[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—