carrying large crosses and giving more particulars concerning Cibola.
Finally I entered a valley where there were many people, and all of
them had turquoises hanging from their noses, and ears, and collars of
the same three or four times double around their necks. Then I had to
go through another desert, and was beginning to get very tired when
one day there came running to me, an Indian in great fright--his body
covered with sweat and dust, and his face showing extreme sadness. He
said that the day before Stephen had reached Cibola, and had sent
guides into the city with presents for the chief, and to let them know
he came in peace. But the great Lord of the City flew into a rage and
dashed the presents to the ground. He drove the messengers out in
fury, and said he would kill them if they came back again. He said,
too, that he would kill Stephen. But the negro was not afraid, and
went directly into the city. Instantly they were seized and cast into
a prison, where they were kept all night without anything to eat or
drink. The next morning Stephen and his guides tried to escape, but
the people killed all of them except one other and the messenger who
came to me. These two were struck down and left for dead, but were
only stunned, and when the angry people went away they crept out in
the night, and made their escape."
"What did you do then, Fray Marcos?" asked the Viceroy.
[Illustration: "ONE OF THE SEVEN CITIES OF CIBOLA"]
"So great was my grief that it seemed for a moment as if I
should die, but when my guides began to weep and lament I gave them
the presents I intended for the Lord of Cibola, and resolved to go and
see the city, even if I could not enter it. I traveled one day and
came to a round hill, which I climbed. Looking down I saw the
beautiful city of Cibola."
"And the houses, were they as the Indians told you?"
"Yes, my lord; they were built of stone four stories high, and
glistened in the bright sunshine. The people were fair and dressed in
white. Greatly was I tempted to risk my life and go down to them, but
I contented myself with planting a cross and hurrying here to tell you
what I had done."
"That was right, Fray Marcos," said the Viceroy, "and now it is time
to send an army."
The first person the Viceroy thought of to lead the soldiers was a
brave nobleman, named Coronado, who sat by his side. He had been
listening eagerly to all that Fray Marcos had to tell. Turning to him
the Viceroy said:
"It is my wish that you should command my forces and conquer this
Kingdom of Cibola. I desire you to make ready at once."
"Fray Marcos simply confirms what Guzman and De Vaca have already told
us," replied Coronado, "and I accept your commission with one
proviso."
"And what may that be?" asked the Viceroy, with a smile.
"That you allow me to bear the expenses of the entire expedition."
"Very well, and when you find Cibola I will make you its governor and
give you all the treasures you find except what justly belongs to the
King of Spain, and his representatives and soldiers taking part in the
enterprise."
So great was the excitement over Fray Marcos' story of the new El
Dorado, that Coronado scarcely knew what to do with the volunteers of
all classes who came flocking into camp determined to go with him. He
not only spent all his own money, but borrowed all he could get and
provided for every one in splendid style. They marched out in
glittering armor, on prancing horses with lances gleaming in the
sunshine and banners flying gayly. They were all in high spirits
because they expected to return in a short time loaded with gold and
jewels.
But it was very different when they reached the desert and mountains,
for they did not know how to bear the fatigue of such a journey, nor
how to care for their horses, cattle and sheep. The animals died
rapidly, and the soldiers got into many fights with the Indians who
resented being robbed and badly treated. On they went through what we
now call Arizona, over almost the same road that Fray Marcos had
traveled, and found, instead of the fine, glittering city they
expected, only a few houses of one of the Zuni Indian villages.
The hearts of the Spaniards sunk as they gazed upon it. Calling some
of the men, Coronado said:
"Go in to the people of the city, and say that we come to defend and
join with them in friendship."
They went and delivered Coronado's greeting, but were received with
scorn.
"We did not ask you to come, and your chief had no right to send you.
This is our land, and we can defend it. If you attempt to stay here we
will kill every one of you." Even as the soldiers, carrying the
message, turned to go away the people of Cibola began firing arrows at
them. Coronado quickly gave the command to attack, which the Indians
answered by a shower of arrows and stones which they sent down from
their high-walled houses. They seemed bent upon killing Coronado;
twice they felled him to the ground, but he recovered and led the
charge with an arrow sticking through his foot.
"Santiago! and at them!" he shouted, as he rode forward in the last
assault.
"Santiago," echoed his soldiers, close at his heels. When the Indians
saw the horses coming at full speed into their village, they threw
down their bows and arrows, and fled in every direction.
Then the Spaniards almost cried with anger and disappointment. The
houses were really made of stone, but there were no jewels, no gold,
no treasures of any kind--nothing, in fact, but a poor, miserable
Indian pueblo, or village, built upon a high ledge of rocks, miles
away from the fields of corn, beans and squashes, upon which they
lived. All the Indians in that part of the United States built their
houses in pueblos, or villages, but not one of them had any treasures.
They irrigated the dry, sandy soil and tilled their fields, and were a
simple, kindly people, until the greedy Spanish soldiers drove them
into rebellion which has left their country bare and desolate, even to
this day.
[Illustration: "FRAY MARCOS"]
The Kingdom of Quivera
The air was full of the chill and blast of winter, and with the first
snow-flakes great discontent broke out in camp, and Coronado realized
that he must find a place to make his men more comfortable.
"There are ten big community houses on top of that spider-shaped
rock," he said, one morning to a squad of soldiers who had been
drilling on parade ground, "and I want possession of it for the
troops. Some one must go ahead first and report the situation."
"The rock is so high that our bullets scarcely reach to the top," said
the scout, who had galloped over to the pueblo to spy out a way of
doing what Coronado commanded. "But there are four winding paths
leading up the sides, and we can ascend in single file."
"Have you tried it?" asked Coronado.
"Yes, and found it quite an easy task. I spent last night there, and
as the rays of the sun took leave of the lofty Sierras, I felt
forsaken, and as if I were about to float away into the darkness."
"Did the Indians suspect your purpose in coming?"
"Certainly not, and all my gloomy feelings passed away as soon as the
fires began to blaze on the roofs at different heights of the same
building. Inside the houses laughing voices greeted me, and I was glad
to be the guest of such simple people."
"Do you think we would be safe from attacks and surprises at night?"
"Perfectly. And when once up there it would be almost impossible to
come down at night. The narrow paths are really unsafe except in
daylight."
It was not long until the Spaniards had forcible possession of the
village, and during the long, dreary winter months they went about in
rusty helmets, battered cuirasses, ragged doublets and worn-out boots,
while the Indians wrapped themselves in thick coverings made of rabbit
skins. Every morning the bell called them to mass, and then the criers
went up and down announcing the day's duty to every one in the camp.
On the plains below was heard the neighing of horses, the lowing of
cattle and the bleating of sheep.
In the pueblos near by the Indians danced, and gathered around the
fires to listen to the old men's stories of their past, and as the
winter drew to a close the Spaniards were no longer homesick and
despondent, but ready and willing to test the truth of some of the
things the Indians had told them of the Wrathy Chieftain and the
Kingdom of Quivera.
At Pecos the scouts were received with music and presents of cotton
cloth and handfuls of turquoises, because the inhabitants were not
sure but that the white men came from the sun, and were sent by the
Golden Hearted, whom they revered and honored as the Wrathy Chieftain.
In this village they met a strange-looking Indian.
We will name this fellow the "Turk," because he looks so like one, and
find out, if we can, where he lives. "May be his people have gold,"
said the soldiers, as soon as they arrived at Pecos.
"My home is very far to the east," said the Turk, when questioned,
"and we have plenty of gold."
"What is the name of your country!"
"Quivera, and my king's name is Tatarax. He wears a long beard, and
worships a golden cross and an image of the Queen of Heaven."
Had the Spaniards been at all cautious and shrewd they would have
taken pains to find out how true this statement was, but they were so
tired of being in camp, that they were glad of an opportunity to go on
another expedition in search of an El Dorado, which they always hoped
to find.
"The chiefs of the Pecos have taken a gold arm band of mine," said
the Turk, wishing to make trouble between them and the Spaniards. "No
matter what I say to them, they will not give it back to me."
He described the band as being so wide and heavy that Coronado was
induced to seize the chiefs and carry them off to another pueblo in
the hope of compelling the Pecos Indians to pay a big ransom for them.
In addition the Spaniards demanded cotton clothes and provisions for
their journey. The Indians refused, and fought two weeks before
Coronado became satisfied that the Turk never had such a thing as an
arm band, and that there was no gold in the village.
"It is no use to waste time looking for treasures in this part of the
world," he finally told his men, and they immediately began to
question the Turk.
"I know a country," he declared, "where there is a very wide river
that has fish in it as big as a horse. The people tip their canoes
with gold, and sometimes there are forty rowers in a boat. Every
vessel they use is made of gold and silver."
All the time he was talking he watched the faces of the soldiers with
keen craftiness, and when he saw how delighted they were, he made the
story just as big as he could.
"There are plenty of such places," he said, with a toss of his head,
"but my country of Quivera is the most important of them all, and I
will take you there first."
When any one gets lost on the plains where there are no hills or trees
to mark the way, they wander around in a circle, and finally get into
a perfect frenzy by coming back to the same place over and over again.
This was what happened to the Spaniards under Coronado. They returned
in a wide bend to Pecos, after marching for months on the desolate
plains.
"Led around in a circle," he said, "as if by some evil spirit.
Everywhere we went we found ourselves surrounded by herds of
misshapen, crinkly-wooled cows. Some of them had calves, and the bulls
had beards of sunburnt hair. Our horses took fright and ran away,
while some of them plunged and threw their riders over their heads."
"Were these woolly cows ferocious?" asked the good padre, who had
remained at Pecos to teach the Indians, and had never seen a buffalo.
"They are very terrible when they stampede. If they catch sight of a
white man, they lower their heads and with a quick, short bellow set
off at full tilt in a heavy, rolling gallop. On they come, like a mad
rush of waters, tails high in the air and their big eyes gleaming with
fright. We had much ado to keep out of their way, for they would run
over and trample all to death."
"No wonder your horses ran away," said the padre. "It was quite enough
to frighten anything."
"Finally we met some of the people who go around the country with the
cows. They make tents of the hides and wear them for blankets, and
keep huge dogs to carry their food and baggage. They were friendly to
us, but knew nothing of Quivera and its treasures."
But the feeling of helplessness and desolation of the plains gradually
left the Spaniards, and then they were ready to follow the Turk's lead
again. This time they got lost in the desert, and many of them
wandered off and died from thirst, and their bodies were eaten by
wolves and coyotes. They kept going round and round in a circle until
their tongues hung out of their mouths and they were delirious. In the
hot, quivering air they imagined they saw cities, and lakes and
springs of water, and they laughed and cried, and sung and danced in a
raging fever. At last they began to suspect the Turk.
"He is purposely leading us astray," they said. "He is trying to lose
us on these desolate plains where we will starve to death. He intends
to desert and leave us here."
They put the Turk in chains, and then he confessed that he had never
seen the big stone houses he said were in Quivera, but stoutly
insisted that the country was rich in gold and silver.
The Prairie Indians begged Coronado to turn back.
"The land of Quivera is forty days' journey toward the north," they
said, "and you will suffer from hunger long before you reach other
tribes."
But Coronado had spent all his money and was in debt deeply, so he
determined to take twenty-nine picked horsemen and go forward. Leaving
the rest of the company to find their way back to Pecos, he engaged
some new guides among the Prairie Indians and pushed on determined to
find Quivera. They rode directly north until they came to a place in
Kansas near where the city of Leavenworth is now located.
In the meantime the Pecos Indians went on the warpath and refused to
receive or aid the Spaniards who left Coronado and went back to them.
He found them encamped before the pueblo when he returned months
after, weary, empty-handed, and disappointed.
"I have found Quivera and explored it well," he said, "but it has no
permanent settlement, and no gold and silver. I was expecting to see
houses several stories high, made of stone. Instead of that they are
simple huts and the inhabitants are perfectly savage."
The Turk tried to secure his freedom by saying that the Pecos Indians
had hired him to lose the Spaniards on the plains, but no one paid any
attention to him. In revenge he said to the people of Quivera:
"Do not let one of these white men escape alive. They will bring
others of their kind and rob you of all your possessions and ill
treat your women and children. They have already killed many of the
Pecos."
Some one told Coronado what was being said, and he ordered his
soldiers to take the Turk out and hang him to the first tree they
found, which they did.
Coronado spoke the truth about Quivera, but even the men who went with
him believed that there was a land near by where they would find great
riches, and they kept repeating all the stories about El Dorado until
Coronado was obliged to promise them that he would make another effort
to find it.
"If we go north again we can be certain of good food for the soil is
the best that can be found for all kinds of crops. In Quivera we were
given plums, nuts, very fine grapes, mulberries and flax. I really
believe we shall make some important discoveries very soon."
One day at Pecos after he had made friends with the Indians, he was
tilting with an officer in his command when his saddle girth broke
while his horse was running at full speed. He fell on his head and was
run over and so badly hurt that for days it was thought he would die.
Before he got well news came from Mexico that the Indians behind him
were on the warpath, and then he knew he must retreat as quickly as
possible. So instead of going in quest of the roving band of Quivera
Indians, he was obliged to return to the city of Mexico. Here the
Viceroy received him coldly and upbraided him, saying:
"It is a source of keen disappointment and regret to me,
that you, my trusted friend and favorite officer, should
abandon the rich treasures of the north. I wish you to go
to your estate and live in retirement for the remaining
years of your life. I will try to find some one more worthy
of my confidence for future work."
Reduced to poverty, with many debts unpaid, and disgraced by the
Viceroy, the poor unfortunate nobleman lived only a few years on his
estate in Mexico and died heartbroken over his failures.
Everybody in Mexico believed that he was mistaken, and several other
expeditions set out to find the Kingdom of Quivera. More than a
century afterward the legend settled around one of the missions
founded by the padres, and for years people thought this was the Grand
Quivera. Great treasures were supposed to be buried there by the
missionaries when the insurrection of 1680 came. That year all the
Indians in the region of Arizona and New Mexico organized a general
uprising and they not only killed all the whites they could find but
sacked and burned the missions. And that is the last ever heard of the
one known as the Grand Quivera. No treasures were ever found in or
near its ruins. There are ten curious maps of that time and each one
locates the kingdom of Quivera in a different place. One of them
brings it as far north as the Sacramento Valley in California.
Really Quivera is a will-o'-the-wisp, and from a roving band of
Indians, has become a wandering treasure city, and a land of vague and
mysterious proportions.
[Illustration: "AN OLD COMMUNITY HOUSE"]
The Land of Gold
If any of the boys and girls born in the United States were asked
"Where is the land of gold?" they would answer "It is California," and
if any of the children born in California were asked "What is El
Dorado?" they would say "Why, that means the land of gold."
So it does and for two reasons.
Cortez named it California after the heroine of a romance of chivalry
he had read when he was in Spain. The book said there was an island on
the right hand of the Indies very near the terrestrial Paradise,
peopled with black women, who were Amazons, and wore gold ornaments in
great profusion. Down in his heart Cortez cherished the hope that he
might find the northwest passage to India, not because he cared very
much for science, but because he believed the most extravagant stories
about the silks, spices, sweet-smelling gums and rare gems to be found
there. His ill-gotten Mexican gold did him very little good, and was
soon all expended, and he was anxious to find some other country to
conquer. The very next year after the death of Montezuma, Cortez heard
of the Land of Gold, and came over to a cove on the Pacific Coast of
Mexico where he laid out a town and built some ships for the purpose
of finding the new wonderland. All he ever discovered was the
peninsula of Lower California, where the Indians already knew about
the pearl fisheries. This was what he thought was an island, and what
he named California.
One of his officers sailed around the island of St. Thomas, and on a
Sunday morning he said he saw a merman swimming close to his ship.
"It came alongside the vessel," he declared, "and raised its head and
looked at us two or three times. It was as full of antics as a monkey.
Sometimes it would dive, and then raise up out of the water and wash
its face with its hands. Finally a sea bird drove it away."
Of course he was mistaken, for what he really did see was either a
walrus or a big seal as both animals abound in the Pacific Ocean.
It was more than three hundred years after Cabrillo sailed into the
Gate of Palms at the entrance to the bay of San Diego, before gold was
discovered in California. The country had been settled by Spanish
Cavaliers and padres and there were missions for the teaching of the
Indians. Mexico had rebelled against the King of Spain and the United
States had made war on Mexico and won. Then a man by the name of
Marshall found some free gold. It was in the sand at the bottom of a
ditch he was digging to get water to run a sawmill he was building. He
knew at once that the bright yellow pebbles he held in his hands were
gold, so he hurried to the men at work on the watershed and said:
"I have found it!" and that is what the motto, _Eureka!_ on the state
shield of California really means.
"What is it you have found, Mr. Marshall?" asked the men.
"Gold!" he exclaimed, excitedly. The men threw down their tools and
gathered about him to examine the new find.
"No, no; you are mistaken," they said, when they had turned the
pebbles over, and held them to the light, and hammered them with a
stone.
"I am certain that it is," he stoutly maintained, but they only
laughed at him. He paid no attention to them but turned on the water
the next night. Then he picked up all the yellow lumps he found in the
sand, and putting them into a little bag hastened to the man for whom
he was building the mill, and said:
"I have found gold at the sawmill, and want you to come and see for
yourself."
His employer tested and weighed the shining mass carefully, and
finally said:
"You are right. It is real gold. Go back to the mill, but say
nothing until we get it finished. If you do the men will quit work and
we shall have no one to take their places."
[Illustration: "THE DISCOVERY OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY"]
But the secret was too good to keep, and in a few days the whole
country raised the same sordid cry of "gold, gold, gold," which had
brought the Spaniards to the coast. In less than a year eighty
thousand people came to California looking for gold. From an
independent republic, California became a state and with its admission
into the Union the search for El Dorado passed from Spanish into
American hands. Both the padres and Cavaliers in California as
elsewhere in the Americas enslaved the Indians in a system of peonage
which thinned out their ranks, and led to many hostile outbreaks
before they were finally subdued. The gold seekers had to do some of
the fighting, but they did not rob and pillage the country, nor were
they allowed to be unnecessarily cruel. One of our great writers has
said of the Indian:
"The red man of America has something peculiarly sensitive in his
nature. He shrinks instinctively from the rude touch of a foreign
hand. Like some of the dumb creatures he pines and dies in captivity.
If today we see them with their energies broken we simply learn from
that what a terrible thing is slavery. In their faltering steps and
meek and melancholy aspect we read the sad characteristics of a
_conquered_ race."
His faith in the traditions of his forefathers, the belief that the
Golden Hearted would come again to bring him all that his heart
desired finally enslaved and ruined him.
If we pity the Indian we must also feel sorry for the miserable ending
of all the Spanish leaders who searched for El Dorado. Columbus spent
the last years of his life in prison; Balboa, who discovered the
Pacific Ocean, was treacherously executed and lies in an unknown grave
near Panama; Pizarro was assassinated and buried in Peru; Magellan was
killed by the natives in the Philippine Islands; Cortez was accused of
strangling his wife to death, and finally deprived of all honors and
wealth; Guzman died in poverty and distress while Coronado was said to
be insane after his return to Mexico. For the crime and violence done
by Spain in these expeditions she has not only lost all the revenues,
but no longer owns a foot of land in any part of the new world.
Let us be thankful that the wisdom and liberty of our own government
has saved us from making such terrible mistakes, and doing such
grievous wrongs in our attempts to find El Dorado. The brave men and
women who crossed the plains long before we had a railroad were
willing to work for the riches they wanted. They did not come with the
idea of robbing anybody, and when they found the gold they were
generous and kind to less fortunate neighbors and friends.
"In this land of sunshine and flowers," they said, "we find gold in
the crops of the chickens we have for our Sunday dinners, and our
children build doll-houses with the odd-shaped nuggets given to them
by the big-hearted miners."