their chronological order, may now be studied in the following original authorities:—

An account of the expedition of Nuño Beltran de Guzman to Ciguatan is contained in the Primera (segunda) (tercera) (quarta) relacion anonima de la jornada que hizo Nuño de Guzman à la Nueva Galicia, in Icazbalceta’s Coleccion, vol. ii. pp. 288-306; 439-483. Other narratives can be found in Pacheco’s Documentos Inéditos, tom. xiv., pp. 347-373, and 411-463; tom. xvi., pp. 363-375. De Guzman first conquered and then colonized Sinaloa, and even penetrated into Sonora, thus preparing the way for the subsequent explorations. Very little information, however, about New Mexico is to be obtained from any of these narratives.

Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca published his remarkable story at Zamora in 1542, under the title: La relacion que dio Aluar Nuñez Cabeça de Vaca de lo acaescido en las Indias en la armada donde yua por gouernador Páphilo de Narbaez, desde el año de veynte y siete hasta el año de treynta y seys que boluio a Sevilla con tres de su compañia.[1459] Notwithstanding the vivid interest that will always attach to this thrilling story of adventure and suffering, the indications given in it of the routes by which he journeyed, and of the places and peoples he visited, are practically of far too vague a character to enable them to be satisfactorily identified,[1460] even if we feel warranted in placing implicit confidence in the author’s veracity.

The original report by Fray Marcos de Nizza (of Nice) of his Descubrimiento de las Siete Ciudades, can be found in Pacheco’s Documentos inéditos, tom. iii. p. 329; and the instructions received by him from the Viceroy Mendoza are given on p. 325 of the same volume. An Italian translation of the report is contained in Ramusio, Navigationi, vol. iii. p. 356 (ed. of 1565); and from this was made the English version in Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. iii. p. 438 (ed. of 1810). But on comparing both Ramusio’s and Hakluyt’s versions with the original, not only will it be found that in many places they are mere paraphrases, but that frequently additional particulars have been foisted into the text. Especially noticeable are the many exaggerated statements in regard to the quantities of gold and of precious stones seen by the monk during his journey, or about which stories are told to him by the natives, for which there is not a vestige of authority to be found in the original. Fray Marcos claims to have related what he himself saw or what was told to him; but it is evident not only that he was prone to lend a credulous ear to whatever fictions might be imposed upon him, but that he grossly misrepresented what he had himself seen. This is directly charged upon him by those who followed in his footsteps under Coronado, and who suffered grievously by reason of his falsifications; so that he was even compelled to flee to Mexico to escape the consequences of their just indignation. We think that he fairly deserves the epithet of “the lying monk,” which has been bestowed upon him, in spite of the air of probability which pervades the greater part of his narrative. But it must in justice be said, however, that he appears rather to have been carried away by religious enthusiasm than actuated by any personal or mercenary considerations; and with the hope of being able to convert the natives to Christianity, he invested them and their surroundings with the glow of his own imagination. Still, this need not militate against the truth of his statements in regard to the distances he travelled, or the physical characteristics of the regions through which his route lay; so that his narrative will always be important for the students of the topography, if not of the ethnology, of New Mexico at the period of its discovery.

Ternaux-Compans (Voyages, etc., vol. ix. p. 256) has made a most faithful French translation, from copies of the originals at Simancas, of Fray Marcos’s report, and of the letter from Mendoza to the Emperor Charles V., which accompanied it, as well as of the instructions received by the Friar from Mendoza.

The story of Coronado’s romantic expedition in search of “The Seven Cities of Cibola” has been told with more or less of detail by four different persons who took part in it. We have also three of his own letters and despatches narrating his earlier proceedings. Of these, the first is a brief one, written to the Viceroy Mendoza, dated Culiacan, March 8, 1539, transmitting a report received from Fray Marcos while upon his journey. An English version of this can be found in Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. iii. p. 434 (ed. of 1810), translated from Ramusio, Navigationi, vol. iii. p. 395 (ed. of 1565); and a French translation, in Ternaux-Compans, vol. ix. p. 349. Next comes a short letter to the Viceroy dated April 10, 1539, in which he tells about the preparations for his ineffectual expedition to Topira; Hakluyt, p. 352; Ramusio, p. 435; Ternaux-Compans, p. 352. Of much greater importance, however, is the full report transmitted by him to Mendoza from Cibola (or Granada, as he called it), August 3, 1540, setting forth everything that had occurred between that date and April 22, when he had started. An Italian version of this is given by Ramusio, Navigationi, vol. iii. p. 359 (ed. of 1565); Relatione de Francisco Vazquez de Coronado del viagio alle dette setta cita. An English translation can be found in Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. iii. p. 446 (ed. of 1810). Finally, there is the letter which he wrote to the Emperor Charles V., from Tiguex, after his return from Quivira, in which is related the course of events from April 23, 1541, up to October 20 of the same year. This can be found in Pacheco’s Documentos inéditos, tom. iii. p. 363; and it has been repeated in tom. xiii. p. 261. A French translation of it is given in the Voyages of Ternaux-Compans, vol. ix. p. 355.

The four narratives by other pens are—

1. An anonymous Relacion del suceso de la jornada que Francisco Vazquez hizo en el descubrimiento de Cibola, contained in Buckingham Smith’s Coleccion de varios documentos, p. 147. This was afterwards printed in Pacheco’s Documentos inéditos, tom. xiv. p. 318, but with the erroneous date of 1531, instead of 1541.

2. A second anonymous account, entitled Traslado de las nuevas y noticias que dieron sobre el descobrimiento de una Cibdad que llamaron de Cibola, situada en la Tierra Nueva, can also be found in Documentos inéditos, tom. xix. p. 529, with the same error in the date.

3. Of much greater value is the Relacion que dió el Capitan Joan Jaramillo, de la jornada que hizo à la tierra nueva de la que fué General Francisco Vazquez de Coronado; of which a French translation was first published by Ternaux-Compans, in his Voyages, etc., vol. ix. p. 364. The original was afterwards printed in Buckingham Smith’s Coleccion, p. 155, and subsequently in Pacheco’s Documentos inéditos, tom. xiv. p. 304, but under the erroneous date of 1537. It is a straightforward, soldierly narrative, well written, and with many picturesque details, and it contains an unusual amount of topographical information; so that it is of great value in establishing the route followed by the expedition, and in identifying the various localities.

4. But if our knowledge of the expedition had been confined to the authorities thus far indicated, we should have had a very imperfect idea both of its events and of its results. In 1838 Ternaux-Compans published a translation into French of a quarto manuscript, of 157 leaves, which he had found in the Uguina Collection, at Paris, under the title Relation du Voyage de Cibola enterpris in 1540; ou l’on traite de toutes les peuplades qui habitent cette contrée, de leurs mœurs et coutumes, par Pédro de Castañeda de Nagera (Voyages, vol. ix. p. 1). Nothing has been discovered in relation to this writer except what is contained in his own account. He states that he “wrote his narrative in the city of Culiacan, where he was living in the midst of misery and dangers, as the whole country was in a state of insurrection” (p. 233). The volume bears the indorsement, “Finished copying at Seville, Oct. 26, 1596.” As his name is not mentioned in the list of officers which he has given, it is supposed that he was only a private soldier. The work shows that he was a man of considerable education, but it is evidently the production of a novice in the art of literary composition. It is an attempt at a methodical narrative, divided into three parts, but it is quite difficult to follow in it the order of events. In the first part he treats of the incidents of the expedition, and of the army and its officers; the second contains a description of the provinces, villages, and mountains that were discovered, of the religion and customs of the inhabitants, and of the animals, fruits, and vegetables to be found; and in the last part he tells about the return of the army, and explains the reasons for abandoning the attempt at colonization. As he wrote more than twenty years after the events he has described, he sometimes signifies his inability to remember precisely the number of miles travelled, or of the days during which they journeyed. He has even fallen into the error of making the day on which the expedition entered Campostello, Shrove Tuesday, 1541 (p. 24), although he gives the correct date, 1540, in the Dedicatory Epistle (p. xiv). Throughout his entire narrative, whenever he gives the date of the year, it is always one too large, as can be seen on pp. 101, 137, and 213. He professes to have written for the purpose of correcting the many misrepresentations and fables that had sprung up in regard to the country they had discovered, and the character of the people, and the nature of the animals to be found there. Castañeda impresses the reader as a religious, humane, and candid man, who cannot fail to win his confidence in the truth of the events he relates. He does not hesitate to expose and to comment upon the cruel and rapacious acts of his own countrymen; and he does full justice both to the natural amiability and to the valor of the natives. His various observations show him to have been a man of sagacity and good judgment. Mr. Bandelier vouches for the remarkable accuracy of his description of the country, although the distances generally are estimated one third too great (Historical Introduction to Studies among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico, p. 22). The Castañeda MS. is now in the Lenox library.

These are all the original sources of knowledge in regard to the earliest attempts at exploration in New Mexico by the Spaniards, and especially respecting Coronado’s expedition to the Seven Cities of Cibola. The historians of Mexico, from Gomara down, while adding no new information to that detailed by Castañeda, are in agreement with him as to the general facts.

Renewed attention was directed to Coronado’s expedition and to the probable locality of Cibola by the publication of the reports contained in the Notes of a Military Reconnoissance made by Lieut.-Colonel William H. Emory, in 1846-1847, with the advance guard of the army of the West, during the war between the United States and Mexico,[1461] and the Report of Lieutenant J. W. Abert of his examination of New Mexico. Colonel Emory, in a letter to Hon. Albert Gallatin, dated Oct. 8, 1847, made the statement that he had met with “an Indian race living in four-story houses, built upon rocky promontories, inaccessible to a savage foe, cultivating the soil, and answering the description of the seven cities of Coronado, except in their present insignificance in size and population, and the fact that the towns, though near each other, are not in a (continuous) valley six leagues long, but on different branches of the same stream” (p. 133). He had in mind the villages in the vicinity of Ciboletta, Laguna, etc., on the Rio San Jose, a tributary of the Rio Grande del Norte, about ninety miles east of the present Zuñi pueblo. This opinion was corroborated by Lieutenant Abert (p. 491). Mr. Gallatin thereupon proceeded to prepare for the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society (vol. ii. p. liii, 1848) an elaborate essay on the Ancient semi-civilization of New Mexico, Rio Gila, and its vicinity, in which large use was made of these military reports, and to which was prefixed a map compiled by Mr. E. G. Squier. In November of the same year Mr. Squier contributed to the American Review an article on New Mexico and California. The ancient monuments and the aboriginal semi-civilized nations of New Mexico and California, with an abstract of the early Spanish explorations and conquests in those regions, particularly those falling within the territory of the United States. Mr. Gallatin came to the conclusion that the seven cities “appear to have been near the sources of a tributary of the great Colorado, and not of the Rio del Norte” (p. lxxii); but he inclined to the opinion that they had been destroyed by the Apaches (p. xciv). Mr. Squier identified Cibola with Zuñi; but there are inconsistencies to be found between his map and statements contained in his article. In that same year Lieutenant J. H. Simpson, in his Journal of a Military Reconnoissance from Santa Fé to the Navajo Country,[1462] gave a detailed description of Zuñi, which he considered to be the site of Cibola.

The explorations carried on in New Mexico and Arizona, from 1853 to 1856, during the search for a suitable route for the Pacific Railroad, took Lieutenant A. W. Whipple and Professor W. W. Turner over the same ground, and they both came to a similar conclusion (Pacific Railroad Reports, vol. iii. pp. 68, 104). But in 1857 Mr. H. M. Breckenridge published at Pittsburg a brief narrative of the Early discoveries by Spaniards in New Mexico, containing an account of the castles of Cibola and the present appearance of their ruins, in which he maintained that Cibola was the well-known ruin called Casa Grande, on the river Gila. Mr. R. H. Kern, however, upheld the Zuñi theory in his map, prepared in 1854 to accompany Schoolcraft’s History of the Indian Tribes of North America (vol. iv. p. 33); and Mr. Schoolcraft himself adopted the same view (vol. vi. p. 70, 1857).

In the year 1869 important additions were made to our knowledge of the early history of New Mexico, and especially of Coronado’s expedition. Mr. W. H. H. Davis, who had held an official position in that Territory, and in 1856 had published an interesting study of it under the title of El Gringo, gave to the world the first history of The Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, Doylestown, Penn. In the same year Brevet Brigadier General Simpson, who had had his attention directed to the question twenty years previously, prepared for the Annual Report of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1869 a thorough study, accompanied by a map, of Coronado’s March in search of the “Seven Cities of Cibola,” and discussion of their probable location.[1463] In April of the same year there appeared in the North American Review an article by the late Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, entitled The Seven Cities of Cibola, in which that eminent archæologist made an elaborate argument in favor of the identification of that site with the remarkable group of ruined stone structures, discovered not long before in the valley of the Rio Chaco, one of the affluents of the Colorado, about one hundred miles to the northeast of Zuñi. On this point, however, both Mr. Davis (p. 119) and General Simpson have pronounced in favor of Zuñi, and General Simpson has even undertaken to answer Mr. Morgan’s arguments in detail (p. 232). Mr. Morgan, nevertheless, still held to his opinion in his Study of the houses of the American Aborigines, p. 46 (First annual report of the Archæological Institute of America, 1880) expanded into the House and House-life of the American Aborigines (Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain region, in charge of J. W. Powell, vol. iv., 1881, pp. 167-170).

The Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, by Mr. Davis, is a valuable contribution to history, in which faithful and diligent use has been made of the original authorities and of unpublished documents; and it is the only full and connected narrative that has yet appeared of the series of events which it relates. The important episode to which General Simpson confines his attention is treated in abundant detail, and great acuteness and local knowledge are displayed in the discussion of the route followed by Coronado. It is likely to remain always the leading authority upon this subject.

In his elaborate work upon The Native Races of the Pacific States, Mr. H. H. Bancroft adopted the Zuñi theory as to the site of Cibola (vol. iv. p. 674), repeated in his History of the Pacific States (vol. x. p. 85).[1464] This is also the opinion maintained by Mr. A. F. Bandelier in his Historical Introduction to Studies among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico, p. 12 (Papers of the Archæological Institute of America. American series, no. 1, Boston, 1881). This is a very careful and thorough investigation of the whole subject of the geography of New Mexico and of the tribal relations of its inhabitants.

At a meeting, however, of the American Antiquarian Society in April, 1881, Rev. E. E. Hale read a paper entitled Coronado’s Discovery of the Seven Cities, in which he expressed himself as inclined to abandon his previously maintained opinion[1465] in favor of the Zuñi identification, on account of certain newly discovered evidence set forth in an accompanying letter from Lieutenant J. G. Bourke, who argued that the Moqui pueblos better satisfy the conditions of the question. To this the present writer replied in a communication at the following October meeting of the society, under the title What is the true site of “The Seven Cities of Cibola” visited by Coronado in 1540? In this all the different opinions are discussed and the Zuñi theory upheld.

The same view is supported by Mr. L. Bradford Prince, late Chief-Justice of New Mexico, in his Historical Sketches of New Mexico from the earliest records to the American occupation, 1883 (p. 115). This modest little volume is the first attempt yet made to write a continuous history of the Territory down to the year 1847. It is a useful and in the main a trustworthy compendium. But in the chapter upon Coronado he has followed Castañeda’s erroneous dates, as Davis also has done before him, and he has fallen into a few other mistakes.[1466]

[EDITORIAL NOTE.]

IN the Don Diego de Peñalosa y su descubrimiento del reino de Quivira of Cesário Fernández Duro, published at Madrid in 1882, there is an enumeration (pp. 123-144) of the expeditions organized in New Spain for exploration towards the north. The following list, with the chief sources of information, is taken from this book:

1523. Francisco de Garay to Pánuco. Documentos inéditos (Pacheco), xxvi. 77.

1526. Garay and Nuño de Guzman to Pánuco, MS. in Archivo de Indias.

1530. Nuño de Guzman to New Galicia. Doc. inéd. (Pacheco) xiv. 411; also xiii. and xvi. (see chap. vi. of the present History, ante, p. 441 and chap. vii. p. 499).

1531. Coronado to Cibola. Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), xiv. 318; xix. 529. (See chap. vii.)

1533. Diego de Guzman to Sinaloa, Doc. inéd. (Navarrete); B. Smith’s Coleccion, 94.

1536. Cabeça de Vaca. Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), xiv. (See chap. iv.)

1537. Coronado to Amatepeque. Muñoz’s MSS. in Madrid Acad. of Hist. lxxxi., fol. 34.

1539. Fray Marcos de Nizza to Cibola. Muñoz MSS.; Ramusio; Ternaux-Compans; Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), iii. 325, 351.

1539. Coronado to Cibola. (See chap. vii.)

1539. Hernando de Soto. (See chap. iv.)

1540. Melchior Diaz. (See chap. vii.)

1540. Hernando de Alvarado and Juan de Padilla to the South Sea. Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), iii. 511; B. Smith, 65. (See chap. vii.)

1540. Gomez Ariaz and Diego Maldonado along Gulf of Mexico. Garcilasso de la Vega, La Florida del Inca.

1541. Coronado to Tiguex. Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), iii. 363; xiii. 261. (See chap. vii.)

1548. Juan de Tolosa, one of the captains serving under Cortés. 1554. Francisco de Ibarra to Copala, New Biscay, etc. Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), xiv. 463.

1558. Guido de Lavazares to Pánuco and Florida.

1559. Tristán de Arellano to the Coast of Florida, and river Espiritu Santo. Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), iv. 136, xiii. 280.

1563. Diego Ibarra to Copala. Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), xiv. 553.

1566. Juan Pardo to Florida. Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), iv. 560.

1568. Francisco Cano to New Mexico, Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), xix. 535.

1569. Juan de Orozco on New Gallicia, with map. Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), ii. 561.

1575. Juan de Miranda on the Country. Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), xvi. 563.

1581. Francisco Sanchez Chamuscado to New Mexico and Cibola.

1581. Fray Francisco Ruiz among the Indians.

1582. To New Mexico. Cartas de Indias, 230.

1582. Antonio de Espejo to New Mexico. Juan Gonzáles de Mendoza’s Historia del Reino de China, Madrid, 1589; De Laet’s Novus Orbis.

1583. Cristóbal Martin to New Mexico. Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), xvi. 277.

1584. Antonio de Espejo’s continued discoveries. Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), xv. 151.

1589. Juan Battista de Lomas Colmenares agrees to settle New Mexico. Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), xv. 54.

1590. Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, Governor of New Leon, to New Mexico. Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), iv. 283; xv. 191.

1596. Sebastian Viscaino on the Coast.

1598. Juan de Oñate to New Mexico. Bustamante, Los Tres Siglos de México; Doc. inéd. (Pacheco), xvi. 88, 306, 316-320. Of his expedition to the Pueblo of Acomo, Luis Tribaldo of Toledo sent an account to Hakluyt in 1603, and extracts from it are published in De Laet’s Novus Orbis.

1599. Juan de Humaña to Quivira.

Others are noted from 1600 to 1783. Captain George M. Wheeler, U. S. Geological Survey, is preparing a Chronology of the Voyages and Explorations to the West Coast and the interior of North America between 1500 and 1800.

The alleged expedition of Peñalosa to Quivira is placed about 1662. The accounts of it depend on a Relacion del descubrimiento del Pais y Ciudad de Quivira echo por D. Diego Dionisio de Peñalosa, escrita por el Padre Fr. Nicolas de Freytas (1684). In 1882 there were two annotated renderings of this narrative,—one by Duro, mentioned at the beginning of this note, who discredits the journal and gives other documents on the same theme; the other, an English version, was issued under the title, The expedition of Don Diego Dionisio de Peñalosa, from Santa Fé to the river Mischipi and Quivira in 1662, as described by Father Nicholas de Freytas. With an account of Peñalosa’s projects to aid the French to conquer the mining country in Northern Mexico; and his connection with Cavelier de la Salle. By John Gilmary Shea, New York, 1882.

Dr. Shea in this volume claims that Quivira was north of the Missouri, while it has generally been placed south of that river. He also derives from this narrative an opinion, contrary to the one ordinarily received, namely, that La Salle was carried, against his will, beyond the mouths of the Mississippi in his expedition of 1682; for he judges his over-shooting the mouths was intentional, in order to land where he could better co-operate with Peñalosa in wresting the mines in New Mexico from the Spaniards.

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