Lost in the Wilderness—Cabeza de Vaca, Great Medicine Man—The
Wilderness Traversed—Spanish Slave Hunters—The Northern Mystery—The
Monk and the Negro—The Great Coronado Expedition—The Settlement of
New Mexico and the Pueblo Rebellion—California Missions—Escalante
to Salt Lake Valley.
As the harmless little snow-birds flit before the advance of winter's
desolation, so a few hapless Spaniards cast up by the sea were
forerunners in the Wilderness of the pressing swarms of Europe. These
men were a small remnant of the expedition which Panfilo de Narvaez
in 1527 led with rosy banners for the conquest of Florida, where a
few years before Ponce de Leon, instead of his sought-for waters of
perpetual youth, had found a shroud. Three years had barely passed when
the same grave-garment was enwrapping Narvaez and his band, twining
through one disaster after another, till the lonely, shimmering sea
offered the only pathway from under the dark presence. Then it was
a kingdom for a boat! Yet the staggering band had no tools, nails,
cordage, skill; nothing in fact wherewith to prepare for the combat with
Neptune. But the resolution of despair is great. They gathered spurs,
bridle bits, all the iron they had, and made tools and nails. Spanish
accoutrements were ever elaborate, so they were able to put their boats
firmly together, and with shirts sewed one to another for sails, and
their muscles fortified by the meat of the horses which they had eaten,
whose manes and tails furnished ropes, at last in five large boats they
coasted westward hoping valiantly to sight some camp, or settlement, of
their fellow countrymen who, from the capital of the Aztecs, had been
striving to penetrate the Northern Mystery.[32]
Seven or eight years only, it is true, had passed since this same
luckless leader so ignominiously had failed in his errand from Cuba
to arrest Cortez, but the Spaniards, besides annihilating the Mexican
Confederacy, had founded some settlements towards the north, and it
was these, their knowledge of distance being necessarily hazy, that
the unfortunates expected to reach. After many days of weary toil and
suffering, they passed the mouth of the Mississippi which Pineda, about
twenty years earlier, had discovered and named the Rio de Espiritu
Santo. No Holy Spirit was it to these baffled wayfarers, for its strong
current brought confusion and separation. The boat of Narvaez reached
land, the fate of two is not mentioned, while the remaining two, one
of which was commanded by Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, who had filled
the once important office of treasurer to the expedition, drifted away
together. After several days a storm threw these apart also and each was
driven along haphazard, yet always keeping towards the land. Cabeza's
craft finally beached itself on the wide sandy shores of an island,
called by those who eluded the breakers the island of ill-luck, Malhado.
Here were natives who treated the castaways in a friendly way, and
their fortunes seemed to slightly brighten; it was but a rift in the
cloud. Attempting to proceed, their boat was capsized in the surf, and
disappeared on the wide bosom of the Gulf. After a few days some men
from one of the other boats, which had been thrown on another part of
the island, joined Cabeza's party, raising the total number to forty.
It was now November of 1530, and here begins the remarkable experience
which Cabeza de Vaca afterwards wrote down as well as he could remember
it. The account is vague in its details, giving rise among eminent
students to a number of different opinions, as to Cabeza's exact
route.[33] The island Malhado was either Galveston or some other along
the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico between this and the mouth of the
Mississippi. Bandelier places it at the mouth of the Sabine.
[Illustration: Alarçon's Ships in the Tidal Bore, Mouth of the
Colorado, 1540.
Drawing by F. S. Dellenbaugh.]
It was decided to send out a search party, and four men were therefore
dispatched on the hunt for the settlements. Soon after some disease
broke out in the camp which reduced the thirty-six to fifteen. Then
the natives, who were not otherwise unkind, separated these and they
never again all met. When spring once more turned the country green, all
the Spaniards but Cabeza de Vaca and one Lope de Oviedo, who were too
sick to travel, again started westward. Cabeza and Oviedo necessarily
remained with the natives, and in spite of Cabeza's tale of cruelty we
can see that he was not very badly treated, for after awhile he was
allowed to make trading tours into the interior. On these journeys
he saw the "hunchback cows" and learned much about the country, the
first white man to tread that northern soil. In the course of time he
and Oviedo turned their faces westward also and presently learned from
other natives of three men like themselves farther on. Oviedo lacked the
courage to proceed, and he went back to the first natives they had been
with while Cabeza kept on alone and came to the other Spaniards, the
fag-end of the company that had previously started. They were Andreas
Dorantes, Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, and Estevan, an Arab negro.
The Amerinds they were now among did not seem to like the idea of their
departing, but after one or two attempts, the four succeeded in taking
up the broken march for the West. The tribes they met treated them
kindly. In one place a man came with a headache which Castillo cured
by making the sign of the cross and "commending him to God." Many more
came to be healed, each bringing venison in payment, and the Spaniards
found thereby the road to safety and comfort as well as to their desired
goal. Cabeza even claims to have revived the dead; at least he became so
proficient as a "medicine man" that everywhere the natives came to him
in large numbers to be healed. Cabeza was successful, hence his progress
was uninterrupted, but the role of medicine man is sometimes dangerous
to assume. They think that if one is able to cure a single case, that
he can cure all, and if the patient dies his "medicine" is bad. The
reputation of Cabeza grew, till the progress of the four wanderers was
little short of triumphal.
Without presenting further details of this first traverse by white men
of a part of the Wilderness, it may be stated that after passing some
mountains, a beautiful river, some rough dry country, many sorts of
people, and divers languages, through fixed habitations and cultivated
fields, they arrived at a place where the people presented them with
a great many hearts of deer. In consequence they named the spot, Valle
de los Corazones, and it figured conspicuously in the explorations that
were to follow. It was the "entrance to the South Sea," that is, it was
here they first came to waters flowing into the Pacific, _via_ the Gulf
of California; where, in fact, they crossed the great divide of the
Sierra Madre of Mexico. The river they reached was the Yaqui. Here, too,
they beheld the first signal of nearing their countrymen in the shape of
a metallic buckle, of Spanish make, while the natives described white
men with beards, of whom, with good cause, they were much afraid. The
Spaniards were slave hunters. A few days later Cabeza, who with Dorantes
and Maldonado resembled white men no more than did the negro Estevan,
met Spaniards on horseback. They were Captain Alcaraz and several of his
slave-hunting gang. The captain tried to use Cabeza as a decoy, but he
was not successful. Cabeza spread a warning and his Amerind friends made
their escape much to the wrath of the captain, who thereupon treated
them all badly, and prevented their advance. At last, however, the four
were sent on to the settlement of San Miguel de Culiacan, where they
fell in with that brave and sensible officer, Melchior Diaz, and their
troubles were at an end.
These wanderings, so briefly outlined, beginning at the landing on
Malhado, and terminating at Culiacan, covered a space of a little
over five years. The time of the continuous journey toward the Pacific
Coast was about ten months. The Narvaez expedition broke up at the end
of 1530. Cabeza started about August, 1535, for Mexico, and arrived
among the Spaniards early in 1536. His general route was across the
southern part of Texas to the Rio Grande, then perhaps some distance up
that stream, and across to the great central mountain range of Mexico.
Bandelier traces the route up the Conchas and over the pass of Mulatos,
but it may have been, and I believe was, more to the northward.
A brilliant picture was now painted for the Spanish people by the
returned wanderers, particularly by the negro Estevan, who had been
specially active in securing information on the journey, for Cabeza says
he "was in constant conversation with them (the natives), he informed
himself about the ways we wished to take, of the towns that there were,
and concerning the things of which we desired to know."[34] That is,
Estevan practically made himself the guide of the party while the others
attended to the "medicine" business, hence he could tell a longer story
about the "populous towns" of which the people had spoken. Much was made
of these "great" towns where emeralds were dug out of the mountains,
and it all appeared to confirm earlier rumours of Seven Cities of
fabulous wealth somewhere in the midst of the Northern Mystery. The
fate of Narvaez was now forgotten in the intoxicating dream of a country
rivalling the riches of the Aztecs.
There is some confusion as to one or two minor expeditions then sent
northwards; evidently they did not proceed far. But in 1539 Viceroy
Mendoza directed Friar Marcos of Niza to march under the guidance of
Estevan and reconnoitre, with a view of following this reconnaissance
by an elaborate exploration. Marcos had with him a brother friar and a
number of native Mexicans. Just where he went and what he actually saw
is rather uncertain, but he apparently arrived somewhere near or in the
region now Arizona-New Mexico. Estevan had gone ahead and was killed
for his arrogance at the first Pueblo village. Marcos soon had word of
it and beat a precipitate retreat, though he claims to have approached
near enough to view from a hill the wonderful magnificence of the Seven
Cities.[35]
[Illustration: Character of the Seven Cities which Friar Marcos so
glowingly Described.
Drawing by F. S. Dellenbaugh.]
At this time Francis Vasquez de Coronado, an even-tempered gentleman,
but withal a capable one, was governor of the infant province of
New Galicia, and to him came the monk with so wonderful a tale, that
Coronado immediately set out with the enthusiastic prevaricator for
Mexico, and held a secret conference with Mendoza. But instructions
were given to the clear-headed Melchior Diaz to follow back the friar's
trail and verify his statements, and he proceeded north as far as
Chichilticalli before he was obliged to return on account of extreme
cold. He found nothing important. This he reported by letter to Mendoza,
and with his usual good sense, he included a careful description of
the now notorious Seven Cities of Cibola, obtained from natives who had
lived there fifteen or twenty years, and some who had been with Estevan
on his disastrous entrada. The account thus derived was absolutely
truthful and accurate; it was likewise a serious damper on the
enthusiasm of the soldiers of the new expedition, for it became known in
spite of efforts to keep it secret. Marcos again repeated his gorgeous
fabrication and expectation once more rose to the boiling point, for
what was the word of a common officer against that of the distinguished
monk!
Under Coronado the army went forward early in 1540, "the most brilliant
company," says Castañeda,[36] "ever collected in the Indies to go in
search of new lands"; and three ships were sent up the coast under
Hernando de Alarçon. When they finally stood aghast before the first
"city" of Cibola worn and famished, many were the curses bestowed on the
imaginative friar, till Coronado, fearing he might be killed, sent him
at the first opportunity back to Mexico. There were no great cities, no
stores of gold, no precious stones; nothing but a common adobe village.
It was easily conquered, and its capture, July 4, 1540, marks the first
battle between Amerinds and Europeans on the soil of the Wilderness,
now the region of Arizona-New Mexico. There was luckily plenty of maize
here, and the hungry Spaniards were sadly in need of it. Though their
dreams received a heavy shock, they soon again expanded with the hope
of better prospects ahead, just as the gambler repeats his risk with
the idea that a turn of luck is sure to retrieve waning fortune.
They heard of other towns called Tusayan (or Tuçano) to the north-west
and men were sent there, one party under Captain Cardenas continuing on
to a great river, the present Colorado, of which the people told, and
these were the first white men to see the magnificent chasm of the now
familiar Grand Canyon.[37] About the same time Alarçon, with his ships,
endeavouring to get into communication with Coronado had discovered and
for some distance explored with small boats the lower part of the same
river, calling it the Rio de Buena Guia. And now Melchior Diaz, with
dispatches and the discredited Friar Marcos, was sent back from Cibola,
and ordered to explore from the valley of the Corazones, wherein was
a small settlement of Spaniards called San Hieronimo, north-westward
to look for Alarçon. This Corazones was evidently the same valley that
Cabeza de Vaca had named.[38] Diaz went across the north-western corner
of Mexico and the south-western corner of Arizona to the Colorado River,
which he reached about eighty miles above its mouth. Alarçon had already
passed down on his return, but Diaz found letters left by him at the
base of a tree, from which he learned the character of the river. He
determined to explore westward, and went four days beyond the river
which he called Rio del Tizon, because the natives carried about with
them firebrands. He did not know the name Alarçon had bestowed. While
in what is now southern California he was seriously hurt by a spear
which he threw at an unruly dog, and after twenty days of suffering he
died, his men carrying him back through every danger, as long as life
remained.
While these explorations of the Wilderness were going on under
Coronado's command, he heard of more towns, especially a group, and a
single town of the group, called Tiguex, northerly from Cibola, resting
on the banks of a river. Directing the main army to proceed by the
"regular" road, that is, by the travelled trail, Coronado, with a small
escort, struck out by another route and came to the river below Tiguex
at a group of villages called Tutahaco, and following the river up,
reached Tiguex by that way. The main army by the regular trail passed
a remarkable town on a high cliff, called Acuco, usually identified,
I believe wrongly, with Acoma of to-day. At Tiguex, which was on the
Rio Grande, called by Coronado the "River of Tiguex," somewhere near
the present town of Socorro, probably about fifteen miles below it,
the general learned of still other towns in various directions, for
the valley of this river and the contiguous country was the home of
many house-building Amerinds.[39] One of the important villages called
Cicuye[40] was twenty-five leagues north-east of Tiguex, and when
Coronado went there he met a native from the East whom the soldiers
nicknamed Turk because he resembled one, and this person actuated by
a diabolical object rivalled the Friar Marcos in tales of great cities
and wonderful riches back in his country, which he called Quivira.
Coronado resolved to follow his guidance, so after the people of Tiguex,
who had rebelled at the impudence and cruelty of the Spaniards, had been
subdued, that is, numerously killed, and the severe winter of 1540-41
was over, preparations were made for an eastward journey. Other parties
were sent up and down the river of Tiguex, fifty and eighty leagues
respectively. Finally leaving the river, Coronado with the whole army
proceeded by way of Cicuye toward the realm of lavish wealth the Turk
described, but the Turk was only trying to lure them to destruction on
the wide, arid plains, of Texas, so the route under his lead bore off
to the southward after crossing the Pecos River, till the army was hard
pressed for subsistence. The Turk's trick was discerned, and he was
rewarded by strangulation. Then the main army was sent back to Tiguex by
a direct route, while Coronado with a picked company continued northerly
for a long distance, probably to within a few miles of the Missouri
River, the first white men to traverse this region, unless, which is
not probable, Cabeza de Vaca, or some of the Narvaez party, may have
reached it.
Coronado returned to the main camp at Tiguex with the intention of
planning further eastern explorations for the next year, but in a
tilting bout being nearly killed by a fall from his horse, and with a
growing conviction that little more was to be gained by a longer stay,
he decided to abandon all exploration at this point, and lead his forces
back to Culiacan.
Every one was disappointed; the army turned its back on the Wilderness,
so pregnant with great possibilities, with a reluctance akin to
that which a confirmed toper might feel on being obliged to replace
the cork before draining the last drop. But Coronado was right. He
had accomplished a remarkable exploit, and it was time to go back.
The country had been shown to have no ready wealth, it could not
then be settled, and its general topography had been discovered. He
displayed good judgment and fine resolution in adhering to his decision
despite the pleadings of his officers, and the scowls of the rank and
file. Toward the latter part of 1542 they were again in the Spanish
settlements, and the army disbanded. Mendoza is said by Castañeda to
have received Coronado with great coolness, but this is doubtful.
The Seven Cities of Cibola, the first permanent villages met with in the
Wilderness, have been positively identified by many eminent scholars
with the modern district of Zuñi, but it is a peculiar and persistent
error. Tiguex was near Socorro, and Cibola was southerly from it, so
we must look for Cibola not at Zuñi on the headwaters of the Little
Colorado, which is northerly, but on those of the Gila, in south-western
New Mexico.[41]
Many native Mexicans remained at Tiguex and several at Cibola. Others
stopped at still other places. Friar Juan de Padilla and a lay brother,
Luis de Escalona, also desired to remain, the first going to Quivira,
the second to Cicuye, and Coronado sent an escort as far as Cicuye with
them and their companions, who were native Mexicans, a Portuguese, and
two negroes, one of whom had his wife and children. Some sheep, mules,
and a horse were also left with them. It has been stated that there
was a third friar, but this appears to be an error. The Friar Juan de
la Cruz mentioned in an old letter was perhaps only another name for
the lay brother Luis, for neither Castañeda, Jaramillo, nor the letter,
mentions more than two friars. Both were soon killed.
The next entrance into New Mexico was by three friars, Rodriguez,[42]
Lopez, and Santa Maria, in 1581, escorted by an officer named
Chamuscado, with eight soldiers. They went at least as far as Tiguex,
where Lopez, and perhaps Rodriguez, was killed. The friars of this
same order (Franciscan), fearing trouble, sent out a relief party
under Friar Beltran and with this went Antonio de Espejo, a daring and
wealthy citizen of Mexico. The departure was made November 10, 1582,
the route leading northward to the Rio Grande and the country they
called New Mexico. Following up the river, which they spoke of as the
Rio del Norte, passing after a while through a number of permanent
villages, "very well built," with estufas (kivas) in most of them, and
seeing others at a distance, they arrived at the Tiguex group. In one
of these called Poala, the friars had been killed. It will be noticed
that there were a number of villages below Tiguex. These were probably
the Tutahaco of Coronado's journey. Six leagues up the river from Tiguex
they found a province called Quires, and fourteen leagues farther, on
a small tributary (the Puerco) they came to Cunames. Then another five
or six leagues north-west were seven villages of the Ameies people; and
about fifteen leagues west of this was the pueblo of Acoma. Thus it is
perfectly clear that Espejo travelled from Tiguex _continually northward
and north-westward_ to reach Acoma. If we start assuming Bernalillo to
be Tiguex[43] it throws Acoma in the latitude of Taos which of course
is out of the question. Yet the scholars of to-day persist is locating
Tiguex at Bernalillo, many miles out of Espejo's inward route. For the
locations of these villages see map on page 115.
[Illustration: New Mexico, 1540 to 1630.
This map is the result of more than ten years' study of the subject.
It is entirely at variance with the locations as accepted by students
and writers up to the present. Tiguex heretofore has been placed at
Bernalillo, whereas it was far south of that point, as shown above.
Drawing by F. S. Dellenbaugh.]
From Acoma he went on west to Zuñi, probably the first white man ever to
set foot there, and he found at that place three of the Mexican natives
who had remained in the country as noted above. This fact has been made
much of, too much, in establishing Zuñi as the site of Cibola, even to
the extent of nullifying the testimony from Espejo's route and other
equally valuable data.[44] A considerable number of these Mexicans had
stopped at Tiguex and other places, and it is not to be supposed that
they were petrified in their tracks. Espejo continued westward from
Zuñi, about to the San Francisco Mountains, but he did not see the
great Colorado. Returning to Zuñi he struck out for the upper waters of
the Rio Grande, reaching it sixty leagues above his Quires villages.
Returning to the latter, he took an easterly course to Hubates, then
north to the Tamos, and east again to the Pecos River which he followed
out of the country, naming it the Rio de las Vacas, because of the large
herds of buffalo he saw.[45]
Still nothing had been done in the way of permanent settlements.
But this was now to come. Fifteen years later, in 1598, the famous
expedition of the bold and wealthy Juan de Oñate, who had been appointed
governor, made its way up the Rio Grande, a long and elaborate train.
Travelling through many villages he finally established the settlement
of San Gabriel, at the native village called San Juan, north of the
present Santa Fé. Next to St. Augustine (1565), this, now marked by the
village of Chamita, is the oldest European town within the limits of the
United States. Six years later, with thirty soldiers and two padres, he
crossed New Mexico and Arizona, by way of Zuñi; the Moki towns; a stream
he called Colorado, now the Little Colorado; skirting the San Francisco
mountains; to the great Colorado at the mouth of Bill Williams Fork. He
called the Colorado the Rio Grande de Esperanza, and descended to its
mouth, where he stood January 28, 1605, three full centuries ago.
The same year, on his return, he founded Santa Fé, later went out across
the plains toward the Missouri, and was generally active and efficient.
Every effort was made to organise the country, and though the padres
worked earnestly and fearlessly, there was much dissatisfaction, which
had begun with the treatment the Puebloans received from the captains
of Coronado's expedition. The latent fires smouldered. A native of Taos
began to organise an opposition, and in 1680 he had united about all the
Puebloans, who, on signal, began a war of extermination. The Spaniards
were speedily overwhelmed and driven from the country. Had the Puebloans
been able to continue their league the re-occupation of New Mexico would
have been long delayed, but they were not accustomed to fighting in
concert, hence when General Vargas appeared with a conquering force in
1692 the rebellion collapsed like a house of cards. It was their last
stand.
Although Spain laid numberless restrictions on exploration and
settlement in the endeavour to compel large tribute to the royal
coffers, the opening of the next century saw a number of settlements
flourishing in New Mexico. Missions were established with greater
permanence, the ruins of the old ones bestowing an air of long European
occupation on the new land. Villages were settled by Spaniards and
their families, cattle, and sheep were brought in larger numbers, and
agriculture was developed on a greater scale, so that at last the life
of Europe became rooted in this foreign soil. Each governor during
his term ruled much at his own pleasure, being so far from the central
power, and they went usually on the principle of making hay while the
sun shines. The regions away from the Rio Grande were left alone as a
rule, though expeditions from time to time went on various errands: to
punish the Apaches or other predatory tribes; or, perhaps, to oppose
the progress of the French from the eastward. About 1720, one under
Villazur, Governor Cossio's lieutenant, was sent out on the plains to
the Pawnee villages, for what purpose is not exactly clear, but it
seems to have been with an idea of enlisting this tribe against the
French. Almost the entire force was massacred, only a few escaping to
carry the news to Santa Fé. The Spaniards blamed the French for inciting
the natives to this act, and as such action was quite common always by
French, Spaniards, and English alike, it is not improbable.
By this time a number of Spanish settlements were established in Texas
and there was intermittent communication.
[Illustration: Church and Mission of San Xavier del Bac, Arizona.
Mission Founded 1699. The Church Here Shown was Finished in 1797.]
The year Coronado returned Cabrillo coasted north on the Pacific,
touching here and there along what is now California, and died at
the Santa Barbara Islands, the command then falling to Ferrelo, who
explored as far as what is now the southern line of Oregon. The famous
English pirate, Drake, thirty-seven years later, with his vessel
filled with Spanish plunder, sailed north from the west coast of Mexico
endeavouring to find a water passage to the Atlantic. He repaired his
ship in a bay, and to-day, just north of the Golden Gate, a small bay
is known as Drake's Bay. Another thirteen years and a Greek, Juan de
Fuca, discovered the strait which is now known by his name, as well as
the great arm of the sea called Puget's Sound. Four years after this
Vizcaino was sent with three vessels to explore the northern coast, but
he did not then go beyond the Gulf of California.[46]
Then Philip III. came to the throne and adopted more vigorous measures
than his predecessor. Vizcaino was again sent forth, in 1602, with a
command to make a close examination of the coast, and this expedition
had fruitful results in breaking the Wilderness in that direction.
Vizcaino entered the harbour of San Diego, which had earlier been
visited by Cabrillo. Here he heard accounts of the New Mexican
settlements from the natives. Then he sailed past the Santa Barbara
Islands, turned Cape Concepcion, which he named, and made a general
examination, covering the same course as Cabrillo, which convinced him
that the land was fertile and a good place for colonies. He finally
obtained permission to organise and settle the region, but died
before he could execute his plans. Many years then rolled away with
no attempt to open the rich Californian lands. It was not till 1697
that any settlement was made, and this was in Lower California, on the
east side, and was called Loreto, the beginning of Friar Salvatierra's
Jesuit missions, in which enterprises he was assisted by friars Kino,
Piccolo, Ugarte, and others, who, with great labour, extending over
a period of sixty years, founded and maintained sixteen missionary
settlements, all on the east side of the peninsula and none in Upper or
Alta California. Kino had established in Sonora, in 1687, the mission of
Dolores, and from this place he passed back and forth to the missions
of Lower California, learning the topography of the region around the
mouth of the Colorado and making, in 1701, a fairly accurate map of the
head of the Gulf. He was the first white man to see the now famous Pima
ruins, called Casa Grande, a huge adobe mass of thick walls built in
prehistoric times.
[Illustration: On the Yuma Desert.
Character of the Country around the Head of the Gulf of California.
Photograph by Delancy Gill.]
[Illustration: Church of the Mission San Carlos de Monterey.
Mission Founded 1770.
Photograph by C. C. Pierce & Co.]
The Jesuit order was at length superseded, 1767, by the Franciscan,
whose members, patient, earnest workers in their cause, at once began
efforts to plant missions in Alta California, and in the spring of
1769 they proceeded from La Paz, on the west shore of the Gulf of
California, with cattle, sheep, and horses to San Diego, sending ships
around with supplies. They arrived on May 14th and found two vessels
already in the harbour, so that the settlement was immediately begun.
It was the first in this portion of the Wilderness. A second party was
to establish itself at the Bay of Monterey, but missing the way came to
San Francisco Bay instead, then returned to Monterey, and finally to
San Diego. The natives were hostile, food grew scarce, and starvation
threatened, but a vessel, which had been sent back for supplies, came in
the nick of time. The prosperity of California began with this event,
March 10, 1770. Other settlers followed, cattle multiplied, vines and
fruit trees bore abundantly, till, before the eventful year of 1776,
the California missions were forever out of reach of the bony grasp of
starvation. By the close of the decade eight had been founded from San
Diego to San Francisco, and before the end of the century nine more.[47]
Each consisted of a church, storehouses, workshops, dwellings, and a
fort, usually arranged in a square. All these structures were at first
extremely simple, but as time passed the friars exhibited their artistic
taste in the construction of really admirable specimens of architecture.
Some of these are still standing and will bear out this assertion. There
were in California four presidios, or military posts, in addition to
the forces at the missions, at San Diego, Monterey, Santa Barbara, and
San Francisco.
[Illustration: Glen Canyon, Colorado River.
This Shows the Nature of the Colorado where Escalante Crossed in 1776.
The Surface on Each Side is Barren Sandstone.
Photograph by J. K. Hillers, U. S. Colo. Riv. Exp.]
The missions of the Rio Grande and those of California possessed no
route for overland communication. Two monks of the Franciscan order,
in trying to establish such a route, established for themselves
imperishable fame. They were Garces and Escalante. Not far from
where Tucson now stands a mission had been founded by Kino, whom
Humboldt calls the "astronomer of Ingolstadt." This was San Xavier
del Bac. Franciscans were occupying the place, and there Garces made
headquarters, accomplishing five journeys from that point. The presidio,
or military post, of Tubac was about thirty miles south of Bac, and
from that post soldiers kept watch on the natives of the region. Garces
reached Bac in June, 1768, and made two preliminary explorations before
the end of 1770. In 1771 he reached the Colorado over the same trail
that Kino had followed long before, but the Franciscans seemed to have
no record of this nor of Oñate's trail; at least they did not profit by
these earlier explorations. In 1774, with Captain Anza, Garces made the
trip across the Colorado through to the mission of San Gabriel, near
the site of the present town of Los Angeles.
In the winter of 1775-76 Garces again went with Anza, who was bound for
San Francisco Bay, there to found a mission, to the Colorado, where he
stopped for a time, then went on to San Gabriel. Returning to the Mohave
country he struck eastward, June 4, 1776, on his celebrated entrada,[48]
with no companions but the natives along the route, and on July 2d
reached Oraibi, only to be there treated with supreme contempt. On the
4th he was driven from the town, and he returned to the mission of Bac
by way of the Colorado River.
Escalante was at this moment making preparations for his traverse to
the San Gabriel Mission. On July 29th he started _north_, absurd as it
may now appear to us who know the whole geography. Crossing western
Colorado, over Green River, which he called Buenaventura, near the
mouth of White River, he mounted the Wasatch Range by the Uinta and
its branches, and entered Salt Lake valley, probably by what is now
known as Spanish Fork. After viewing Lake Timpanogos (Utah Lake), he
turned southward, followed down the western edge of the great mountains
extending north and south along the central line of Utah, about through
where Fillmore, Beaver, and Parowan now stand, to the Virgen River at
about Toquerville. Here the season indicating the approach of winter,
it was decided to abandon the attempt to reach San Gabriel, and strike
eastward for the Moki Towns, where Escalante previously had been. He was
not aware of the tremendous obstacles, in the nature of deep canyons,
which intervened. After a vast amount of effort he crossed, not the
Grand Canyon, as has sometimes been stated, but the lower end of Glen
Canyon, at a point about thirty-five miles above what is now Lee Ferry.
The place is still known as the Crossing of the Fathers. From here there
was a trail to the Moki Towns, and their anxiety soon came to an end.
The route Garces travelled from the west to the Moki Towns became no
highway; indeed, for years was not travelled at all, nor had Escalante's
anything in its favour so far as reaching California was concerned. For
half a century longer the New Mexican and Californian missions remained
about as far apart as ever. Those in California waxed rich and had
little cause to desire the world to come to them. When it did come it
was the beginning of their end.
The Spaniards were as brave a people as ever lived. They had now firmly
established themselves in Texas, in New Mexico, and in California, and
their claims on the basis of first exploration covered a vast area. In
every direction they opposed the entrance of other nationalities. The
lands were forced to pay tribute to Spain; nothing was left for local
government, and these methods, the antithesis of home rule, were the
undoing of this noble race.
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FOOTNOTES:
[32] A valuable, handy volume on the early doings of the Spaniards
is _Pioneer Spaniards in North America_, by William Henry Johnson.
See also _The Discovery of America_, by John Fiske.
[33] See _Relation of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca_, translation
by Buckingham Smith. _Contributions to the History of the
South-western Portion of the U. S._, by A. F. Bandelier. "Alvar
Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca," by Brownie Ponton and Bates H. McFarland,
in the _Quarterly_ of the Texas State Historical Society (January,
1898).
[34] Buckingham Smith, p. 102.
[35] Castañeda asserts that Marcos was sixty leagues from the towns
when he received news of the death of Estevan, and that he did not
go a step nearer. See _The Journey of Coronado_, by George Parker
Winship, p. 8. Barnes & Co. edition.
[36] See the narratives of Castañeda and Jaramillo in _The Journey
of Coronado_, by George Parker Winship. Barnes & Co. edition.
[37] For an account of the explorations of the Colorado, see _The
Romance of the Colorado River_, by F. S. Dellenbaugh. Topographical
description, Chapter III.
[38] An indication that Corazones was farther north than the region
of the pass of Mulatos, and therefore that Cabeza's route was also
farther north than Bandelier believes. It would also indicate that
Estevan led the way back over their old trail.
[39] See Chapters IV. and V.
[40] Cicuye is identified with the present ruins of Pecos near
Santa Fé, but like most of the accepted identifications it is not
correct. Cicuye was farther south. See also Bandelier on the _Ruins
of the Pueblo of Pecos_, papers of the Archæological Institute of
America, American Series I.
[41] Some years ago, in a _Bulletin of the American Geographical
Society_ (1897), I published my views on this subject. Since then
I have succeeded in making the matter somewhat clearer, especially
as to the site of Tiguex, and gave my ideas before the meeting of
the International Congress of Americanists, 13th Session, New York,
1902. Simpson, before me, located Tiguex below the mouth of the
Puerco, and it can be nowhere else.
[42] Also given "Ruiz" and "Ruyz."
[43] The site assigned for Tiguex by Bandelier is at Bernalillo,
but I consider it an impossible location.
[44] Benavides, in his residence in the country, went over the
same route as Espejo, and his itinerary tallies with Espejo's from
Tiguex to Acoma. Thus Tiguex falls below the Puerco by evidence
separated by more than forty years.
[45] It has been stated by some historians that Santa Fé was
founded in 1582, but it is a mistake.
[46] See Robert Greenhow's admirable _History of Oregon and
California_, and the history by H. H. Bancroft, for details on
California.
[47] San Diego, 1769; San Luis Rey de Francia, 1798; San Juan
Capistrano, 1776; San Gabriel, 1771; San Fernando, 1797; Santa
Barbara, 1786; La Purissima Concepcion, 1787; San Luis Obispo,
1772; San Miguel, 1797; Soledad, 1791; San Antonio de Padua, 1771;
San Carlos de Monterey, 1770; San Juan Bautista, 1797; Santa Cruz,
1794; Santa Clara, 1777; San Francisco, 1776; San José, 1797.
In the next century three more were added: Santa Inez, 1804; San
Rafael, 1817; San Francisco de Solano de Sonoma, 1820.
[48] See _Garces_, by Elliott Coues.
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