[1420] [See ante, p. 431, “Discoveries on the Pacific Coast of North America,” for the explorations up that coast by Cortés.—Ed.]
[1421] Mr. A. F. Bandelier puts this place “in southern Arizona, somewhat west from Tucson.” Historical Introduction to Studies among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico, p. 8.
[1422] This word was borrowed by the Spaniards from the native languages, and applied by them to the Bison. [As early as 1542 Rotz drew pictures of this animal on his maps.—Ed.]
[1423] Castañeda, however, relates the circumstances of Stephen’s death somewhat differently, stating that the negro and his party, on their arrival at Cibola, were shut up in a house outside the city, while for three days the chiefs continued to question him about the object of his coming. When told that he was a messenger from two white men, who had been sent by a powerful prince to instruct them in heavenly things, they would not believe that a black man could possibly have come from a land of white men, and they suspected him of being the spy of some nation that wished to subjugate them. Moreover, the negro had the assurance to demand from them their property and their women; upon which they resolved to put him to death, without, however, harming any of those with him, all of whom, with the exception of a few boys, were sent back, to the number of sixty. (Relation, p. 12.) This latter statement, as well as that in relation to the libidinous practices of the negro, are confirmed by Coronado. Relation; Hakluyt’s Collection of Voyages (Principall Navigations), iii. 454.
[1424] Ternaux-Compans, ix. 283, 290.
[1425] Alarcon set sail on the 9th of May, 1540, and by penetrating to the upper extremity of the Gulf of California, proved that California was not an island, as had been supposed. He made two attempts to ascend the Colorado in boats, and planted a cross at the highest point he reached, burying at its foot a writing, which, as will be seen, was subsequently found by Melchior Diaz. His report of this voyage, containing valuable information in regard to the natives, can be found in Hakluyt, Voyages, iii. 505 (ed. 1810); translated from Ramusio, Navigationi, iii. 363 (ed. 1565). There is a French translation in Ternaux-Compans, ix. 299. This information about California is supplemented by the narrative of the voyage made two years later by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo along the Pacific shore of the peninsula, and up the northwest coast probably as far as the southern border of Oregon. It was printed in Buckingham Smith’s Coleccion, p. 173; and subsequently in Pacheco’s Documentos inéditos, tom. xiv. p. 165. A translation by Mr. R. S. Evans, with valuable notes by Mr. H. W. Henshaw, is given in vol. vii. (Archæology) of United States Geological Survey west of the one hundredth Meridian. [See also the present volume, p. 443.—Ed.]
[1426] Extracts from a report sent back by Melchior Diaz while on this journey are given in a letter from Mendoza to the Emperor Charles V., dated April 17, 1540, in Ternaux-Compans, ix. 290.
[1427] Chichiltic-calli, or Red House, is generally supposed to be the ruined structure, called Casa Grande, in southern Arizona, near Florence, a little south of the river Gila, and not far from the Southern Pacific Railroad. But Mr. A. F. Bandelier, after a thorough topographical exploration of the regions, is inclined to place it considerably to the southeast of this point upon the river Arivaypa, in the vicinity of Fort Grant. [This question is further examined in Vol. I. of the present History.—Ed.]
[1428] Jaramillo has given a very full itinerary of this march, describing with great particularity the nature of the country and the streams crossed (Ternaux-Compans, ix. 365-369). When the results of the latest explorations of Mr. A. F. Bandelier in this region are published by the Archæological Institute of America, there is good reason to hope for an exact identification of most if not all these localities, which at present is impossible. There can be little doubt, however, that the Vermejo is the Colorado Chiquito.
[1429] In the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society for October, 1881, I have given in detail the reasons for identifying Cibola with the region of the present Zuñi pueblos. Mr. Frank H. Cushing has made the important discovery that this tribe has preserved the tradition of the coming of Fray Marcos, and of the killing of the negro Stephen, whom they call “the black Mexican,” at the ruined pueblo called Quaquima. They claim also to have a tradition of the visit of Coronado, and even of Cabeza de Vaca.