_Which sets forth some of the diversities and peculiarities of
Florida; and the fruit, birds, and beasts of the country._
From the port of Espiritu Santo, where the Christians went on shore,
to the province of Ocute, which may be a distance of four hundred
leagues, a little more or less, the country is very level, having
many ponds, dense thickets, and, in places, tall pine-trees: the soil
is light, and there is not in it a mountain nor a hill.
The land of Ocute is more strong and fertile than the rest, the
forest more open; and it has very good fields along the margins
of the rivers. From there to Cutifachiqui are about one hundred
and thirty leagues, of which eighty leagues are of desert and pine
forests, through which run great rivers. From Cutifachiqui to Xuala
there may be two hundred and fifty leagues, and all a country of
mountains: the places themselves are on high level ground, and have
good fields upon the streams.
Thence onward, through Chiaha, Coça, and Talise, the country of which
is flat, dry, and strong, yielding abundance of maize, to Tascaluça,
may be two hundred and fifty leagues; and thence to Rio Grande, a
distance of about three hundred leagues, the land is low, abounding
in lakes. The country afterward is higher, more open, and more
populous than any other in Florida; and along the River Grande, from
Aquixo to Pacaha and Coligoa, a distance of one hundred and fifty
leagues, the land is level, the forest open, and in places the fields
very fertile and inviting.
From Coligoa to Autiamque may be two hundred and fifty leagues of
mountainous country; thence to Guacay may be two hundred and thirty
leagues of level ground; and the region to Daycao, a distance of one
hundred and twenty leagues, is continuously of mountainous lands.
From the port of Espiritu Santo to Apalache they marched west and
northeast; from Cutifachiqui to Xuala, north; to Coça, westwardly;
and thence to Tascaluça and the River Grande, as far as the provinces
of Quizquiz and Aquixo, to the westward; from thence to Pacaha
northwardly, to Tula westwardly, to Autiamque southwardly, as far as
the province of Guachoya and Daycao.
The bread that is eaten all through Florida is made of maize, which
is like coarse millet; and in all the islands and Indias belonging
to Castile, beginning with the Antillas, grows this grain. There
are in the country many walnuts likewise, and plums (persimmons),
mulberries, and grapes. The maize is planted and picked in, each
person having his own field; fruit is common for all, because it
grows abundantly in the woods, without any necessity of setting
out trees or pruning them. Where there are mountains the chestnut
is found, the fruit of which is somewhat smaller than the one of
Spain. Westward of the Rio Grande the walnut differs from that which
is found before coming there, being of tenderer shell, and in form
like an acorn; while that behind, from the river back to the port
of Espiritu Santo, is generally rather hard, the tree and the nut
being in their appearance like those of Spain. There is everywhere
in the country a fruit, the produce of a plant like _ligoacam_, that
is propagated by the Indians, having the appearance of the royal
pear, with an agreeable smell and taste; and likewise another plant,
to be seen in the fields, bearing a fruit like strawberry, near to
the ground, and is very agreeable. The plums (persimmons) are of two
sorts, vermilion and gray, of the form and size of walnuts, having
three or four stones in them. They are better than any plums that are
raised in Spain, and make much better prunes. The grapes appear only
to need dressing; for, although large, they have great stones; the
other fruits are all in great perfection, and are less unhealthy than
those of Spain.
There are many lions and bears in Florida, wolves, deer, jackals,
cats, and rabbits; numerous wild fowl, as large as pea-fowl; small
partridges, like those of Africa, and cranes, ducks, pigeons,
thrushes, and sparrows. There are blackbirds larger than sparrows and
smaller than stares; hawks, goshawks, falcons, and all the birds of
rapine to be found in Spain.
The Indians are well proportioned: those of the level country are
taller and better shaped of form than those of the mountains; those
of the interior enjoy a greater abundance of maize and clothing than
those of the coast, where the land is poor and thin, and the people
along it more warlike.
The direction from the port of Espiritu Santo to Apalache, and thence
to Rio de las Palmas, is from east to west; from that river towards
New Spain, it is southwardly; the sea-coast being gentle, having many
shoals and high sand-hills.
DEO GRATIAS.
* * * * *
This Relation of the Discovery of Florida was printed in the house of
Andree de Burgos, Printer and Cavalleiro of the house of the Senhor
Cardinal Iffante.[331]
[331] Henry, cardinal archbishop of Evora, uncle of King John
III., great uncle of King Sebastian, and himself King of Portugal
from 1578 to 1580.
It was finished the tenth day of February, of the year one thousand
five hundred and fifty-seven, in the noble and ever loyal city of
Evora.
THE NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION OF CORONADO, BY PEDRO DE CASTAÑEDA
INTRODUCTION
From the time of the appearance in Mexico, in 1536, of Alvar Nuñez
Cabeza de Vaca of the ill-fated Narvaez expedition of nine years
before, with definite news of the hitherto unknown north, there
had been a strong desire to explore that region, but nothing of
importance was accomplished until 1539. In that year Fray Marcos of
Nice, the Father Provincial of the Franciscan order in New Spain,
with Estévan, the negro companion of Cabeza de Vaca, as a guide,
penetrated the country to the northwest as far as the Seven Cities of
Cibola, the villages of the ancestors of the present Zuñi Indians in
western New Mexico. Estévan, preceding Fray Marcos by a few days and
accompanied by natives whom he gathered en route, reached Hawikuh,
the southernmost of the seven towns, where he and all but three of
his Indian followers were killed. The survivors of this massacre fled
back to Fray Marcos, whose life was now threatened by those who had
lost their kindred at the hands of the Zuñis; but the friar, fearful
that the world would lose the knowledge of his discoveries, appeased
the wrath of his Indians by dividing among them the goods he had
brought and induced them to continue until he reached a mesa from
which was gained a view of the village in which Estévan had met his
fate. Here Fray Marcos erected a cross, took possession of the region
in the name of Spain, and hastened back to Mexico "with more fear
than victuals."
The glowing accounts which the friar gave of what he had seen, and
particularly of what he believed the Indians intended to communicate
to him, resulted in another expedition in the following year (1540).
This was planned by the Viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza, and the
command was given to Francisco Vazquez de Coronado.
The elaborate expedition of Coronado is the subject of the narrative
of a private soldier in his army, Pedro de Castañeda, a native of
Nájera, in the province of Logroño, in the upper valley of the Ebro,
in Old Castile. Of the narrator little is known beyond the fact that
he was one of the colonists who settled at San Miguel Culiacan,
founded by Nuño de Guzman in 1531, where he doubtless lived when
Coronado's force reached that point in its northward journey, and
where, more than twenty years later, he wrote his account of the
expedition and its achievements. The dates of Castañeda's birth
and death are not known, but he was born probably between 1510 and
1518. In 1554, according to a document published in the _Coleccion
de Documentos Inéditos del Archivo de Indias_ (XIV. 206), his wife,
María de Acosta, with her four sons and four daughters, filed a claim
against the treasury of New Spain for payment for the service the
husband and father had rendered in behalf of the King.
As a rhetorician and geographer Castañeda was not a paragon, as he
himself confesses; but although his narration leaves the impression
that its author was somewhat at odds with the world, it bears every
evidence of honesty and a sincere desire to tell all he knew of the
most remarkable expedition that ever traversed American soil--even
of exploits in which the writer did not directly participate.
Castañeda's narration is by far the most important of the several
documents bearing on the expedition, and in some respects is one of
the most noteworthy contributions to early American history.
The accompanying translation, by Mr. George Parker Winship of the
John Carter Brown Library, was first published, together with other
documents pertaining to the expedition, in the _Fourteenth Annual
Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_ (Washington, 1896), now out of
print. Barring a few corrections, most of which were communicated to
the present writer by Mr. Winship in 1899, the translation is here
printed as it first appeared.
Mr. Winship's translation of Castañeda, together with the letters and
the other narratives pertaining to the expedition, was reprinted,
with an introduction, under the title _The Journey of Coronado,
1540-1542, from the City of Mexico to the Grand Cañon of the Colorado
and the Buffalo Plains of Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska_, as a volume
of the "Trail Makers" series (New York, 1904).
The original manuscript of Castañeda is not known to exist, the
Winship translation being that of a manuscript copy made at Seville
in 1596. This copy, which is now in the Lenox branch of the New
York Public Library, was first translated into French by Henri
Ternaux-Compans, who found it in the Uguina collection in Paris and
published it in Volume IX. of his _Voyages_ (Paris, 1838).
In addition to Castañeda's narration there are several letters and
reports that shed important light on the route traversed by the
expedition, the aborigines encountered, and other noteworthy details
which the student should consult. These are as follows:
1. The Relation by Fray Marcos of his _entrada_ during the preceding
year (1539), Coronado following the same route as far as the first of
the Seven Cities of Cibola with Marcos as both guide and spiritual
adviser. A brief bibliography of this narration is given in a note on
p. 290.
2. A letter from the viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza, to the King,
dated Jacona (Mexico), April 17, 1540, in which is set forth the
progress of Coronado's expedition from Culiacan, and containing
extracts from a report by Melchior Diaz, who had been sent forward in
November, 1539, to explore the route from Culiacan to Chichilticalli,
in the valley of the present Gila River, Arizona, for the purpose
of verifying the reports of Fray Marcos. This letter appears in the
_Documentos Inéditos de Indias_, II. 356, and in English in Winship's
memoir in the _Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_,
p. 547, as well as in his _Journey of Coronado_, p. 149.
3. An important and extended letter from Coronado to Mendoza, written
at Granada (as Coronado called Hawikuh, the first of the Seven
Cities of Cibola), August 3, 1540. This letter appears in Italian in
Ramusio's _Terzo Volume delle Navigationi et Viaggi_ (ed. 1556),
fol. 359, translated by Hakluyt, _Voyages_, IX. 145-169 (ed. 1904);
reprinted in _Old South Leaflets,_ Gen. Ser., No. 20. A translation
from Ramusio into English appears in both of Mr. Winship's works on
the expedition. It should perhaps here be mentioned that the Hakluyt
translations of the Coronado documents, at least, are so unreliable
as to warrant careful use.
4. The _Traslado de las Nuevas_, an anonymous "Copy of the Reports
and Descriptions that have been received regarding the Discovery
of a City which is called Cibola, situated in the New Country."
This important document was written evidently by a member of the
expedition while the Spaniards were at Cibola. It appears in Spanish
in the _Documentos Inéditos de Indias_, XIX. 529, from which it was
translated into English by Mr. Winship and printed in each of his
memoirs.
5. The important letter of Coronado to the King, dated Tiguex (the
present Bernalillo, New Mexico), October 20, 1541, after the return
of the expedition from Quivira. Printed in the _Documentos Inéditos
de Indias_, III. 363; XIII. 261; in French in Ternaux-Compans'
_Voyages_, IX. 355; translated into English by Mr. Winship and
printed in each of his memoirs, as well as in _American History
Leaflets_, No. 13.
6. The _Relación Postrera de Síbola, y de mas de Cuatrocientas
Leguas Adelante_ (the "Latest Account of Cibola, and of more than
Four Hundred Leagues Beyond"). This important anonymous account,
written apparently in New Mexico in 1541 by one of the Franciscans
who accompanied the expedition, was published, both in Spanish and in
English, for the first time, in Mr. Winship's _Coronado Expedition_
(_Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, pp. 566-571).
In his _Journey of Coronado_ only the translation appears (pp.
190-196).
7. The anonymous _Relación del Suceso_, an "Account of what happened
on the Journey which Francisco Vazquez made to discover Cibola."
First printed, in Spanish, in Buckingham Smith's _Colección de Varios
Documentos para la Historia de la Florida_ (1857), I. 147; it appears
also, under the erroneous date 1531, in the _Documentos Inéditos
de Indias_, XIV. 318, whereas the account was written apparently in
1541 or early in 1542. An English translation appears in each of Mr.
Winship's works, and also in _American History Leaflets_, No. 13.
8. "Account given by Captain Juan Jaramillo of the Journey which he
made to the New Country, on which Francisco Vazquez Coronado was the
General." Next to Castañeda's narration this is the most important
document pertaining to the expedition, inasmuch as it contains many
references to directions, distances, streams, etc., that are not
noted in the other accounts. The Jaramillo narration was written long
after the events transpired, and is based on the keen memory of the
writer. It is printed in Spanish in Buckingham Smith's _Coleccion_,
I. 154, and in the _Documentos Inéditos_, XIV. 304. A French
translation is given by Ternaux-Compans, IX. 364, and an English
translation in both of Mr. Winship's works.
9. "Account of what Hernando de Alvarado and Friar Juan de Padilla
discovered going in Search of the South Sea." A brief account of the
journey of Alvarado from Hawikuh (Coronado's Granada) to the Rio
Grande pueblos in 1540. Printed in Spanish in Buckingham Smith's
_Coleccion_, I. 65, and in the _Documentos Inéditos_, III. 511. An
English translation by Mr. Winship is included in each of his works
on the expedition, and was printed also in the _Boston Transcript_,
October 14, 1893. The title of this document is a misnomer, as
Alvarado did not go in search of the Pacific.
10. "Testimony concerning those who went on the Expedition with
Francisco Vazquez Coronado." This testimony is printed in the
_Documentos Inéditos de Indias_, XIV. 373, and an abridgment, freely
translated, is included in Mr. Winship's works.
11. Although the account of the voyage of the fleet under Hernando
de Alarcon does not directly concern us, reference should perhaps be
made to the sources of information regarding it. These are: Herrera's
_Historia General_, dec. VI., lib. IX., cap. XIII. (1601-1615), and
in various subsequent editions; Ramusio's _Navigationi et Viaggi_
(1556), III., fol. 363-370; Hakluyt's _Voyages_, IX. 279-318 (1904);
Ternaux-Compans' Voyages, IX. 299-348; _Coleccion de Documentos
Inéditos para la Historia de España_, IV. 218-219.
The Coronado expedition was of far-reaching importance from a
geographical point of view, for it combined with the journey of De
Soto in giving to the world an insight into the hitherto unknown
vast interior of the northern continent and formed the basis of
the cartography of that region. It was the means also of making
known the sedentary Pueblo tribes of our Southwest and the hunting
tribes of the Great Plains, the Grand Cañon of the Colorado and the
lower reaches of that stream, and the teeming herds of bison and
the absolute dependence on them by the hunting Indians for every
want. But alas for the Spaniards, the grand pageant resulted in
disappointment for all, and its indefatigable leader ended his days
practically forgotten by his country for which he had accomplished so
much.
F. W. HODGE.
THE NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION OF CORONADO BY CASTAÑEDA
_Account of the Expedition to Cibola which took place in the
year 1540, in which all those settlements, their ceremonies
and customs, are described. Written by Pedro de Castañeda, of
Najera._[332]
[332] For information concerning the author of this narrative,
see the Introduction.
PREFACE
To me it seems very certain, my very noble lord, that it is a worthy
ambition for great men to desire to know and wish to preserve for
posterity correct information concerning the things that have
happened in distant parts, about which little is known. I do not
blame those inquisitive persons who, perchance with good intentions,
have many times troubled me not a little with their requests that I
clear up for them some doubts which they have had about different
things that have been commonly related concerning the events and
occurrences that took place during the expedition to Cibola, or
the New Land, which the good viceroy--may he be with God in His
glory--Don Antonio de Mendoza,[333] ordered and arranged, and on
which he sent Francisco Vazquez de Coronado as captain-general. In
truth, they have reason for wishing to know the truth, because most
people very often make things of which they have heard, and about
which they have perchance no knowledge, appear either greater or
less than they are. They make nothing of those things that amount to
something, and those that do not they make so remarkable that they
appear to be something impossible to believe. This may very well have
been caused by the fact that, as that country was not permanently
occupied, there has not been any one who was willing to spend his
time in writing about its peculiarities, because all knowledge was
lost of that which it was not the pleasure of God--He alone knows
the reason--that they should enjoy. In truth, he who wishes to
employ himself thus in writing out the things that happened on the
expedition, and the things that were seen in those lands, and the
ceremonies and customs of the natives, will have matter enough to
test his judgment, and I believe that the result can not fail to be
an account which, describing only the truth, will be so remarkable
that it will seem incredible.
[333] Mendoza was first viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), serving
from 1535 to 1550, when he was ordered to Peru as its second
viceroy. He reached Lima in September, 1551, and died July 21 of
the year following.
And besides, I think that the twenty years and more since that
expedition took place[334] have been the cause of some stories which
are related. For example, some make it an uninhabitable country,
others have it bordering on Florida, and still others on Greater
India, which does not appear to be a slight difference. They are
unable to give any basis upon which to found their statements.
There are those who tell about some very peculiar animals, who are
contradicted by others who were on the expedition, declaring that
there was nothing of the sort seen. Others differ as to the limits
of the provinces and even in regard to the ceremonies and customs,
attributing what pertains to one people to others. All this has had
a large part, my very noble lord, in making me wish to give now,
although somewhat late, a short general account for all those who
pride themselves on this noble curiosity, and to save myself the
time taken up by these solicitations. Things enough will certainly
be found here which are hard to believe. All or the most of these
were seen with my own eyes, and the rest is from reliable information
obtained by inquiry of the natives themselves. Understanding as I do
that this little work would be nothing in itself, lacking authority,
unless it were favored and protected by a person whose authority
would protect it from the boldness of those who, without reverence,
give their murmuring tongues liberty, and knowing as I do how great
are the obligations under which I have always been, and am, to your
grace, I humbly beg to submit this little work to your protection.
May it be received as from a faithful retainer and servant. It will
be divided into three parts, that it may be better understood. The
first will tell of the discovery and the armament or army that was
made ready, and of the whole journey, with the captains who were
there; the second, of the villages and provinces which were found,
and their limits, and ceremonies and customs, the animals, fruits,
and vegetation, and in what parts of the country these are; the
third, of the return of the army and the reasons for abandoning the
country, although these were insufficient, because this is the best
place there is for discoveries--the marrow of the land in these
western parts, as will be seen. And after this has been made plain,
some remarkable things which were seen will be described at the
end, and the way by which one might more easily return to discover
that better land which we did not see, since it would be no small
advantage to enter the country through the land which the Marquis of
the Valley, Don Fernando Cortes, went in search of under the Western
star, and which cost him no small sea armament. May it please our
Lord to so favor me that with my slight knowledge and small abilities
I may be able by relating the truth to make my little work pleasing
to the learned and wise readers, when it has been accepted by your
grace. For my intention is not to gain the fame of a good composer or
rhetorician, but I desire to give a faithful account and to do this
slight service to your grace, who will, I hope, receive it as from a
faithful servant and soldier, who took part in it. Although not in
a polished style, I write that which happened--that which I heard,
experienced, saw, and did.
[334] Castañeda is supposed to have been writing at Culiacan, in
western Mexico, about 1565.
I always notice, and it is a fact, that for the most part when we
have something valuable in our hands, and deal with it without
hindrance, we do not value or prize it so highly as if we understood
how much we should miss it after we had lost it, and the longer we
continue to have it the less we value it; but after we have lost it
and miss the advantages of it, we have a great pain in the heart, and
we are all the time imagining and trying to find ways and means by
which to get it back again. It seems to me that this has happened to
all or most of those who went on the expedition which, in the year
of our Savior Jesus Christ 1540, Francisco Vazquez Coronado led in
search of the Seven Cities.[335] Granted that they did not find the
riches of which they had been told, they found a place in which to
search for them and the beginning of a good country to settle in, so
as to go on farther from there. Since they came back from the country
which they conquered and abandoned, time has given them a chance to
understand the direction and locality in which they were, and the
borders of the good country they had in their hands, and their hearts
weep for having lost so favorable an opportunity. Just as men see
more at the bullfight when they are upon the seats than when they are
around in the ring, now when they know and understand the direction
and situation in which they were, and see, indeed, that they can
not enjoy it nor recover it, now when it is too late they enjoy
telling about what they saw, and even of what they realize that they
lost, especially those who are now as poor as when they went there.
They have never ceased their labors and have spent their time to no
advantage. I say this because I have known several of those who came
back from there who amuse themselves now by talking of how it would
be to go back and proceed to recover that which is lost, while others
enjoy trying to find the reason why it was discovered at all. And now
I will proceed to relate all that happened from the beginning.
[335] The Seven Cities of Cibola. See p. 287, note 1; p. 300,
note 1.
FIRST PART
Chapter 1
_Which treats of the way we first came to know about the Seven
Cities, and of how Nuño de Guzman made an expedition to discover
them._
In the year 1530 Nuño de Guzman, who was President of New Spain,[336]
had in his possession an Indian, a native of the valley or valleys of
Oxitipar, who was called Tejo by the Spaniards. This Indian said he
was the son of a trader who was dead, but that when he was a little
boy his father had gone into the back country with fine feathers to
trade for ornaments, and that when he came back he brought a large
amount of gold and silver, of which there is a good deal in that
country. He went with him once or twice, and saw some very large
villages, which he compared to Mexico and its environs. He had seen
seven very large towns which had streets of silver workers. It took
forty days to go there from his country, through a wilderness in
which nothing grew, except some very small plants about a span high.
The way they went was up through the country between the two seas,
following the northern direction. Acting on this information, Nuño
de Guzman got together nearly 400 Spaniards and 20,000 friendly
Indians of New Spain, and, as he happened to be in Mexico, he crossed
Tarasca, which is in the province of Michoacan, so as to get into
the region which the Indian said was to be crossed toward the North
Sea, in this way getting to the country which they were looking for,
which was already named "The Seven Cities." He thought, from the
forty days of which the Tejo had spoken, that it would be found to
be about 200 leagues, and that they would easily be able to cross
the country. Omitting several things that occurred on this journey,
as soon as they had reached the province of Culiacan, where his
government ended, and where the New Kingdom of Galicia is now, they
tried to cross the country, but found the difficulties very great,
because the mountain chains which are near that sea are so rough that
it was impossible, after great labor, to find a passageway in that
region. His whole army had to stay in the district of Culiacan for
so long on this account that some rich men who were with him, who
had possessions in Mexico, changed their minds, and every day became
more anxious to return. Besides this, Nuño de Guzman received word
that the Marquis of the Valley, Don Fernando Cortes, had come from
Spain with his new title,[337] and with great favors and estates, and
as Nuño de Guzman had been a great rival of his at the time he was
president, and had done much damage to his property and to that of
his friends, he feared that Don Fernando Cortes would want to pay him
back in the same way, or worse. So he decided to establish the town
of Culiacan there and to go back with the other men, without doing
anything more. After his return from this expedition, he founded
Xalisco, where the city of Compostela is situated, and Tonala, which
is called Guadalaxara, and now this is the New Kingdom of Galicia.
The guide they had, who was called Tejo, died about this time, and
thus the name of these Seven Cities and the search for them remains
until now, since they have not been discovered.[338]
[336] Nuño Beltrán de Guzman was appointed governor of Pánuco,
Mexico, in 1526, assuming the office in May, 1527. In December
he became president of the Audiencia, the administrative and
judicial board which governed the province, and in the following
year participated in the trial of Cortés, his personal and
political enemy, for strangling his wife to death in 1522.
Guzman's barbarous cruelty, especially to the natives, whom
he enslaved and bartered for his personal gain, resulted in a
protest to the crown by Bishop Zumárraga, and in the hope of
finding new fields for the gratification of his avarice he raised
a large force, including 10,000 Aztecs and Tlascaltecs, and
started from Mexico late in 1529 to explore the northwest (later
known as Nueva Galicia), notwithstanding Cortés had already
penetrated the region.
He conquered the territory through which he passed, laying waste
the settlements and fields and inflicting unspeakable punishment
on the native inhabitants. Guzman built a chapel at Tonalá, which
formed the beginning of the settlement of the present city of
Guadalajara, named from his native town in Spain; he also founded
the towns of Santiago de Compostela and San Miguel Culiacan,
in Tepic and Sinaloa respectively, and started on his return
journey late in 1531. Meanwhile a new Audiencia had arrived in
New Spain, and Guzman was summoned to appear at the capital. This
he refused to do, and when Luis de Castilla was sent by Cortés,
the captain-general of the province, to subdue him, Guzman
captured him and his force of 100 men by a ruse. In May, 1533,
the king commanded him to submit to the provincial authorities;
many of his friends and adherents deserted him, and he was
stripped of his title as governor of Pánuco. In 1536 (March
17) the licentiate Diego Perez de la Torre was appointed _juez
de residencia_, an officer whose duty was to conduct a rigid
investigation of the accounts and administration of governmental
officials--this time with special reference to Guzman. By Torre's
order, Guzman was arrested and confined in jail until 1538, when
his case was appealed to Spain; but from this he received no
comfort. He was banished to Torrejon de Velasco, where he died in
1544, penniless and despised.
[337] Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca y Capitan General de la Nueva
España y de la Costa del Sur. He arrived at Vera Cruz in July,
1529.
[338] The best discussion of the stories of the Seven Caves and
the Seven Cities is in A. F. Bandelier's _Contributions to the
History of the Southwestern Portion of the United States_, in
_Papers of the Archaeological Institute of America_, American
Series, V. (Cambridge, 1890).
Chapter 2
_Of how Francisco Vazquez Coronado came to be governor, and the
second account which Cabeza de Vaca gave._
Eight years after Nuño de Guzman made this expedition, he was put
in prison by a juez de residencia, named the licentiate Diego de la
Torre, who came from Spain with sufficient powers to do this. After
the death of the judge, who had also managed the government of that
country himself, the good Don Antonio de Mendoza, viceroy of New
Spain, appointed as governor of that province Francisco Vazquez de
Coronado, a gentleman from Salamanca, who had married a lady in the
city of Mexico, the daughter of Alonso de Estrada, the treasurer and
at one time governor of Mexico, and the son, most people said, of His
Catholic Majesty Don Ferdinand, and many stated it as certain. As I
was saying, at the time Francisco Vazquez was appointed governor, he
was travelling through New Spain as an official inspector, and in
this way he gained the friendship of many worthy men who afterward
went on his expedition with him. It happened that just at this time
three Spaniards, named Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, and Castillo
Maldonado, and a negro [Estévan], who had been lost on the expedition
which Pamfilo de Narvaez led into Florida, reached Mexico. They came
out through Culiacan, having crossed the country from sea to sea, as
anyone who wishes may find out for himself by an account which this
same Cabeza de Vaca wrote and dedicated to Prince Don Philip, who
is now King of Spain and our sovereign.[339] They gave the good Don
Antonio de Mendoza an account of some large and powerful villages,
four and five stories high, of which they had heard a great deal
in the countries they had crossed, and other things very different
from what turned out to be the truth. The noble viceroy communicated
this to the new governor, who gave up the visits he had in hand, on
account of this, and hurried his departure for his government, taking
with him the negro [Estévan] who had come [with Cabeza de Vaca] with
the three friars of the order of Saint Francis, one of whom was named
Friar Marcos of Nice, a regular priest, and another Friar Daniel,
a lay brother, and the other Friar Antonio de Santa Maria. When he
reached the province of Culiacan he sent the friars just mentioned
and the negro, who was named Estevan, off in search of that country,
because Friar Marcos offered to go and see it, because he had been in
Peru at the time Don Pedro de Alvarado went there overland. It seems
that, after the friars I have mentioned and the negro had started,
the negro did not get on well with the friars, because he took the
women that were given him and collected turquoises, and got together
a stock of everything. Besides, the Indians in those places through
which they went got along with the negro better, because they had
seen him before. This was the reason he was sent on ahead to open up
the way and pacify the Indians, so that when the others came along
they had nothing to do except to keep an account of the things for
which they were looking.
[339] See the narrative of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca in the
present volume.
Chapter 3
_Of how they killed the negro Estevan at Cibola, and Friar
Marcos returned in flight._
After Estevan had left the friars, he thought he could get all
the reputation and honor himself, and that if he should discover
those settlements with such famous high houses, alone, he would be
considered bold and courageous. So he proceeded with the people
who had followed him, and attempted to cross the wilderness which
lies between the country he had passed through and Cibola. He was
so far ahead of the friars that, when these reached Chichilticalli,
which is on the edge of the wilderness, he was already at Cibola,
which is eighty leagues beyond. It is 220 leagues from Culiacan to
the edge of the wilderness, and eighty across the desert, which
makes 300, or perhaps ten more or less. As I said, Estevan reached
Cibola loaded with the large quantity of turquoises they had given
him and some beautiful women whom the Indians who followed him and
carried his things were taking with them and had given him. These
had followed him from all the settlements he had passed, believing
that under his protection they could traverse the whole world without
any danger. But as the people in this country were more intelligent
than those who followed Estevan, they lodged him in a little hut
they had outside their village, and the older men and the governors
heard his story and took steps to find out the reason he had come
to that country. For three days they made inquiries about him and
held a council. The account which the negro gave them of two white
men who were following him, sent by a great lord, who knew about
the things in the sky, and how these were coming to instruct them
in divine matters, made them think that he must be a spy or a guide
from some nations who wished to come and conquer them, because it
seemed to them unreasonable to say that the people were white in the
country from which he came and that he was sent by them, he being
black. Besides these other reasons, they thought it was hard of him
to ask them for turquoises and women, and so they decided to kill
him. They did this, but they did not kill any of those who went with
him, although they kept some young fellows and let the others, about
sixty persons, return freely to their own country. As these, who were
badly scared, were returning in flight, they happened to come upon
the friars in the desert sixty leagues from Cibola, and told them
the sad news, which frightened them so much that they would not even
trust these folks who had been with the negro, but opened the packs
they were carrying and gave away everything they had except the holy
vestments for saying mass. They returned from here by double marches,
prepared for anything, without seeing any more of the country except
what the Indians told them.[340]
[340] See the account of this journey by Marcos de Niza in
_Coleccion de Documentos Inéditos de Indias_, III. 325-351;
Ramusio, _Terzo Volume delle Navigationi_ (Venice, 1556);
Hakluyt, _Voyages_, IX. 125-144 (1904); Ternaux-Compans,
_Voyages_, IX. 249-284 (1838); and an English translation by
Fanny Bandelier in _The Journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca_
(1905). _Cf._ also A. F. Bandelier, "The Discovery of New Mexico
by Fray Marcos of Nizza," in _Magazine of Western History_, IV.
659-670 (Cleveland, 1886).
Chapter 4
_Of how the noble Don Antonio de Mendoza made an expedition to
discover Cibola._
After Francisco Vazquez Coronado had sent Friar Marcos of Nice and
his party on the search already related, he was engaged in Culiacan
about some business that related to his government, when he heard
an account of a province called Topira,[341] which was to the north
of the country of Culiacan. He started to explore this region with
several of the conquerors and some friendly Indians, but he did not
get very far, because the mountain chains which they had to cross
were very difficult. He returned without finding the least signs of
a good country, and when he got back, he found the friars who had
just arrived, and who told such great things about what the negro
Estevan had discovered and what they had heard from the Indians, and
other things they had heard about the South Sea[342] and islands and
other riches, that, without stopping for anything, the governor set
off at once for the City of Mexico, taking Friar Marcos with him, to
tell the viceroy about it. He made the things seem more important
by not talking about them to anyone except his particular friends,
under promise of the greatest secrecy, until after he had reached
Mexico and seen Don Antonio de Mendoza. Then it began to be noised
abroad that the Seven Cities for which Nuño de Guzman had searched
had already been discovered, and a beginning was made in collecting
an armed force and in bringing together people to go and conquer
them. The noble viceroy arranged with the friars of the order of
Saint Francis so that Friar Marcos was made father provincial, as
a result of which the pulpits of that order were filled with such
accounts of marvels and wonders that more than 300 Spaniards and
about 800 natives of New Spain collected in a few days. There were so
many men of such high quality among the Spaniards, that such a noble
body was never collected in the Indies, nor so many men of quality in
such a small body, there being 300 men. Francisco Vazquez Coronado,
governor of New Galicia, was captain-general, because he had been the
author of it all. The good viceroy Don Antonio did this because at
this time Francisco Vazquez was his closest and most intimate friend,
and because he considered him to be wise, skillful, and intelligent,
besides being a gentleman. Had he paid more attention and regard to
the position in which he was placed and the charge over which he was
placed, and less to the estates he left behind in New Spain, or, at
least, more to the honor he had and might secure from having such
gentlemen under his command, things would not have turned out as they
did. When this narrative is ended, it will be seen that he did not
know how to keep his position nor the government that he held.
[341] Bandelier, _Papers of the Archaeological Institute of
America_, Am. ser., V. (1890), p. 104, says this was Topia, in
Durango, a locality since noted for its rich mines.
[342] The Pacific.
Chapter 5
_Concerning the captains who went to Cibola._
When the viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza, saw what a noble company
had come together, and the spirit and good will with which they had
all presented themselves, knowing the worth of these men, he would
have liked very well to make every one of them captain of an army;
but as the whole number was small he could not do as he would have
liked, and so he issued the commissions and captaincies as he saw
fit, because it seemed to him that if they were appointed by him,
as he was so well obeyed and beloved, nobody would find fault with
his arrangements. After everybody had heard who the general was,
he made Don Pedro de Tovar ensign-general, a young gentleman who
was the son of Don Fernando de Tovar, the guardian and lord high
steward of the Queen Doña Juana,[343] our demented mistress--may she
be in glory--and Lope de Samaniego, the governor of the arsenal at
Mexico,[344] a gentleman fully equal to the charge, army-master. The
captains were Don Tristan de Arellano; Don Pedro de Guevara, the son
of Don Juan de Guevara and nephew of the Count of Oñate; Don Garcia
Lopez de Cardenas; Don Rodrigo Maldonado, brother-in-law of the
Duke of the Infantado; Diego Lopez, alderman of Seville, and Diego
Gutierres, for the cavalry. All the other gentlemen were placed under
the flag of the general, as being distinguished persons, and some of
them became captains later, and their appointments were confirmed
by order of the viceroy and by the general, Francisco Vazquez. To
name some of them whom I happen to remember, there were Francisco de
Barrionuevo, a gentleman from Granada; Juan de Saldivar, Francisco
de Ovando, Juan Gallego, and Melchior Diaz--a captain who had been
mayor of Culiacan, who, although he was not a gentleman, merited the
position he held. The other gentlemen who were prominent, were Don
Alonso Manrique de Lara; Don Lope de Urrea, a gentleman from Aragon;
Gomez Suarez de Figueroa, Luis Ramirez de Vargas, Juan de Sotomayor,
Francisco Gorbalan, the commissioner Riberos, and other gentlemen,
men of high quality, whom I do not now recall. The infantry captain
was Pablo de Melgosa of Burgos, and of the artillery, Hernando de
Alvarado of the mountain district. As I say, since then I have
forgotten the names of many gentlemen. It would be well if I could
name some of them, so that it might be clearly seen what cause I
had for saying that they had on this expedition the most brilliant
company ever collected in the Indies to go in search of new lands.
But they were unfortunate in having a captain who left in New Spain
estates and a pretty wife, a noble and excellent lady, which were not
the least causes for what was to happen.
[343] Daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, wife of Philip I., and
mother of Charles V.
[344] In a letter of the Viceroy Mendoza to the King, April 17,
1540, Samaniego is mentioned as the warden of a fortress.
Chapter 6
_Of how all the companies collected in Compostela and set off on
the journey in good order._
When the viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza had fixed and arranged
everything as we have related, and the companies and captaincies had
been arranged, he advanced a part of their salaries from the chest
of His Majesty to those in the army who were in greatest need. And
as it seemed to him that it would be rather hard for the friendly
Indians in the country if the army should start from Mexico, he
ordered them to assemble at the city of Compostela, the chief city
in the New Kingdom of Galicia, 110 leagues from Mexico, so that they
could begin their journey there with everything in good order. There
is nothing to tell about what happened on this trip, since they all
finally assembled at Compostela by Shrovetide, in the year (fifteen
hundred and) forty-one.[345] After the whole force had left Mexico,
he ordered Don Pedro de Alarcon[346] to set sail with two ships that
were in the port of La Natividad on the South Sea coast, and go to
the port of Xalisco[347] to take the baggage which the soldiers were
unable to carry, and thence to sail along the coast near the army,
because he had understood from the reports that they would have to
go through the country near the seacoast, and that we could find the
harbors by means of the rivers, and that the ships could always get
news of the army, which turned out afterward to be false, and so
all this stuff was lost, or, rather, those who owned it lost it, as
will be told farther on.[348] After the viceroy had completed all
his arrangements, he set off for Compostela, accompanied by many
noble and rich men. He kept the New Year of (fifteen hundred and)
forty-one at Pasquaro, which is the chief place in the bishopric of
Michoacan, and from there he crossed the whole of New Spain, taking
much pleasure in enjoying the festivals and great receptions which
were given him, till he reached Compostela, which is, as I have said,
110 leagues. There he found the whole company assembled, being well
treated and entertained by Christobal de Oñate, who had the whole
charge of that government[349] for the time being. He had had the
management of it and was in command of all that region when Francisco
Vazquez was made governor. All were very glad when he arrived, and
he made an examination of the company and found all those whom we
have mentioned. He assigned the captains to their companies, and
after this was done, on the next day, after they had all heard mass,
captains and soldiers together, the viceroy made them a very eloquent
short speech, telling them of the fidelity they owed to their general
and showing them clearly the benefits which this expedition might
afford, from the conversion of those peoples as well as in the profit
of those who should conquer the territory, and the advantage to His
Majesty and the claim which they would thus have on his favor and
aid at all times. After he had finished, they all, both captains and
soldiers, gave him their oaths upon the Gospels in a missal that they
would follow their general on this expedition and would obey him in
everything he commanded them, which they faithfully performed, as
will be seen. The next day after this was done, the army started off
with its colors flying. The viceroy, Don Antonio, went with them for
two days, and there he took leave of them, returning to New Spain
with his friends.
[345] The correct date is 1540. Castañeda carries the error
throughout his narration, although he gives the year correctly in
the preface.
[346] An error for _Hernando_ de Alarcon.
[347] That is, from a point on the Pacific coast in latitude 19°
to another in latitude 21° 30´.
[348] See Alarcon's narrative translated by Hakluyt in his
_Voyages_, IX. 279-318 (ed. 1904), and also Buckingham Smith,
_Coleccion de Varios Documentos para la Historia de la Florida_
(1857), p. 1.
[349] The province of Nueva Galicia, explored under Guzman's
direction. See p. 285, note 1.
Chapter 7
_Of how the army reached Chiametla, and the killing of the
army-master, and the other things that happened up to the
arrival at Culiacan._
After the viceroy Don Antonio left them, the army continued its
march. As each one was obliged to transport his own baggage and all
did not know how to fasten the packs, and as the horses started off
fat and plump, they had a good deal of difficulty and labor during
the first few days, and many left many valuable things, giving them
to anyone who wanted them, in order to get rid of carrying them.
In the end necessity, which is all powerful, made them skillful,
so that one could see many gentlemen become carriers, and anybody
who despised this work was not considered a man. With such labors,
which they then thought severe, the army reached Chiametla, where
it was obliged to delay several days to procure food. During this
time the army-master, Lope de Samaniego, went off with some soldiers
to find food, and at one village, a crossbowman having entered it
indiscreetly in pursuit of the enemies, they shot him through the
eye and it passed through his brain, so that he died on the spot.
They also shot five or six of his companions before Diego Lopez, the
alderman from Seville, since the commander was dead, collected the
men and sent word to the general. He put a guard in the village and
over the provisions. There was great confusion in the army when this
news became known. He was buried here. Several sorties were made, by
which food was obtained and several of the natives taken prisoners.
They hanged those who seemed to belong to the district where the
army-master was killed.
It seems that when the general Francisco Vazquez left Culiacan with
Friar Marcos to tell the viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza the news, as
already related, he left orders for Captain Melchior Diaz and Juan
de Saldivar to start off with a dozen good men from Culiacan and
verify what Friar Marcos had seen and heard. They started and went
as far as Chichilticalli,[350] which is where the wilderness begins,
220 leagues from Culiacan, and there they turned back, not finding
anything important. They reached Chiametla just as the army was ready
to leave, and reported to the general. Although it was kept secret,
the bad news leaked out, and there were some reports which, although
they were exaggerated, did not fail to give an indication of what the
facts were. Friar Marcos, noticing that some were feeling disturbed,
cleared away these clouds, promising that what they would see should
be good, and that he would place the army in a country where their
hands would be filled, and in this way he quieted them so that they
appeared well satisfied. From there the army marched to Culiacan,
making some detours into the country to seize provisions. They were
two leagues from the town of Culiacan at Easter vespers, when the
inhabitants came out to welcome their governor and begged him not to
enter the town till the day after Easter.[351]
[350] For this locality see p. 299, note 1.
[351] Culiacan, or San Miguel Culiacan, as it was named by
Guzman, is in central Sinaloa. Castañeda was a resident of this
town and evidently joined the expedition there.
Chapter 8
_Of how the army entered the town of Culiacan and the reception
it received, and other things which happened before the
departure._
When the day after Easter came, the army started in the morning to
go to the town and, as they approached, the inhabitants of the town
came out on to an open plain with foot and horse drawn up in ranks
as if for a battle, and having its seven bronze pieces of artillery
in position, making a show of defending their town. Some of our
soldiers were with them. Our army drew up in the same way and began
a skirmish with them, and after the artillery on both sides had been
fired they were driven back, just as if the town had been taken by
force of arms, which was a pleasant demonstration of welcome, except
for the artilleryman who lost a hand by a shot, from having ordered
them to fire before he had finished drawing out the ramrod. After
the town was taken, the army was well lodged and entertained by the
townspeople, who, as they were all very well-to-do people, took all
the gentlemen and people of quality who were with the army into their
own apartments, although they had lodgings prepared for them all
just outside the town. Some of the townspeople were not ill repaid
for this hospitality, because all had started with fine clothes and
accoutrements, and as they had to carry provisions on their animals
after this, they were obliged to leave their fine stuff, so that
many preferred giving it to their hosts instead of risking it on the
sea by putting it in the ship that had followed the army along the
coast to take the extra baggage, as I have said. After they arrived
and were being entertained in the town, the general, by order of
the viceroy Don Antonio, left Fernandarias de Saabedra, uncle of
Hernandarias de Saabedra, count of Castellar, formerly mayor of
Seville, as his lieutenant and captain in this town. The army rested
here several days, because the inhabitants had gathered a good
stock of provisions that year and each one shared his stock very
gladly with his guests from our army. They not only had plenty to
eat here, but they also had plenty to take away with them, so that
when the departure came they started off with more than six hundred
loaded animals, besides the friendly Indians and the servants--more
than a thousand persons. After a fortnight had passed, the general
started ahead with about fifty horsemen and a few foot soldiers and
most of the Indian allies, leaving the army, which was to follow him
a fortnight later, with Don Tristan de Arellano in command as his
lieutenant.
At this time, before his departure, a pretty sort of thing happened
to the general, which I will tell for what it is worth. A young
soldier named Trugillo (Truxillo) pretended that he had seen a vision
while he was bathing in the river. Feigning that he did not want to,
he was brought before the general, whom he gave to understand that
the devil had told him that if he would kill the general, he could
marry his wife, Doña Beatris, and would receive great wealth and
other very fine things. Friar Marcos of Nice preached several sermons
on this, laying it all to the fact that the devil was jealous of the
good which must result from this journey and so wished to break it
up in this way. It did not end here, but the friars who were in the
expedition wrote to their monasteries about it, and this was the
reason the pulpits of Mexico proclaimed strange rumors about this
affair.
The general ordered Truxillo to stay in that town and not to go on
the expedition, which was what he was after when he made up that
falsehood, judging from what afterward appeared to be the truth. The
general started off with the force already described to continue his
journey, and the army followed him, as will be related.
Chapter 9
_Of how the army started from Culiacan and the arrival of the
general at Cibola, and of the army at Señora and of other things
that happened._
The general, as has been said, started to continue his journey from
the valley of Culiacan somewhat lightly equipped, taking with him
the friars, since none of them wished to stay behind with the army.
After they had gone three days, a regular friar who could say mass,
named Friar Antonio Victoria, broke his leg, and they brought him
back from the camp to have it treated. He stayed with the army
after this, which was no slight consolation for all. The general
and his force crossed the country without trouble, as they found
everything peaceful, because the Indians knew Friar Marcos and some
of the others who had been with Melchior Diaz when he went with
Juan de Saldibar to investigate. After the general had crossed the
inhabited region and came to Chichilticalli, where the wilderness
begins, and saw nothing favorable, he could not help feeling somewhat
downhearted, for, although the reports were very fine about what
was ahead, there was nobody who had seen it except the Indians who
went with the negro, and these had already been caught in some lies.
Besides all this, he was much affected by seeing that the fame of
Chichilticalli was summed up in one tumbledown house without any
roof, although it appeared to have been a strong place at some former
time when it was inhabited, and it was very plain that it had been
built by a civilized and warlike race of strangers who had come from
a distance. This building was made of red earth.[352] From here they
went on through the wilderness, and in fifteen days came to a river
about eight leagues from Cibola which they called Red River,[353]
because its waters were muddy and reddish. In this river they found
mullets like those of Spain. The first Indians from that country were
seen here--two of them, who ran away to give the news. During the
night following the next day, about two leagues from the village,
some Indians in a safe place yelled so that, although the men were
ready for anything, some were so excited that they put their saddles
on hind-side before; but these were the new fellows. When the
veterans had mounted and ridden round the camp, the Indians fled.
None of them could be caught because they knew the country.
[352] Chichilticalli, or the "Red House," was so named by the
Aztec Indians on account of its color. It was doubtless situated
on or near the Rio Gila, east of the mouth of the San Pedro,
probably not far from the present Solomonsville in southern
Arizona.
[353] The Zuñi River, within the present Arizona. Its waters are
very muddy in springtime, which is the only time of the year that
it flows into the Little Colorado.
The next day they entered the settled country in good order, and when
they saw the first village, which was Cibola, such were the curses
that some hurled at Friar Marcos that I pray God may protect him from
them.
It is a little, crowded village,[354] looking as if it had been
crumpled all up together. There are haciendas in New Spain which
make a better appearance at a distance. It is a village of about
two hundred warriors, is three and four stories high, with the
houses small and having only a few rooms, and without a courtyard.
One yard serves for each section.[355] The people of the whole
district had collected here, for there are seven villages in the
province, and some of the others are even larger and stronger than
Cibola. These folks waited for the army, drawn up by divisions
in front of the village. When they refused to have peace on the
terms the interpreters extended to them, but appeared defiant, the
Santiago[356] was given, and they were at once put to flight. The
Spaniards then attacked the village, which was taken with not a
little difficulty, since they held the narrow and crooked entrance.
During the attack they knocked the general down with a large stone,
and would have killed him but for Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas and
Hernando de Alvarado, who threw themselves above him and drew him
away, receiving the blows of the stones, which were not few. But the
first fury of the Spaniards could not be resisted, and in less than
an hour they entered the village and captured it. They discovered
food there, which was the thing they were most in need of. After this
the whole province was at peace.
[354] This was the Zuñi Indian pueblo of Hawikuh, one of their
seven villages, from which Coronado wrote to the Viceroy Mendoza,
dating his letter "from the province of Cevola, and this city of
Granada, the 3d of August, 1540." (See Winship's translation in
_Fourteenth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, pp. 552-563.)
Hawikuh, or "Granada," was situated about fifteen miles southwest
of the present Zuñi, near the Zuñi River, in New Mexico, and its
ruins are still to be seen. This was the pueblo in which Estévan
doubtless lost his life the year before, and which was viewed
from an adjacent height by Fray Marcos. Hawikuh was the seat of a
mission established by the Franciscans in 1629; it was abandoned
in 1670 after having been raided by the Apaches and its priest
killed. The name "Cibola," now and later applied to Hawikuh, is
believed to be a Spanish form of _Shiwina_, the Zuñi name for
their tribal range. _Cibolo_ later became the term by which the
Spaniards of Mexico designated the bison.
[355] The houses were built in terrace fashion, one above the
other, the roof of one tier forming a sort of front yard for the
tier of houses next above it.
[356] The war cry or "loud invocation addressed to Saint James
before engaging in battle with the Infidels."--Captain John
Stevens's _Dictionary_.
The army which had stayed with Don Tristan de Arellano started to
follow their general, all loaded with provisions, with lances on
their shoulders, and all on foot, so as to have the horses loaded.
With no slight labor from day to day, they reached a province which
Cabeza de Vaca had named Hearts (Corazones), because the people here
offered him many hearts of animals.[357] He founded a town here and
named it San Hieronimo de los Corazones (Saint Jerome of the Hearts).
After it had been started, it was seen that it could not be kept up
here, and so it was afterward transferred to a valley which had been
called Señora. The Spaniards call it Señora,[358] and so it will be
known by this name.
[357] See Cabeza de Vaca's narrative in the present volume. The
place was at or near the present Ures, on the Rio Sonora in
Sonora, Mexico.
[358] Whence the name of the present state of Sonora.
From here a force went down the river to the seacoast to find the
harbor and to find out about the ships. Don Rodrigo Maldonado, who
was captain of those who went in search of the ships, did not find
them, but he brought back with him an Indian so large and tall that
the best man in the army reached only to his chest.[359] It was said
that other Indians were even taller on that coast. After the rains
ceased the army went on to where the town of Señora was afterward
located,[360] because there were provisions in that region, so that
they were able to wait there for orders from the general.
[359] Evidently a Seri Indian. The Seri are a wild tribe speaking
an independent language and occupying the island of Tiburon and
the adjacent Sonora coast of the Gulf of California. They are
noted for their stature. For an account of this people, see McGee
in _Seventeenth Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_, pt.
1 (1898).
[360] Believed to be in the present Sonora valley, where it opens
out into a broader plain a number of miles above Ures.
About the middle of the month of October,[361] Captains Melchior Diaz
and Juan Gallego came from Cibola, Juan Gallego[362] on his way to
New Spain and Melchior Diaz to stay in the new town of Hearts, in
command of the men who remained there. He was to go along the coast
in search of the ships.
[361] This should be September.
[362] It is not without interest to record here the finding, in
1886, in western Kansas, of a sword-blade, greatly corroded,
but still bearing sufficient trace of the name "Juan Gallego"
to enable its determination, as well as the inscription "_No me
saques sin razon. No me embaines sin honor_." See W. E. Ritchey
in _Mail and Breeze_, Topeka, Kansas, July 26, 1902.
Chapter 10
_Of how the army started from the town of Señora, leaving it
inhabited, and how it reached Cibola, and of what happened to
Captain Melchior Diaz on his expedition in search of the ships
and how he discovered the Tison (Firebrand) River._
After Melchior Diaz and Juan Gallego had arrived in the town of
Señora, it was announced that the army was to depart for Cibola;
that Melchior Diaz was to remain in charge of that town with eighty
men; that Juan Gallego was going to New Spain with messages for the
viceroy, and that Friar Marcos was going back with him, because he
did not think it was safe for him to stay in Cibola, seeing that his
report had turned out to be entirely false, because the kingdoms that
he had told about had not been found, nor the populous cities, nor
the wealth of gold, nor the precious stones which he had reported,
nor the fine clothes, nor other things that had been proclaimed
from the pulpits. When this had been announced, those who were to
remain were selected and the rest loaded their provisions and set off
in good order about the middle of September on the way to Cibola,
following their general.
Don Tristan de Arellano stayed in this new town with the weakest
men, and from this time on there was nothing but mutinies and
strife, because after the army had gone Captain Melchior Diaz took
twenty-five of the most efficient men, leaving in his place one Diego
de Alcaraz, a man unfitted to have people under his command. He took
guides and went toward the north and west in search of the seacoast.
After going about 150 leagues, they came to a province of exceedingly
tall and strong men--like giants. They are naked and live in large
straw cabins built underground like smoke-houses, with only the
straw roof above ground. They enter these at one end and come out at
the other. More than a hundred persons, old and young, sleep in one
cabin. When they carry anything, they can take a load of more than
three or four hundred weight on their heads. Once when our men wished
to fetch a log for the fire, and six men were unable to carry it, one
of these Indians is reported to have come and raised it in his arms,
put it on his head alone, and carried it very easily. They eat bread
cooked in the ashes, as big as the large two-pound loaves of Castile.
On account of the great cold, they carry a firebrand (_tison_) in
the hand when they go from one place to another, with which they
warm the other hand and the body as well, and in this way they keep
shifting it every now and then.[363] On this account the large river
which is in that country was called Rio del Tison (Firebrand River).
It is a very great river and is more than two leagues wide at its
mouth; here it is half a league across. Here the captain heard that
there had been ships at a point three days down toward the sea. When
he reached the place where the ships had been, which was more than
fifteen leagues up the river from the mouth of the harbor, they found
written on a tree: "Alarcon reached this place; there are letters at
the foot of this tree." He dug up the letters and learned from them
how long Alarcon had waited for news of the army and that he had gone
back with the ships to New Spain, because he was unable to proceed
farther, since this sea was a bay, which was formed by the Isle of
the Marquis, which is called California, and it was explained that
California was not an island, but a point of the mainland forming the
other side of that gulf.[364]
[363] These were evidently the Cocopa, a Yuman tribe, whose
descendants still inhabit the lower Rio Colorado, which is the
Rio del Tison of this narrative. The Cocopa now number perhaps
800.
[364] It had been supposed that Lower California, the "Isle of
the Marquis" (Cortés), was an island, yet notwithstanding its
determination as a peninsula it appeared as an island on maps of
a much later period.
After he had seen this, the captain turned back to go up the river,
without going down to the sea, to find a ford by which to cross to
the other side, so as to follow the other bank. After they had gone
five or six days, it seemed to them as if they could cross on rafts.
For this purpose they called together a large number of the natives,
who were waiting for a favorable opportunity to make an attack on
our men, and when they saw that the strangers wanted to cross, they
helped make the rafts with all zeal and diligence, so as to catch
them in this way on the water and drown them or else so divide them
that they could not help one another. While the rafts were being
made, a soldier who had been out around the camp saw a large number
of armed men go across to a mountain, where they were waiting till
the soldiers should cross the river. He reported this, and an Indian
was quietly shut up, in order to find out the truth, and when they
tortured him he told all the arrangements that had been made. These
were, that when our men were crossing and part of them had got over
and part were on the river and part were waiting to cross, those who
were on the rafts should drown those they were taking across and the
rest of their force should make an attack on both sides of the river.
If they had had as much discretion and courage as they had strength
and power, the attempt would have succeeded.[365]
[365] The rafts, or _balsas_, referred to, were made by tying
together a large number of reeds. The vessel was wide at the
middle and pointed at the ends, and was very buoyant.
When he knew their plan, the captain had the Indian who had confessed
the affair killed secretly, and that night he was thrown into the
river with a weight, so that the Indians would not suspect that they
were found out. The next day they noticed that our men suspected
them, and so they made an attack, shooting showers of arrows, but
when the horses began to catch up with them and the lances wounded
them without mercy and the musketeers likewise made good shots, they
had to leave the plain and take to the mountain, until not a man of
them was to be seen. The force then came back and crossed all right,
the Indian allies and the Spaniards going across on the rafts and
the horses swimming alongside the rafts, where we will leave them to
continue their journey.
To relate how the army that was on its way to Cibola got on:
Everything went along in good shape, since the general had left
everything peaceful, because he wished the people in that region
to be contented and without fear and willing to do what they were
ordered. In a province called Vacapan there was a large quantity
of prickly pears, of which the natives make a great deal of
preserves.[366] They gave this preserve away freely, and as the men
of the army ate much of it, they all fell sick with a headache and
fever, so that the natives might have done much harm to the force if
they had wished. This lasted regularly twenty-four hours. After this
they continued their march until they reached Chichilticalli. The
men in the advance guard saw a flock of sheep one day after leaving
this place. I myself saw and followed them. They had extremely large
bodies and long wool; their horns were very thick and large, and when
they run they throw back their heads and put their horns on the ridge
of their back. They are used to the rough country, so that we could
not catch them and had to leave them.[367]
[366] Vacapan was apparently an Opata pueblo, or rather two
pueblos, on a branch of the Rio Yaqui, which the Spaniards passed
through shortly before reaching Corazones (Ures) on the Rio
Sonora. The preserved cactus fruit is regarded highly by all the
Indians of the general region even to-day, and in season they
subsist largely upon it. The saguara (_Cereus giganteus_), or
great columnar cactus, furnishes the chief supply.
[367] The well-known Rocky Mountain sheep. As late as twenty
years ago some of the mountain ranges of southeastern Arizona,
especially the Catalina Mountains, were noted for this animal.
Three days after we entered the wilderness we found a horn on the
bank of a river that flows in the bottom of a very steep, deep gully,
which the general had noticed and left there for his army to see,
for it was six feet long and as thick at the base as a man's thigh.
It seemed to be more like the horn of a goat than of any other
animal. It was something worth seeing. The army proceeded and was
about a day's march from Cibola when a very cold tornado came up in
the afternoon, followed by a great fall of snow, which was a bad
combination for the carriers. The army went on till it reached some
caves in a rocky ridge, late in the evening. The Indian allies, who
were from New Spain, and for the most part from warm countries, were
in great danger. They felt the coldness of that day so much that it
was hard work the next day taking care of them, for they suffered
much pain and had to be carried on the horses, the soldiers walking.
After this labor the army reached Cibola, where their general was
waiting for them, with their quarters all ready, and here they were
reunited, except some captains and men who had gone off to discover
other provinces.
Chapter 11
_Of how Don Pedro de Tovar discovered Tusayan or Tutahaco[368]
and Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas saw the Firebrand River, and
the other things that had happened._
[368] Compare Chapter 13. These two groups of pueblos were not
the same.
While the things already described were taking place, Cibola being
at peace, the general, Francisco Vazquez, found out from the people
of the province about the provinces that lay around it, and got them
to tell their friends and neighbors that Christians had come into
the country, whose only desire was to be their friends, and to find
out about good lands to live in, and for them to come to see the
strangers and talk with them. They did this, since they know how to
communicate with one another in these regions, and they informed him
about a province with seven villages of the same sort as theirs,
although somewhat different. They had nothing to do with these
people. This province is called Tusayan. It is twenty-five leagues
from Cibola. The villages are high and the people are warlike.
The general had sent Don Pedro de Tovar to these villages with
seventeen horsemen and three or four foot-soldiers.[369] Juan de
Padilla, a Franciscan friar, who had been a fighting man in his
youth, went with them. When they reached the region, they entered the
country so quietly that nobody observed them, because there were no
settlements or farms between one village and another and the people
do not leave the villages except to go to their farms, especially
at this time, when they had heard that Cibola had been captured
by very fierce people, who travelled on animals which ate people.
This information was generally believed by those who had never seen
horses, although it was so strange as to cause much wonder. Our men
arrived after nightfall and were able to conceal themselves under
the edge of the village, where they heard the natives talking in
their houses. But in the morning they were discovered and drew up
in regular order, while the natives came out to meet them, with
bows, and shields, and wooden clubs, drawn up in lines without any
confusion. The interpreter was given a chance to speak to them and
give them due warning, for they were very intelligent people, but
nevertheless they drew lines and insisted that our men should not
go across these lines toward their village.[370] While they were
talking, some men acted as if they would cross the lines, and one of
the natives lost control of himself and struck a horse a blow on the
cheek of the bridle with his club. Friar Juan, fretted by the time
that was being wasted in talking with them, said to the captain:
"To tell the truth, I do not know why we came here." When the men
heard this, they gave the Santiago so suddenly that they ran down
many Indians and the others fled to the town in confusion. Some
indeed did not have a chance to do this, so quickly did the people
in the village come out with presents, asking for peace. The captain
ordered his force to collect, and, as the natives did not do any
more harm, he and those who were with him found a place to establish
their headquarters near the village. They had dismounted here when
the natives came peacefully, saying that they had come to give in
the submission of the whole province and that they wanted him to be
friends with them and to accept the presents which they gave him.
This was some cotton cloth, although not much, because they do not
make it in that district.[371] They also gave him some dressed skins
and cornmeal, and pine nuts[372] and corn and birds of the country.
Afterward they presented some turquoises,[373] but not many. The
people of the whole district came together that day and submitted
themselves, and they allowed him to enter their villages freely to
visit, buy, sell, and barter with them.
[369] Castañeda speaks as a member of the "army," not of the
advance guard. See the preceding chapter.
[370] These lines were drawn in corn meal and must not be
crossed. To this day similar lines of meal are made across a
trail when certain ceremonies are being performed. The Spaniards
were now at the pueblo of Awatobi, the first village of the Hopi
(Moqui) people of Tusayan, in northeastern Arizona, reached
in coming from the southward. It was destroyed by the other
Hopi villagers in 1700, because the Awatobi people favored the
re-establishment of the Spanish mission that had been destroyed
in the great Pueblo revolt of 1680.
[371] Castañeda, speaking from hearsay with respect to the
Tovar expedition, errs in this statement, as the Hopi were the
principal cotton growers and weavers of all the Pueblos. Later
Spanish accounts all agree on this point. Indeed, even now the
Hopi cotton kilts, sashes, and ceremonial robes are bartered
throughout the Pueblo region.
[372] Piñon nuts.
[373] Obtained by trade with the Rio Grande Pueblos, who mined
them in the Cerillos, southeast of Santa Fé, New Mexico. It is
from the same deposits that much of the "matrix turquoise" of our
present-day commerce is derived.
It is governed like Cibola, by an assembly of the oldest men. They
have their governors and generals. This was where they obtained the
information about a large river, and that several days down the river
there were some people with very large bodies.[374]
[374] See the reference to the Cocopa Indians met by Melchior
Diaz, in Chapter 10.
As Don Pedro de Tovar was not commissioned to go farther, he returned
from there and gave this information to the general, who dispatched
Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas with about twelve companions to go to
see this river. He was well received when he reached Tusayan and was
entertained by the natives, who gave him guides for his journey.
They started from here loaded with provisions, for they had to go
through a desert country before reaching the inhabited region, which
the Indians said was more than twenty days' journey. After they had
gone twenty days they came to the banks of the river, which seemed
to be more than three or four leagues in an air line across to the
other bank of the stream which flowed between them.[375] This country
was elevated and full of low twisted pines, very cold, and lying
open toward the north, so that, this being the warm season, no one
could live there on account of the cold. They spent three days on
this bank looking for a passage down to the river, which looked from
above as if the water was six feet across, although the Indians said
it was half a league wide. It was impossible to descend, for after
these three days Captain Melgosa and one Juan Galeras and another
companion, who were the three lightest and most agile men, made an
attempt to go down at the least difficult place, and went down until
those who were above were unable to keep sight of them. They returned
about four o'clock in the afternoon, not having succeeded in reaching
the bottom on account of the great difficulties which they found,
because what seemed to be easy from above was not so, but instead
very hard and difficult. They said that they had been down about a
third of the way and that the river seemed very large from the place
which they reached, and that from what they saw they thought the
Indians had given the width correctly. Those who stayed above had
estimated that some huge rocks on the sides of the cliffs seemed to
be about as tall as a man, but those who went down swore that when
they reached these rocks they were bigger than the great tower of
Seville.[376] They did not go farther up the river, because they
could not get water. Before this they had had to go a league or two
inland every day late in the evening in order to find water, and the
guides said that if they should go four days farther it would not be
possible to go on, because there was no water within three or four
days, for when they travel across this region themselves they take
with them women loaded with water in gourds, and bury the gourds of
water along the way, to use when they return, and besides this, they
travel in one day over what it takes us two days to accomplish.
[375] The Grand Cañon of the Colorado, now visited and described
by white men for the first time.
[376] The Giralda, or celebrated bell-tower of the Cathedral of
Seville, which is 275 feet high.
This was the Tison (Firebrand) River, much nearer its source than
where Melchior Diaz and his company crossed it. These were the same
kind of Indians, judging from what was afterward learned. They came
back from this point and the expedition did not have any other
result. On the way they saw some water falling over a rock and
learned from the guides that some bunches of crystals which were
hanging there were salt. They went and gathered a quantity of this
and brought it back to Cibola, dividing it among those who were
there. They gave the general a written account of what they had seen,
because one Pedro de Sotomayor had gone with Don Garcia Lopez [de
Cardenas] as chronicler for the army. The villages of that province
[of Tusayan] remained peaceful, since they were never visited again,
nor was any attempt made to find other peoples in that direction.
Chapter 12
_Of how people came from Cicuye to Cibola to see the Christians,
and how Hernando de Alvarado went to see the cows._
While they were making these discoveries, some Indians came to Cibola
from a village which was seventy leagues east of this province,
called Cicuye. Among them was a captain who was called Bigotes
(Whiskers) by our men, because he wore a long mustache. He was a
tall, well-built young fellow, with a fine figure. He told the
general that they had come in response to the notice which had been
given, to offer themselves as friends, and that if we wanted to go
through their country they would consider us as their friends. They
brought a present of tanned hides and shields and head-pieces, which
were very gladly received, and the general gave them some glass
dishes and a number of pearls and little bells which they prized
highly, because these were things they had never seen. They described
some cows which, from a picture that one of them had painted on his
skin, seemed to be cows, although from the hides this did not seem
possible, because the hair was woolly and snarled so that we could
not tell what sort of skins they had. The general ordered Hernando de
Alvarado to take twenty companions and go with them, and gave him a
commission for eighty days, after which he should return to give an
account of what he had found.[377]
[377] The report of Alvarado, translated by George Parker
Winship, is published in the _Fourteenth Annual Report of the
Bureau of Ethnology_ (Washington, 1896).
Captain Alvarado started on this journey and in five days reached a
village which was on a rock called Acuco[378] having a population of
about two hundred men. These people were robbers, feared by the whole
country round about. The village was very strong, because it was up
on a rock out of reach, having steep sides in every direction, and so
high that it was a very good musket that could throw a ball as high.
There was only one entrance by a stairway built by hand, which began
at the top of a slope which is around the foot of the rock.[379]
There was a broad stairway for about two hundred steps, then a
stretch of about one hundred narrower steps, and at the top they had
to go up about three times as high as a man by means of holes in the
rock, in which they put the points of their feet, holding on at the
same time by their hands. There was a wall of large and small stones
at the top, which they could roll down without showing themselves, so
that no army could possibly be strong enough to capture the village.
On the top they had room to sow and store a large amount of corn,
and cisterns to collect snow and water.[380] These people came down
to the plain ready to fight, and would not listen to any arguments.
They drew lines on the ground and determined to prevent our men from
crossing these, but when they saw that they would have to fight
they offered to make peace before any harm had been done. They went
through their forms of making peace, which is to touch the horses and
take their sweat and rub themselves with it, and to make crosses with
the fingers of the hands. But to make the most secure peace they put
their hands across each other, and they keep this peace inviolably.
They made a present of a large number of [turkey-] cocks with very
big wattles, much bread, tanned deerskins, pine [piñon] nuts, flour
[cornmeal], and corn.
[378] This is the pueblo of Acoma, about fifty miles east of
Zuñi. It occupies the summit of the same rocky mesa, 357 feet
high, that it did in Coronado's time. The name here given is
doubtless an attempt to give the Zuñi designation, _Hákukia_,
from _Ako_, the name by which it is known to the Acoma people.
The present population is 650. Acoma has the distinction of being
the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the United States.
[379] The slope referred to is an immense sand-dune. The horse
trail did not exist in Coronado's time, having been built by Fray
Juan Ramirez, who established a mission at Acoma in 1629.
[380] The Acomas still obtain their water supply from this source.
From here they went to a province called Triguex,[381] three days
distant. The people all came out peacefully, seeing that Whiskers
was with them. These men are feared throughout all those provinces.
Alvarado sent messengers back from here to advise the general to come
and winter in this country. The general was not a little relieved to
hear that the country was growing better. Five days from here he came
to Cicuye,[382] a very strong village four stories high. The people
came out from the village with signs of joy to welcome Hernando de
Alvarado and their captain, and brought them into the town with drums
and pipes something like flutes, of which they have a great many.
They made many presents of cloth and turquoises, of which there are
quantities in that region.[383] The Spaniards enjoyed themselves
here for several days and talked with an Indian slave, a native of
the country toward Florida, which is the region Don Fernando de
Soto discovered. This fellow said that there were large settlements
in the farther part of that country. Hernando de Alvarado took him
to guide them to the cows; but he told them so many and such great
things about the wealth of gold and silver in his country that they
did not care about looking for cows, but returned after they had
seen some few, to report the rich news to the general. They called
the Indian "Turk," because he looked like one. Meanwhile the general
had sent Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas to Tiguex with men to get
lodgings ready for the army, which had arrived from Señora about this
time, before taking them there for the winter; and when Hernando de
Alvarado reached Tiguex, on his way back from Cicuye, he found Don
Garcia Lopez de Cardenas there, and so there was no need for him to
go farther. As it was necessary that the natives should give the
Spaniards lodging places, the people in one village had to abandon
it and go to others belonging to their friends, and they took with
them nothing but themselves and the clothes they had on. Information
was obtained here about many towns up toward the north, and I believe
that it would have been much better to follow this direction than
that of the Turk, who was the cause of all the misfortunes which
followed.
[381] Tiguex. See p. 317, note.
[382] Pecos. See p. 329, note 2.
[383] See p. 308, note 3.
Chapter 13
_Of how the general went toward Tutahaco with a few men and left
the army with Don Tristan, who took it to Tiguex._
Everything already related had happened when Don Tristan de Arellano
reached Cibola from Señora. Soon after he arrived, the general,
who had received notice of a province containing eight villages,
took thirty of the men who were most fully rested and went to see
it, going from there directly to Tiguex with the skilled guides
who conducted him. He left orders for Don Tristan de Arellano to
proceed to Tiguex by the direct road, after the men had rested twenty
days. On this journey, between one day when they left the camping
place and mid-day of the third day, when they saw some snow-covered
mountains, toward which they went in search of water, neither the
Spaniards nor the horses nor the servants drank anything. They were
able to stand it because of the severe cold, although with great
difficulty. In eight days they reached Tutahaco,[384] where they
learned that there were other towns down the river. These people
were peaceful. The villages are terraced, like those at Tiguex, and
of the same style. The general went up the river from here, visiting
the whole province, until he reached Tiguex, where he found Hernando
de Alvarado and the Turk. He felt no slight joy at such good news,
because the Turk said that in his country there was a river in the
level country which was two leagues wide, in which there were fishes
as big as horses, and large numbers of very big canoes, with more
than twenty rowers on a side, and that they carried sails, and that
their lords sat on the poop under awnings, and on the prow they had
a great golden eagle. He said also that the lord of that country
took his afternoon nap under a great tree on which were hung a great
number of little gold bells, which put him to sleep as they swung in
the air. He said also that everyone had their ordinary dishes made of
wrought plate, and the jugs and bowls were of gold. He called gold
_acochis_. For the present he was believed, on account of the ease
with which he told it and because they showed him metal ornaments and
he recognized them and said they were not gold, and he knew gold and
silver very well and did not care anything about other metals.[385]
[384] This name has always been a problem to students of the
expedition, and various attempts have been made to determine
its application. Jaramillo, one of Coronado's captains, applies
the name to Acoma, and indeed its final syllables are the same
as the native name of Acoma. In the heading to Chapter 11
Castañeda erroneously makes Tutahaco synonymous with Tusayan. The
description indicates that the Tigua village of Isleta and others
in its vicinity on the Rio Grande in the sixteenth century were
intended.
[385] This Eldorado is seemingly a combination of falsehood and
misinterpretation. The Turk's only means of communication were
signs; and we shall see later on that he deliberately deceived
the Spaniards for the purpose of leading them astray. The name
_acochis_ here given is an aid in the identification of the
mysterious province of Quivira. See p. 337, note 1.
The general sent Hernando de Alvarado back to Cicuye to demand some
gold bracelets which this Turk said they had taken from him at the
time they captured him. Alvarado went, and was received as a friend
at the village, and when he demanded the bracelets they said they
knew nothing at all about them, saying the Turk was deceiving him and
was lying. Captain Alvarado, seeing that there were no other means,
got the captain Whiskers and the governor to come to his tent, and
when they had come he put them in chains. The villagers prepared to
fight, and let fly their arrows, denouncing Hernando de Alvarado, and
saying that he was a man who had no respect for peace and friendship.
Hernando de Alvarado started back to Tiguex, where the general
kept them prisoners more than six months. This began the want of
confidence in the word of the Spaniards whenever there was talk of
peace from this time on, as will be seen by what happened afterward.
Chapter 14
_Of how the army went from Cibola to Tiguex and what happened to
them on the way, on account of the snow._
We have already said that when the general started from Cibola,
he left orders for Don Tristan de Arellano to start twenty days
later. He did so as soon as he saw that the men were well rested and
provided with food and eager to start off to find their general. He
set off with his force toward Tiguex, and the first day they made
their camp in the best, largest, and finest village of that (Cibola)
province.[386] This is the only village that has houses with seven
stories. In this village certain houses are used as fortresses; they
are higher than the others and set up above them like towers, and
there are embrasures and loopholes in them for defending the roofs
of the different stories, because, like the other villages, they
do not have streets, and the flat roofs are all of a height and are
used in common. The roofs have to be reached first, and these upper
houses are the means of defending them. It began to snow on us there,
and the force took refuge under the wings of the village, which
extend out like balconies, with wooden pillars beneath, because they
generally use ladders to go up to those balconies, since they do not
have any doors below.[387]
[386] This was Matsaki, at the northwestern base of Thunder
Mountain, about three miles east of the present Zuñi and eighteen
miles northeast of Hawikuh, where the advance force had encamped.
The ruins may still be seen, but no standing walls are visible.
[387] The first-story rooms were entered by means of hatchways
through the roof. As the necessity for defence no longer exists,
the rooms of the lower stories of Zuñi houses are provided with
doors and windows.
The army continued its march from here after it stopped snowing, and
as the season had already advanced into December, during the ten
days that the army was delayed, it did not fail to snow during the
evenings and nearly every night, so that they had to clear away a
large amount of snow when they came to where they wanted to make a
camp. The road could not be seen, but the guides managed to find it,
as they knew the country. There are junipers and pines all over the
country, which they used in making large brushwood fires, the smoke
and heat of which melted the snow from two to four yards all around
the fire. It was a dry snow, so that although it fell on the baggage,
and covered it for half a man's height, it did not hurt it. It fell
all night long, covering the baggage and the soldiers and their beds,
piling up in the air, so that if anyone had suddenly come upon the
army nothing would have been seen but mountains of snow. The horses
stood half buried in it. It kept those who were underneath warm
instead of cold. The army passed by the great rock of Acuco,[388] and
the natives, who were peaceful, entertained our men well, giving them
provisions and birds, although there are not many people here, as I
have said. Many of the gentlemen went up to the top to see it, and
they had great difficulty in going up the steps in the rock, because
they were not used to them, for the natives go up and down so easily
that they carry loads and the women carry water, and they do not seem
even to touch their hands, although our men had to pass their weapons
up from one to another.
[388] The army passed from Cibola by way of the present farming
village of Pescado, Inscription Rock or El Morro (thirty miles
east of Zuñi), and over the Zuñi Mountains to Acoma. Alvarado
followed an almost impassable trail eastward from Hawikuh, across
a great lava flow, to reach Acoma.
From here they went on to Tiguex, where they were well received and
taken care of, and the great good news of the Turk gave no little joy
and helped lighten their hard labors, although when the army arrived
we found the whole country or province in revolt, for reasons which
were not slight in themselves, as will be shown, and our men had also
burnt a village the day before the army arrived, and returned to the
camp.
Chapter 15
_Of why Tiguex revolted, and how they were punished, without
being to blame for it._
It has been related how the general reached Tiguex,[389] where he
found Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas and Hernando de Alvarado, and how
he sent the latter back to Cicuye, where he took the captain Whiskers
and the governor of the village, who was an old man, prisoners. The
people of Tiguex did not feel well about this seizure. In addition
to this, the general wished to obtain some clothing to divide among
his soldiers, and for this purpose he summoned one of the chief
Indians of Tiguex, with whom he had already had much intercourse
and with whom he was on good terms, who was called Juan Aleman by
our men, after a Juan Aleman who lived in Mexico, whom he was said
to resemble. The general told him that he must furnish about three
hundred or more pieces of cloth, which he needed to give his people.
He said that he was not able to do this, but that it pertained to
the governors; and that besides this, they would have to consult
together and divide it among the villages, and that it was necessary
to make the demand of each town separately. The general did this, and
ordered certain of the gentlemen who were with him to go and make the
demand; and as there were twelve villages, some of them went on one
side of the river and some on the other. As they were in very great
need, they did not give the natives a chance to consult about it, but
when they came to a village they demanded what they had to give, so
that they could proceed at once. Thus these people could do nothing
except take off their own cloaks and give them to make up the number
demanded of them. And some of the soldiers who were in these parties,
when the collectors gave them some blankets or cloaks which were not
such as they wanted, if they saw any Indian with a better one on,
they exchanged with him without more ado, not stopping to find out
the rank of the man they were stripping, which caused not a little
hard feeling.
[389] Tiguex (pronounced Tee-guaysh') is the name of a group
of Pueblo tribes, now consisting of Isleta, Sandia, Taos, and
Picuris, speaking the Tigua language, as it is now designated.
Their principal village in Coronado's time was also called Tiguex
by the Spaniards; this was the Puaray of forty years later
(1583), the first time the native name was recorded. It was
situated at the site of Bernalillo, on the Rio Grande, and was
inhabited up to the time of the Pueblo rebellion of 1680, when it
contained two hundred Tiguas and Spaniards.
Besides what I have just said, one whom I will not name, out of
regard for him, left the village where the camp was and went to
another village about a league distant, and seeing a pretty woman
there he called her husband down to hold his horse by the bridle
while he went up; and as the village was entered by the upper story,
the Indian supposed he was going to some other part of it. While he
was there the Indian heard some slight noise, and then the Spaniard
came down, took his horse, and went away. The Indian went up and
learned that he had violated, or tried to violate, his wife, and so
he came with the important men of the town to complain that a man had
violated his wife, and he told how it happened. When the general made
all the soldiers and the persons who were with him come together, the
Indian did not recognize the man, either because he had changed his
clothes or for whatever other reason there may have been, but he said
that he could tell the horse, because he had held his bridle, and
so he was taken to the stables, and found the horse, and said that
the master of the horse must be the man. He denied doing it, seeing
that he had not been recognized, and it may be that the Indian
was mistaken in the horse; anyway, he went off without getting any
satisfaction. The next day one of the Indians, who was guarding the
horses of the army, came running in, saying that a companion of his
had been killed, and that the Indians of the country were driving
off the horses toward their villages. The Spaniards tried to collect
the horses again, but many were lost, besides seven of the general's
mules.[390]
[390] Antonio de Espejo learned of this occurrence at "Puala"
(Puaray) when the place was visited by him in 1583 (see
_Documentos Inéditos de Indias_, XV. 175).
The next day Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas went to see the villages
and talk with the natives. He found the villages closed by palisades
and a great noise inside, the horses being chased as in a bull fight
and shot with arrows. They were all ready for fighting. Nothing could
be done, because they would not come down on to the plain and the
villages are so strong that the Spaniards could not dislodge them.
The general then ordered Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas to go and
surround one village with all the rest of the force. This village was
the one where the greatest injury had been done and where the affair
with the Indian woman occurred. Several captains who had gone on in
advance with the general, Juan de Saldivar and Barrionuevo and Diego
Lopez and Melgosa, took the Indians so much by surprise that they
gained the upper story, with great danger, for they wounded many of
our men from within the houses. Our men were on top of the houses
in great danger for a day and a night and part of the next day, and
they made some good shots with their crossbows and muskets. The
horsemen on the plain with many of the Indian allies from New Spain
smoked them out from the cellars[391] into which they had broken, so
that they begged for peace. Pablo de Melgosa and Diego Lopez, the
alderman from Seville, were left on the roof and answered the Indians
with the same signs they were making for peace, which was to make a
cross. They then put down their arms and received pardon. They were
taken to the tent of Don Garcia, who, according to what he said, did
not know about the peace and thought that they had given themselves
up of their own accord because they had been conquered. As he had
been ordered by the general not to take them alive, but to make an
example of them so that the other natives would fear the Spaniards,
he ordered two hundred stakes to be prepared at once to burn them
alive. Nobody told him about the peace that had been granted them,
for the soldiers knew as little as he, and those who should have
told him about it remained silent, not thinking that it was any of
their business. Then when the enemies saw that the Spaniards were
binding them and beginning to roast them, about a hundred men who
were in the tent began to struggle and defend themselves with what
there was there and with the stakes they could seize. Our men who
were on foot attacked the tent on all sides, so that there was great
confusion around it, and then the horsemen chased those who escaped.
As the country was level, not a man of them remained alive, unless it
was some who remained hidden in the village and escaped that night
to spread throughout the country the news that the strangers did
not respect the peace they had made, which afterward proved a great
misfortune. After this was over, it began to snow, and they abandoned
the village and returned to the camp just as the army came from
Cibola.
[391] The pueblos are not provided with cellars. The underground
ceremonial chambers, or _kivas_, are doubtless here meant.
Chapter 16
_Of how they besieged Tiguex and took it and of what happened
during the siege._
As I have already related, it began to snow in that country just
after they captured the village, and it snowed so much that for the
next two months[392] it was impossible to do anything except to go
along the roads to advise them to make peace and tell them that
they would be pardoned and might consider themselves safe, to which
they replied that they did not trust those who did not know how to
keep good faith after they had once given it, and that the Spaniards
should remember that they were keeping Whiskers prisoner and that
they did not keep their word when they burned those who surrendered
in the village. Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas was one of those who
went to give this notice. He started out with about thirty companions
and went to the village of Tiguex to talk with Juan Aleman. Although
they were hostile, they talked with him and said that if he wished
to talk with them he must dismount and they would come out and talk
with him about a peace, and that if he would send away the horsemen
and make his men keep away, Juan Aleman and another captain would
come out of the village and meet him. Everything was done as they
required, and then when they approached they said that they had no
arms and that he must take his off. Don Garcia Lopez did this in
order to give them confidence, on account of his great desire to get
them to make peace. When he met them, Juan Aleman approached and
embraced him vigorously, while the other two who had come with him
drew two mallets[393] which they had hidden behind their backs and
gave him two such blows over his helmet that they almost knocked him
senseless. Two of the soldiers on horseback had been unwilling to go
very far off, even when he ordered them, and so they were near by and
rode up so quickly that they rescued him from their hands, although
they were unable to catch the enemies because the meeting was so near
the village that of the great shower of arrows which were shot at
them one arrow hit a horse and went through his nose. The horsemen
all rode up together and hurriedly carried off their captain, without
being able to harm the enemy, while many of our men were dangerously
wounded. They then withdrew, leaving a number of men to continue the
attack. Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas went on with a part of the force
to another village about half a league distant, because almost all
the people in this region had collected into these two villages. As
they paid no attention to the demands made on them except by shooting
arrows from the upper stories with loud yells, and would not hear of
peace, he returned to his companions whom he had left to keep up the
attack on Tiguex. A large number of those in the village came out and
our men rode off slowly, pretending to flee, so that they drew the
enemy on to the plain, and then turned on them and caught several of
their leaders. The rest collected on the roofs of the village and the
captain returned to his camp.
[392] The altitude of Bernalillo is 5260 feet, and snowstorms are
sometimes severe.
[393] Wooden war-clubs.
After this affair the general ordered the army to go and surround
the village. He set out with his men in good order, one day, with
several scaling ladders. When he reached the village, he encamped his
force near by, and then began the siege; but as the enemy had had
several days to provide themselves with stores, they threw down such
quantities of rocks upon our men that many of them were laid out, and
they wounded nearly a hundred with arrows, several of whom afterward
died on account of the bad treatment by an unskillful surgeon who was
with the army. The siege lasted fifty days, during which time several
assaults were made. The lack of water was what troubled the Indians
most. They dug a very deep well inside the village, but were not able
to get water, and while they were making it, it fell in and killed
thirty persons. Two hundred of the besieged died in the fights. One
day when there was a hard fight, they killed Francisco de Obando, a
captain who had been army-master all the time that Don Garcia Lopez
de Cardenas was away making the discoveries already described, and
also Francisco Pobares, a fine gentleman. Our men were unable to
prevent them from carrying Francisco de Obando inside the village,
which was regretted not a little, because he was a distinguished
person, besides being honored on his own account, affable and much
beloved, which was noticeable. One day, before the capture was
completed, they asked to speak to us, and said that, since they knew
we would not harm the women and children, they wished to surrender
their women and sons, because they were using up their water. It
was impossible to persuade them to make peace, as they said that
the Spaniards would not keep an agreement made with them. So they
gave up about a hundred persons, women and boys, who did not want to
leave them. Don Lope de Urrea rode up in front of the town without
his helmet and received the boys and girls in his arms, and when all
of these had been surrendered, Don Lope begged them to make peace,
giving them the strongest promises for their safety. They told him to
go away, as they did not wish to trust themselves to people who had
no regard for friendship or their own word which they had pledged. As
he seemed unwilling to go away, one of them put an arrow in his bow
ready to shoot, and threatened to shoot him with it unless he went
off, and they warned him to put on his helmet, but he was unwilling
to do so, saying that they would not hurt him as long as he stayed
there. When the Indian saw that he did not want to go away, he shot
and planted his arrow between the fore feet of the horse, and then
put another arrow in his bow and repeated that if he did not go away
he would really shoot him. Don Lope put on his helmet and slowly rode
back to where the horsemen were, without receiving any harm from
them. When they saw that he was really in safety, they began to shoot
arrows in showers, with loud yells and cries. The general did not
want to make an assault that day, in order to see if they could be
brought in some way to make peace, which they would not consider.
Fifteen days later they decided to leave the village one night,
and did so, taking the women in their midst. They started about
the fourth watch, in the very early morning, on the side where the
cavalry was. The alarm was given by those in the camp of Don Rodrigo
Maldonado. The enemy attacked them and killed one Spaniard and a
horse and wounded others, but they were driven back with great
slaughter until they came to the river,[394] where the water flowed
swiftly and very cold. They threw themselves into this, and as the
men had come quickly from the whole camp to assist the cavalry,
there were few who escaped being killed or wounded. Some men from the
camp went across the river next day and found many of them who had
been overcome by the great cold. They brought these back, cured them,
and made servants of them. This ended that siege, and the town was
captured, although there were a few who remained in one part of the
town and were captured a few days later.
[394] The Rio Grande, which is near by.
Two captains, Don Diego de Guevara and Juan de Saldivar, had captured
the other large village after a siege. Having started out very early
one morning to make an ambuscade in which to catch some warriors
who used to come out every morning to try to frighten our camp,
the spies, who had been placed where they could see when they were
coming, saw the people come out and proceed toward the country. The
soldiers left the ambuscade and went to the village and saw the
people fleeing. They pursued and killed large numbers of them. At the
same time those in the camp were ordered to go over the town, and
they plundered it, making prisoners of all the people who were found
in it, amounting to about a hundred women and children. This siege
ended the last of March, in the year '42 [1541]. Other things had
happened in the meantime, which would have been noticed, but that it
would have cut the thread. I have omitted them, but will relate them
now, so that it will be possible to understand what follows.
Chapter 17
_Of how messengers reached the army from the valley of Señora,
and how Captain Melchior Diaz died on the expedition to the
Firebrand River._
We have already related how Captain Melchior Diaz crossed the
Firebrand River [Rio Colorado] on rafts, in order to continue his
discoveries farther in that direction. About the time the siege
ended, messengers reached the army from the city of San Hieronimo
with letters from Diego de Alarcon,[395] who had remained there in
the place of Melchior Diaz. These contained the news that Melchior
Diaz had died while he was conducting his search, and that the force
had returned without finding any of the things they were after. It
all happened in this fashion:
After they had crossed the river they continued their search for the
coast, which here turned back toward the south,[396] or between south
and east, because that arm of the sea enters the land due north, and
this river, which brings its waters down from the north, flowing
toward the south, enters the head of the gulf.[397] Continuing in
the direction they had been going, they came to some sandbanks of
hot ashes which it was impossible to cross without being drowned as
in the sea. The ground they were standing on trembled like a sheet
of paper, so that it seemed as if there were lakes underneath them.
It seemed wonderful and like something infernal, for the ashes to
bubble up here in several places. After they had gone away from this
place, on account of the danger they seemed to be in and of the
lack of water, one day a greyhound belonging to one of the soldiers
chased some sheep which they were taking along for food. When the
captain noticed this, he threw his lance at the dog while his horse
was running, so that it stuck up in the ground, and not being able to
stop his horse he went over the lance so that it nailed him through
the thighs and the iron came out behind, rupturing his bladder.
After this the soldiers turned back with their captain, having to
fight every day with the Indians, who had remained hostile. He lived
about twenty days, during which they proceeded with great difficulty
on account of the necessity of carrying him. They returned in good
order without losing a man, until he died, and after that they were
relieved of the greatest difficulty. When they reached Señora,
Alcaraz despatched the messengers already referred to, so that the
general might know of this and also that some of the soldiers
were ill-disposed and had caused several mutinies, and that he had
sentenced two of them to the gallows, but they had afterward escaped
from the prison.
[395] Should be Alcaraz. See Chapter 10.
[396] That is, the west coast of the Gulf of California.
[397] During 1905 the waters of the Rio Colorado were diverted
westward below Yuma and are now (1906) flowing into the Salton
Sink, or Imperial Valley, in southern California, forming an
immense lake.
When the general learned this, he sent Don Pedro de Tovar to that
city to sift out some of the men. He was accompanied by messengers
whom the general sent to Don Antonio de Mendoza the viceroy, with
an account of what had occurred and with the good news given by
the Turk. When Don Pedro de Tovar arrived there, he found that the
natives of that province had killed a soldier with a poisoned arrow,
which had made only a very little wound in one hand.[398] Several
soldiers went to the place where this happened to see about it, and
they were not very well received. Don Pedro de Tovar sent Diego de
Alcaraz with a force to seize the chiefs and lords of a village in
what they call the Valley of Knaves (_de los Vellacos_), which is in
the hills. After getting there and getting these men prisoners, Diego
de Alcaraz decided to let them go in exchange for some thread and
cloth and other things which the soldiers needed. Finding themselves
free, they renewed the war and attacked them, and as they were strong
and had poison, they killed several Spaniards and wounded others so
that they died on the way back. They retired toward the town, and if
they had not had Indian allies from the country of the Hearts, it
would have gone worse with them. They got back to the town, leaving
seventeen soldiers dead from the poison. They would die in agony from
only a small wound, the bodies breaking out with an insupportable
pestilential stench. When Don Pedro de Tovar saw the harm done, and
as it seemed to them that they could not safely stay in that city, he
moved forty leagues toward Cibola into the valley of Suya,[399] where
we will leave them, in order to relate what happened to the general
and his army after the siege of Tiguex.
[398] Doubtless the Opatas, whose poisoned arrows are often
alluded to by later Spanish writers. See, for example, the
_Rudo Ensayo_ (ca. 1762), (San Augustin, 1863); also Guiteras's
translation in _Records of the American Catholic Historical
Society_, V. No. 2 (Philadelphia, June, 1894).
[399] The upper part of the Rio San Pedro (which rises in
northern Sonora), according to recent studies by Mr. James Newton
Baskett.
Chapter 18
_Of how the general managed to leave the country in peace so as
to go in search of Quivira, where the Turk said there was the
most wealth._
During the siege of Tiguex the general decided to go to Cicuye and
take the governor with him, in order to give him his liberty and
to promise them that he would give Whiskers his liberty and leave
him in the village, as soon as he should start for Quivira. He was
received peacefully when he reached Cicuye, and entered the village
with several soldiers. They received their governor with much joy
and gratitude. After looking over the village and speaking with the
natives he returned to his army, leaving Cicuye at peace, in the hope
of getting back their captain Whiskers.
After the siege was ended, as we have already related, he sent a
captain to Chia,[400] a fine village with many people, which had sent
to offer its submission. It was four leagues distant to the west
of the river.[401] They found it peaceful and gave it four bronze
cannon, which were in poor condition, to take care of. Six gentlemen
also went to Quirix, a province with seven villages.[402] At the
first village, which had about a hundred inhabitants, the natives
fled, not daring to wait for our men; but they headed them off by
a short cut, riding at full speed, and then they returned to their
houses in the village in perfect safety, and then told the other
villagers about it and reassured them. In this way the entire region
was reassured, little by little, by the time the ice in the river
was broken up and it became possible to ford the river and so to
continue the journey. The twelve villages of Tiguex, however, were
not repopulated at all during the time the army was there, in spite
of every promise of security that could possibly be given to them.
[400] The present Sia, a small pueblo on the Rio Jemez. In 1583
Sia was one of a group of five pueblos which Antonio de Espejo
called Cunames or Punames. It suffered severely by the Pueblo
revolt a century later, and is now reduced to about a hundred
people who have great difficulty in gaining a livelihood, owing
to lack of water for irrigation.
[401] That is, the Rio Grande.
[402] The "province" occupied by the Queres or Keresan Indians,
consisting of the pueblos of Cochiti, San Felipe, and Santo
Domingo, of to-day--all on the Rio Grande. Sia and Santa Ana are
and were also Queres villages in Coronado's time, but as these
were not on the Rio Grande, they may not have been included in
Castañeda's group. When Espejo visited the Queres in 1583, they
occupied only five pueblos on the Rio Grande; now only the three
above mentioned are inhabited.
And when the river, which for almost four months had been frozen over
so that they crossed the ice on horseback, had thawed out, orders
were given for the start for Quivira,[403] where the Turk said there
was some gold and silver, although not so much as in Arche[404] and
the Guaes.[405] There were already some in the army who suspected
the Turk, because a Spaniard named Servantes, who had charge of him
during the siege, solemnly swore that he had seen the Turk talking
with the devil in a pitcher of water, and also that while he had him
under lock so that no one could speak to him, the Turk had asked him
what Christians had been killed by the people at Tiguex. He told him
"nobody," and then the Turk answered: "You lie; five Christians are
dead, including a captain." And as Cervantes knew that he told the
truth, he confessed it so as to find out who had told him about it,
and the Turk said he knew it all by himself and that he did not need
to have anyone tell him in order to know it. And it was on account
of this that he watched him and saw him speaking to the devil in the
pitcher, as I have said.
[403] See p. 337, note 1.
[404] Evidently the Harahey of other chroniclers, which has been
identified with the Pawnee country of southern Nebraska.
[405] Possibly the Kansa or Kaw tribe, after whom the state of
Kansas is named.
While all this was going on, preparations were being made to start
from Tiguex. At this time people came from Cibola to see the general,
and he charged them to take good care of the Spaniards who were
coming from Señora with Don Pedro de Tovar. He gave them letters to
give to Don Pedro, informing him what he ought to do and how he
should go to find the army, and that he would find letters under the
crosses which the army would put up along the way. The army left
Tiguex on the fifth of May[406] and returned to Cicuye, which, as I
have said, is twenty-five marches, which means leagues, from there,
taking Whiskers with them.[407] Arrived there, he gave them their
captain, who already went about freely with a guard. The village was
very glad to see him, and the people were peaceful and offered food.
The governor and Whiskers gave the general a young fellow called
Xabe, a native of Quivira, who could give them information about the
country. This fellow said that there was gold and silver, but not
so much of it as the Turk had said. The Turk, however, continued to
declare that it was as he had said. He went as a guide, and thus the
army started off from here.
[406] In his letter to the King, dated Tiguex October 20, 1541,
Coronado says that he started April 23. See Winship's translation
in _Fourteenth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_ (1896), p. 580.
[407] Cicuye is Pecos, as above mentioned. The direction is north
of east and the distance forty miles in an air line, or fifteen
Spanish judicial leagues. By rail, which follows almost exactly
the old trail, the distance is sixty-five miles, or almost
precisely twenty-five leagues.
Chapter 19
_Of how they started in search of Quivira and of what happened
on the way._
The army started from Cicuye, leaving the village at peace and, as it
seemed, contented, and under obligations to maintain the friendship
because their governor and captain had been restored to them.
Proceeding toward the plains, which are all on the other side of
the mountains, after four days' journey they came to a river with a
large, deep current, which flowed from toward Cicuyc, and they named
this the Cicuyc river. They had to stop here to make a bridge so as
to cross it.[408] It was finished in four days, by much diligence
and rapid work, and as soon as it was done the whole army and the
animals crossed. After ten days more they came to some settlements of
people who lived like Arabs and who are called Querechos[409] in that
region. They had seen the cows[410] for two days. These folks live
in tents made of the tanned skins of the cows. They travel around
near the cows, killing them for food. They did nothing unusual when
they saw our army, except to come out of their tents to look at us,
after which they came to talk with the advance guard, and asked who
we were. The general talked with them, but as they had already talked
with the Turk, who was with the advance guard, they agreed with what
he had said. That they were very intelligent is evident from the fact
that although they conversed by means of signs they made themselves
understood so well that there was no need of an interpreter.[411]
They said that there was a very large river over toward where the
sun came from, and that one could go along this river through an
inhabited region for ninety days without a break from settlement to
settlement. They said that the first of these settlements was called
Haxa,[412] and that the river was more than a league wide and that
there were many canoes on it.[413] These folks started off from here
next day with a lot of dogs which dragged their possessions. For two
days, during which the army marched in the same direction as that in
which they had come from the settlements--that is, between north and
east, but more toward the north--they saw other roaming Querechos
and such great numbers of cows that it already seemed something
incredible. These people gave a great deal of information about
settlements, all toward the east from where we were. Here Don Garcia
broke his arm and a Spaniard got lost who went off hunting so far
that he was unable to return to the camp, because the country is very
level. The Turk said it was one or two days to Haya (Haxa).[414] The
general sent Captain Diego Lopez with ten companions lightly equipped
and a guide to go at full speed toward the sunrise for two days and
discover Haxa, and then return to meet the army, which set out in the
same direction next day. They came across so many animals that those
who were on the advance guard killed a large number of bulls. As
these fled they trampled one another in their haste until they came
to a ravine. So many of the animals fell into this that they filled
it up, and the rest went across on top of them. The men who were
chasing them on horseback fell in among the animals without noticing
where they were going. Three of the horses that fell in among the
cows, all saddled and bridled, were lost sight of completely.
[408] The Rio Pecos. The bridge was doubtless built across the
stream somewhere near Puerto de Luna. The Ms. here reads Cicuyc
for Cicuye.
[409] The name by which the eastern Apaches, or Apaches Vaqueros
of later times, were known to the Pecos Indians. The first
Querechos were met near the eastern boundary of New Mexico.
[410] Wherever "cows" are mentioned, bison are of course meant.
Herds of these animals ranged as far as the Pecos, which was
known as the Rio de las Vacas later in the century.
[411] All the Indians of the great plains were expert in the sign
language, as their spoken languages were many and diverse.
[412] The place has not been identified with certainty.
[413] This river, if it existed at all, was in all probability
the lower Arkansas or the Mississippi, hundreds of miles away.
[414] The Turk was evidently lying, at least so far as the
distance was concerned. The Texas Indians were not canoeists. The
army was now in the western part of the staked plains of Texas,
but had changed its course from northeasterly to south of east.
The country is greatly broken by the cañons of the streams which
take their rise in these parts.
As it seemed to the general that Diego Lopez ought to be on his way
back, he sent six of his companions to follow up the banks of the
little river, and as many more down the banks, to look for traces of
the horses at the trails to and from the river. It was impossible to
find tracks in this country, because the grass straightened up again
as soon as it was trodden down. They were found by some Indians from
the army who had gone to look for fruit. These got track of them a
good league off, and soon came up with them. They followed the river
down to the camp, and told the general that in the twenty leagues
they had been over they had seen nothing but cows and the sky. There
was another native of Quivira with the army, a painted Indian named
Ysopete. This Indian had always declared that the Turk was lying, and
on account of this the army paid no attention to him, and even now,
although he said that the Querechos had consulted with him, Ysopete
was not believed.
The general sent Don Rodrigo Maldonado, with his company, forward
from here. He travelled four days and reached a large ravine like
those of Colima, in the bottom of which he found a large settlement
of people. Cabeza de Vaca and Dorantes had passed through this
place,[415] so that they presented Don Rodrigo with a pile of tanned
skins and other things, and a tent as big as a house, which he
directed them to keep until the army came up. He sent some of his
companions to guide the army to that place, so that they should not
get lost, although he had been making piles of stones and cow-dung
for the army to follow. This was the way in which the army was guided
by the advance guard.
[415] See Cabeza de Vaca's narration in this volume, p. 97.
When the general came up with the army and saw the great quantity
of skins, he thought he would divide them among the men, and placed
guards so that they could look at them. But when the men arrived and
saw that the general was sending some of his companions with orders
for the guards to give them some of the skins, and that these were
going to select the best, they were angry because they were not going
to be divided evenly, and made a rush, and in less than a quarter of
an hour nothing was left but the empty ground.
The natives who happened to see this also took a hand in it. The
women and some others were left crying, because they thought that
the strangers were not going to take anything, but would bless them
as Cabeza de Vaca and Dorantes had done when they passed through
here. They found an Indian girl here who was as white as a Castilian
lady,[416] except that she had her chin painted like a Moorish woman.
In general they all paint themselves in this way here, and they
decorate their eyes.
[416] Probably an albino is here referred to.
Chapter 20
_Of how great stones fell in the camp, and how they discovered
another ravine, where the army was divided into two parts._
While the army was resting in this ravine, as we have related, a
tempest came up one afternoon with a very high wind and hail, and in
a very short space of time a great quantity of hailstones, as big
as bowls, or bigger, fell as thick as raindrops, so that in places
they covered the ground two or three spans or more deep. And one hit
the horse--or I should say, there was not a horse that did not break
away, except two or three which the negroes protected by holding
large sea nets over them, with the helmets and shields which all the
rest wore; and some of them dashed up on to the sides of the ravine
so that they got them down with great difficulty. If this had struck
them while they were upon the plain, the army would have been in
great danger of being left without its horses, as there were many
which they were not able to cover. The hail broke many tents, and
battered many helmets, and wounded many of the horses, and broke all
the crockery of the army, and the gourds, which was no small loss,
because they do not have any crockery in this region. They do not
make gourds, nor sow corn, nor eat bread, but instead raw meat--or
only half cooked--and fruit.[417]
[417] Castañeda here refers to the buffalo-hunting Indians in
contrast to the Pueblo tribes which the Spaniards had left.
From here the general sent out to explore the country, and they
found another settlement four days from there[418].... The country
was well inhabited, and they had plenty of kidney beans and prunes
like those of Castile, and tall vineyards. These village settlements
extended for three days. This was called Cona. Some Teyas,[419] as
these people are called, went with the army from here and travelled
as far as the end of the other settlements with their packs of dogs
and women and children, and then they gave them guides to proceed
to a large ravine where the army was. They did not let these guides
speak with the Turk, and did not receive the same statements from
these as they had from the others. These said that Quivira was toward
the north, and that we should not find any good road thither. After
this they began to believe Ysopete. The ravine which the army had
now reached was a league wide from one side to the other, with a
little bit of a river at the bottom, and there were many groves of
mulberry trees near it, and rosebushes with the same sort of fruit
that they have in France. They made verjuice from the unripe grapes
at this ravine, although there were ripe ones. There were walnuts
and the same kind of fowls as in New Spain, and large quantities of
prunes like those of Castile. During this journey a Teya was seen
to shoot a bull right through both shoulders with an arrow, which
would be a good shot for a musket. These people are very intelligent;
the women are well made and modest. They cover their whole body.
They wear shoes and buskins made of tanned skin. The women wear
cloaks over their small under petticoats, with sleeves gathered up
at the shoulders, all of skin, and some wore something like little
_san-benitos_[420] with a fringe, which reached half-way down the
thigh over the petticoat.
[418] "_A manera de alixares._" The margin reads _Alexeres_, a
word meaning "threshing floor."
[419] These were evidently the Indians later called Tejas,
or Texas, from which the state took its name. The name was
indiscriminately applied by various later writers, but always to
one of the Caddoan tribes or group of tribes.
[420] "We were brought into the Church, every one with a S.
Benito upon his backe, which is a halfe a yard of yellow cloth,
with a hole to put in a mans head in the middest, and cast over
a mans head: both flaps hang one before, and another behinde,
and in the middest of every flap, a S. Andrewes crosse, made
of red cloth, sowed on upon the same, and that is called S.
Benito."--Robert Tomson, "Voyage into Nova Hispania," 1555, in
Hakluyt, _Voyages_, IX. 348 (1904).
The army rested several days in this ravine and explored the country.
Up to this point they had made thirty-seven days' marches, travelling
six or seven leagues a day.[421] It had been the duty of one man to
measure and count his steps. They found that it was 250 leagues to
the settlements.[422] When the general Francisco Vazquez realized
this, and saw that they had been deceived by the Turk heretofore, and
as the provisions were giving out and there was no country around
here where they could procure more, he called the captains and
ensigns together to decide on what they thought ought to be done.
They all agreed that the general should go in search of Quivira with
thirty horsemen and half a dozen foot-soldiers, and that Don Tristan
de Arellano should go back to Tiguex with all the army. When the men
in the army learned of this decision, they begged their general not
to leave them to conduct the further search, but declared that they
all wanted to die with him and did not want to go back. This did not
do any good, although the general agreed to send messengers to them
within eight days saying whether it was best for them to follow him
or not, and with this he set off with the guides he had and with
Ysopete. The Turk was taken along in chains.
[421] The league is equivalent to 2.63 English miles. This
Spanish judicial league is still used in Mexico.
[422] The Tiguex villages on the Rio Grande are often referred to
as the region where the settlements were.
Chapter 21
_Of how the army returned to Tiguex and the general reached
Quivira._
The general started from the ravine with the guides that the Teyas
had given him. He appointed the alderman Diego Lopez his army-master,
and took with him the men who seemed to him to be most efficient, and
the best horses. The army still had some hope that the general would
send for them, and sent two horsemen, lightly equipped and riding
post, to repeat their petition.
The general arrived--I mean, the guides ran away during the first few
days and Diego Lopez had to return to the army for guides, bringing
orders for the army to return to Tiguex to find food and wait there
for the general. The Teyas, as before, willingly furnished him with
new guides. The army waited for its messengers and spent a fortnight
here, preparing jerked beef to take with them. It was estimated that
during this fortnight they killed 500 bulls. The number of these that
were there without any cows was something incredible. Many fellows
were lost at this time who went out hunting and did not get back to
the army for two or three days, wandering about the country as if
they were crazy, in one direction or another, not knowing how to get
back where they started from, although this ravine extended in either
direction so that they could find it. Every night they took account
of who was missing, fired guns and blew trumpets and beat drums and
built great fires, but yet some of them went off so far and wandered
about so much that all this did not give them any help, although it
helped others. The only way was to go back where they had killed an
animal and start from there in one direction and another until they
struck the ravine or fell in with somebody who could put them on the
right road. It is worth noting that the country there is so level
that at midday, after one has wandered about in one direction and
another in pursuit of game, the only thing to do is to stay near the
game quietly until sunset, so as to see where it goes down, and even
then they have to be men who are practised to do it. Those who are
not, had to trust themselves to others.[423]
[423] The point of separation of the army was in all probability
the upper waters of the Rio Colorado in Texas. See the narration
of Cabeza de Vaca, p. 97, note 2.
The general followed his guides until he reached Quivira, which took
forty-eight days' marching, on account of the great detour they had
made toward Florida.[424] He was received peacefully on account of
the guides whom he had. They asked the Turk why he had lied and had
guided them so far out of their way. He said that his country was
in that direction and that, besides this, the people at Cicuye had
asked him to lead them off on to the plains and lose them, so that
the horses would die when their provisions gave out, and they would
be so weak if they ever returned that they could be killed without
any trouble, and thus they could take revenge for what had been done
to them. This was the reason why he had led them astray, supposing
that they did not know how to hunt or to live without corn, while
as for the gold, he did not know where there was any of it. He said
this like one who had given up hope and who found that he was being
persecuted, since they had begun to believe Ysopete, who had guided
them better than he had, and fearing lest those who were there might
give some advice by which some harm would come to him. They garroted
him, which pleased Ysopete very much, because he had always said that
Ysopete was a rascal and that he did not know what he was talking
about and had always hindered his talking with anybody. Neither gold
nor silver nor any trace of either was found among these people.
Their lord wore a copper plate on his neck and prized it highly.[425]
[424] That is, toward the southeast. At a somewhat later period
Florida included everything from the peninsula northward.
[425] For additional details respecting the route pursued
by Coronado after the main army was sent back, consult the
narrative of Jaramillo, the _Relacion del Suceso_, and other
documents pertaining to the expedition, in Winship's _Coronado
Expedition_ (1896) and _Journey of Coronado_ (1904), and in
connection therewith a discussion of the route by F. W. Hodge,
in J. V. Brower's _Memoirs of Explorations in the Basin of the
Mississippi_, II. (St. Paul, 1899). Continuing due north from the
upper waters of the Rio Colorado of Texas, Coronado's immediate
force in thirty days' march, according to the _Relacion del
Suceso_ (or "more than thirty days' march, although not long
marches," according to Jaramillo), reached the river of St. Peter
and St. Paul the last of June, 1541. This was the "river of
Quivira" of the _Relacion del Suceso_, the present Arkansas River
in Kansas, which was crossed at its southern bend, just east of
the present Dodge City. The party continued thence northeast,
downstream, and in thirty leagues, or six or seven days' march,
reached the first of the Quivira settlements. This was at or
near the present Great Bend, Kansas, before reaching the site of
which the Turk was "made an example of." That the inhabitants
of Quivira were the Wichita Indians there can be no reasonable
doubt. The Quivira people lived in grass or straw lodges,
according to the Spaniards, a fact that was true of the Wichitas
only of all the northern plains tribes. The habitations of their
congeners and northern neighbors, the Pawnee (who may be regarded
as the inhabitants of the province of Harahey), were earth
lodges. The word _acochis_, mentioned by Castañeda as the Quivira
term for "gold," is merely the Spanish adaptation of _hakwichis_,
which signifies "metal," for of gold our Indians knew nothing
until after the advent of the white man. After exploring Quivira
for twenty-five leagues, Coronado sent "captains and men in many
directions," but they failed to find that of which they went in
search. There is no reason to suppose that Coronado's party went
beyond the limits of the present state of Kansas.