BANCROFT 
 LIBRARY 
 
 <> 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
OORONADO'S MARCH 
 
 SEAHCH OP 
 
 THE SEVEN CITIES OE CIBOLA, 
 
 /^ 
 
 DISCUSSION OF THEIR PROBABLE LOCATION. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 
 : GOVERNMENT PRINT INQ OFFICE. 
 1871. 
 
.v : 
 
CORONADO'S MARCH IN SEARCH OF THE "SEVEN CITIES OF CIBOLA" AND 
 DISCUSSION OF THEIR PROBABLE LOCATION. 
 
 By Brevet Brigadier General J. H; SIMPSON, Colonel of Engineers, U. S. A. 
 
 The early Spanish explorations in Mexico in search of the " seven cities 
 of Cibola n have always been of great interest to students of American 
 listory. Eecent publications have drawn my attention anew to the 
 vast geographical field embraced in the toilsome march of Yasquez de 
 Joronado and his adventurous followers, and, having in years past been 
 engaged officially in the United States service in exploring that remote 
 region, I have been tempted to reinvestigate the grand enterprise of the 
 Mexican government in 1540, and venture to offer the following essay as 
 an expression of my well-considered views, derived, in early life, from 
 observation of the field itself, and confirmed by careful study of all the 
 authorities within my reach. Besides this, friends, in whose opinion I 
 ;rust, believe that my reconnoissances of a large part of the country 
 xaversed by Ooronado and his followers give me some advantages in 
 ;he discussion of this subject over other investigators, who have not been 
 favored by personal inspection and scientific location of the important 
 points embraced in the adventurers' march, so that I now submit my 
 conclusions with less diffidence than I should have done had I not re 
 ceived in advance their cordial encouragement. 
 
 I must acknowledge my indebtedness to the library of the Peabody 
 [nstitute of this city, to the library of the Historical Society of Mary- 
 and, and to the private library of the president of this last-mentioned 
 society, Colonel Brantz Mayer, all of which have been thrown open to 
 me in my researches. I must also express my particular obligations to 
 Colonel Mayer for the very valuable aid he has afforded me in the pre 
 paration of this article, by the use of his excellent translation (yet in 
 manuscript) of Ternaux Compans' version of the " Eelation du Voyage 
 de Cibola," entrepris en 1540, par Pedro de Castaiieda de Nagera," pub 
 lished in Paris in 1838. 
 
 The arrangement of the following essay is, first, a brief narrative of 
 ]he march of Coronado from the city of Mexico to the " seven cities of 
 Dibola" and the province of Quivira, together with an account of the ex 
 peditions of his subordinate officers, naval and military $ and second, 
 the discussion of the subject of the location of the important places 
 visited in the several expeditions ; and, in order to a clear understanding 
 of the text, I accompany it with a map, for which, under my direction 
 as to details of route, I am indebted to Mr. N. H. Hutton, civil engineer, 
 whose knowledge of New Mexico and Arizona, derived from his associa 
 tion with Generals Whipple and Parke, as assistant engineer, in their 
 explorations in New Mexico and Arizona in 1853-'56, has been of mate 
 rial service to me. 
 
 In the year 1530, Nuno de Guzman,, president of New Spain, was in 
 formed by his slave, an Indian, from the province of Tejos, situated 
 somewhere north from Mexico, that in his travels he had seen cities so 
 large that they might compare with the city of Mexico ; that these 
 
2 CORONADO'S MARCH. 
 
 cities were seven in number, and had streets which were exclusively oc 
 cupied by workers in gold and silver; that to reach them a journey 
 of forty days through a desert was required; and that travelers pene 
 trated the interior of that region by directing their steps northwardly 
 between the two seas. 
 
 Nuno de Guzman, confidently relying on this information, organized 
 an army of four hundred Spaniards and twenty thousand Indian allies 
 of New Spain,* and set out in search of these seven wonderful cities ; 
 but, after reaching the province of Culiacan, he encountered such great 
 difficulties on account of the mountains he had to cross that he aban 
 doned the enterprise, and contented himself with colonizing the prov 
 ince of Culiacan. 
 
 In the mean time, the Tejos Indian who had been his guide dying, the 
 seven cities remained only known by name, till about eight years after 
 ward, when there arrived in Mexico three Spaniards named Alvar 
 Xunez Cabe9a de Vaca, Andres Dorautes, and Alouso del Castillo 
 Maldonado, accompanied by an Arabian negro named Estevanico, (Ste- 
 phen.)t These persons had been wrecked with the fleet which Pam- 
 
 * Castaneda's Relations, Ternaux Compans' Collections, Paris, 1838, p. '->. Hukluyt, 
 quoting from a letter written by the Viceroy Antonio de Mendoca to the Emperor 
 Charles V, says : "Nufio de Guzman departed out of the city of Mexico with 400 
 horsemen and 14,000 Indians." (Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. iii, p. 436, new ed. London, 
 1810.) 
 
 t This is according to Castaneda's account ; but according to that of Camera de Vaca. 
 Ternaux Compans' Collections, these persons arrived in New Spain in 15o(;, or six in 
 stead of eight years after Nuiio do Guzman's expedition. Their adventures were so 
 remarkable I cannot refrain from saying something about them : 
 
 Pamphilo de Narvaez sailed from the West Indies early in 1528, with four hundred 
 men, eighty horses, and four ships, for the purpose of exploring the country of Florida. 
 of which he had been made governor. He seems to have reached the harbor ol' Sama 
 Cruz (supposed to bo Tampa Bay) in April of that year, and on tin- 1st May debarked 
 with three hundred men, forty of whom were mounted, for the purpose ode exploring 
 the interior of the country. His course was northwardly, and gcnerall.N parallel to 
 the coast. On the 2Cth June he reached an Indian town called Ai>nlnf!n\ where he 
 tarried twenty-five days. He then journeyed in nine days to a place called Ante. 
 Continuing his course thence westwardly for several days, his men became so dispirited 
 from finding no gold, and on account of the rough treatment of the natives, that they 
 returned to Ante, where, hearing nothing of their ships, which had been ordered to 
 coast along with them and axvait their arrival at some. good harbor, they constructed 
 live small boats, in which two hundred and fifty of the party (all who had not died or 
 killed by the natives) embarked, steering along the coast westwardly for Panuco, 
 on the coast of Mexico. At length they readied the month of a river, t lie current of 
 which was so strong as to prevent their making headway against it, and whose fresh 
 water was carried out some distance into the gulf. About seven days after, while making 
 their way with great difficulty westwardly, the boat commanded by Caheea de Vaca 
 \\as east' on an island, called by them Malhado, (Misfortune.) A day or two after this 
 'Cabeca de Vaca's boat and all the others were capsi/ed in a storm oil' the inland of 
 Malhado, except that of the governor of Narvae/, which seems to have drifted out 
 to sea, and, with its crew, was never afterward heard of. Those of the party that 
 "were not drowned remained on the. island of Malhado and main land adjacent for six. 
 years, and endured from tin; Indians, who had enslaved them, the greatest indignities. 
 From this cause, and from starvation and cold, the greater portion of them died. At 
 length four of them, (those mentioned in the text above,) all that probably survived, 
 escaped from their bondage, taking in their flight a northern course, toward the 
 mountains, probably, of Northern Alabama. Thence their course was west \\ardly 
 a < TOSS i lie Mississippi (which was doubtless " the great river coming from the North," 
 spoken of by Cabeca) and Arkansas rivers, to the headwaters of the Canadian, which 
 they seem to have crossed just above the great canon of that river, (where Coronado 
 crossed it in his outward route to Quivira. of which more in the sequel;) thence 
 southwest wardly through what is now New Mexico and Ari/ona to Culiacan. in Old 
 Mexico, near the Pacific Coast, which they reached in the spring of l.">:>li. (See narra 
 tive of Alvar Xune/ Caheca de Vaca. translated by Buckingham Smith, Washington, 
 1 -.",! ; and. in confirmation of the above specified crossing of the Canadian Kiver, 
 The Relations of Castaneda, by Ternaux Compans," p. 140.) 
 
 Mr. Albert Gallatiu, in his essay, vol. '. pp. ."if,, f,7. TrttnMCtfam of American Kthno- 
 
CORONADO'S MARCH. 3 
 
 pliilo de Karvaez had conducted to Florida, and after crossing the 
 country from one sea to the other had reached Mexico. 
 
 The tales they told were quite marvelous. They stated to the then 
 viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoa, that they had carefully observed the 
 country through which they had passed, and had been told of great and 
 powerful cities, containing houses of four or five stories, &c. The vice 
 roy communicating these declarations to the new governor, Francisco 
 Vasquez de Coronado, the latter set out with haste to the province of 
 Culiacan, taking with him three Franciscan friars, one of whom, by 
 name Marcos de Niga, in the language of the chronicler Castaueda, was 
 theologian and priest. As soon as he reached Culiacan he dispatched* 
 the three Franciscans, with the negro Stephen before mentioned, on a 
 journey of discovery, with orders to return and report to him all they 
 could ascertain by personal observation of the seven, celebrated cities. 
 The monks, not being well pleased with the negro on account of his 
 excessive avarice, sent him in advance to pacify the Indians through 
 whose country he had previously passed, and to prepare the way for the 
 successful prosecution of their journey. Stephen, as soon as he reached 
 the country of the " seven cities of Cibola," demanded, as Castaiieda 
 says, not only their wealth but their women. 
 
 The inhabitants not relishing this killed him and sent back all the 
 others that had accompanied him, except the youths, whom they retained. 
 The former, flying to their homes, encountered the monks before men 
 tioned, in the desert sixty leagues from Cibola.* When the holy fathers 
 heard the sorrowful intelligence of the death of Stephen, they became 
 so greatly alarmed that, no longer trusting even the Indians who had 
 accompanied the negro, they gave them all they possessed except the 
 ornaments used in the celebration of the mass, and forthwith returned, 
 by double-days' journey, without knowing more of the country than the 
 Indians had told them. The monks returning to Culiacan, reported 
 the results of their attempted journey to Coronado, and gave 
 him such a glowing description of all the negro had discovered and of 
 what the Indians had told them, "as well as of the islands filled with 
 treasure, which they were assured existed in the Southern sea," t that he 
 decided to depart immediately for Mexico, taking with him Friar Mar 
 cos de Nia, in order that he might narrate all he had seen to the vice 
 roy. He also magnified the importance of the discovery by disclosing 
 it only to his nearest friends, and by pledging them to secrecy. 
 
 Arrived at Mexico, he had an interview with the viceroy, and pro 
 claimed everywhere that he had found "the seven cities" searched for 
 by Nuno de Guzman, and busied himself with preparing an expedition 
 for their conquest. Friar Marcos having been made, through the influ 
 ence of the monks, the provincial of tne Franciscans, their pulpits re- 
 logical Society, states that tlie river referred to above, whose current was so strong 
 and which Narvaez's party could not stem, was the Mississippi ; but this is not the view 
 of Mr. Smith, who has laid down the routes of Narvaez and party as extending no 
 further west than Leaf River, which lies to the eastward of the Mississippi River. His 
 idea, however, that the island of Santa Rosa, at the mouth of Pensacola Bay, was 
 Malhado, I think erroneous, for the reason that Cabeca de Vaca expressly says this 
 island was " half a league broad and five leagues (or seventeen miles) long," whereas 
 Santa Rosa Island, according to the maps, is as much as forty-seven miles long. It is 
 possible, however, that by accretions the island may have attained this length since 
 Cabeca de Vaca was wrecked upon it. 
 
 * So says Castalie<la ; but Marcos de Nica, in his account of his journey, distinctly 
 states that he approached so near the city of Cibola that from a high elevation he could 
 see the houses, and gives quite a particular description of them. (Relation of Friar 
 Marcos de Nica, Ternaux Compans' Collections, p. 279.) 
 
 tCastaueda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 16. 
 
4 CORONADO'S MARCH. 
 
 sounded with the marvels of discoveries to such an extent that in a few 
 days three hundred Spaniards and eight hundred Indians were assem 
 bled for the enterprise. Among the former were a great many gentle 
 men of good family, and probably there never had been an expedition 
 in which there was such a large proportion of persons of noble birth. 
 Francisco Vasquez de Corouado, the governor of Xew Galieia, was pro 
 claimed captain general, because he was the author of the discovery, 
 and the Viceroy Mendoga did all he could to foster the enterprise. 
 
 Believing that if the army marched from the city of Mexico in a body 
 the Indian allies would probably snii'er, the viceroy appointed the town 
 of Coinpostella, capital of Xew Galieia, one hundred and ten leagues 
 from Mexico, as the place, and Shrove Tuesday, 1540,* the time of ren 
 dezvous. The troops having left Mexico, he ordered Don Pedro d' Alar- 
 con to depart for La Xativitad, on the coast of the " Southern Sea," and 
 with two vessels to go to Jalisco to take the supplies which the soldiers 
 could not transport. After performing that duty he was to follow the 
 march of the army along the coast, for it was believed, according to the 
 then received accounts, that the army would never be distant from the 
 vessels, and would always be in easy communication with them by 
 means of the rivers.t 
 
 All these dispositions having been made, the viceroy departed for 
 Compostella with a large body of gentlefolks. Everywhere he was re 
 ceived with great 6clat, and when he reached Compostella he found the 
 army well lodged and entertained by Christoval d'Onate, captain general 
 of that country. 
 
 He reviewed the troops, by whom he was received with great rejoic 
 ing, and the next day after mass harangued them, lie told them of 
 their duties and of the advantageous result that this conquest would 
 produce, not only on their fortunes, but by the conversion of the nations 
 they would conquer, as well as for the service of his Majesty, who on 
 his "side promised them his bounty and additional favors. Finally he 
 caused every one to be sworn on a missal containing the Uoly Evangels 
 not to abandon their general and to obey all his commands. 
 
 The next day the army with banners Hying took up the line of march. 
 For two days the viceroy accompanied if, and then returned to Mexico. 
 !^o sooner, however, had the viceroy left the army than it began to ex 
 perience all the hardships incident to a wild, mountainous country. The 
 baggage had to be transported on horses, and, as many soldiers had 
 never been accustomed to load them, they made sorry work of it. The 
 consequence was that a great deal of their baggage was abandoned, and 
 in order to get along at all many .a gentleman had to become a mule 
 teer, and they who shirked from this necessary labor were regarded by 
 their companions as lacking spirit. 
 
 Coronado arriving at Chiametta with, his army, met at that point 
 Captains Melchior Diaz and Juan de Saldibar, who with a dozen reso 
 lute men, by Corpnado's orders, had explored the country as far as Chi- 
 chilticale, which is on the border of the desert and two hundred leagues 
 from Culiacau.f These officers gave in secret to the general such a dole- 
 da's Relations. Ternanx Oompans. p. 24. Castafiedji says 1:>11, 1> ,; 
 uanx Company hftfl remarked in a note. In- evidently must have made a mi.stuki-. f 
 letter of 11. ;>< i-or ( 'h. tries V, reporting the organization a.. 
 
 of the expedition, bears date April IT, 1540. 
 
 t According to "Los Tres Si-'L.s de Mexieo, torn. T, M. sd< 0, 1836," j>. 1 -".'. "Mendoca 
 dispatehed Aiareon, -with Two ships, to observe tl: :>t'th de-: 
 
 latitude, wit h insl ructions to make iiv(|iu n! embarkation a::d i<- join the army at that 
 .:M. M 
 
 t Castafied:i ^ives in one place two hundred leagues a> the distance : and in another, 
 two hundred and twenty leagues. See his Kel. Ternaux Couipaus' Col., pp. 12, 29. 
 
CORONADO'S MARCH. 5 
 
 ful account of the country they had passed through, that, it leaking out, 
 many in the army began to lose heart ; and it was only by Friar Marcos 
 de Mca insisting upon it, that the country was a good one, and that 
 they should not leave it with empty hands, that they were persuaded to 
 continue the march. 
 
 The day after Easter, the army took up its march for Culiacan, at 
 which place they were well received by the citizens and furnished with 
 all necessary supplies. This was the last town inhabited by Spaniards, 
 and, therefore, the last from which they could gather provisions, except 
 from the Indians with whom they might meet in their further march. 
 It is represented by Castaneda, as being two hundred and ten leagues 
 from the city of Mexico.* 
 
 After resting a couple of weeks at Culiacan, Coronadoled the advance 
 of his army, consisting of fifty cavaliers, a few infantry, his particular 
 friends, and the monks, leaving the rest of the army with orders to march 
 a fortnight after, and to follow his path. As Castaiieda, describing his' 
 progress, expresses it, " when the general had passed through all the 
 inhabited region to Onichilticale, where the desert begins, and saw that 
 there was nothing good, he could not repress his sadness, notwithstanding 
 the marvels which were promised further on. No one save the Indians 
 who accompanied the negro had seen them, and already on many occa 
 sions they had been caught in lies. He was especially afflicted to find this 
 Ohichilticale, of which so much had been boasted, to be a single, ruined, 
 and roofless house, which at one time seemed to have been fortified. It 
 was easy to see that this house, which was built of red earth, was the 
 work of civilized people who had come from afar. 
 
 u On quitting this place they entered the desert. At the end of fif 
 teen days they came within eight leagues of Oibola, on the banks of a 
 river which they named Vermejo, in consequence of its red and troubled 
 water. Mullets resembling those of Spain were found in it. It was 
 there that the first Indians of the country were discovered 5 but when 
 these saw the Spaniards they fled and gave the alarm. During the night 
 of the succeeding day, when not more than two leagues from the village, 
 some Indians who were concealed suddenly uttered such piercing cries 
 that our soldiers became alarmed, notwithstanding they pretended not 
 to regard it as a surprise ; and there were even some who saddled their 
 horses the wrong way, but these were men who belonged to the new 
 levies. The best warriors mounted their horses and scoured the coun 
 try. The Indians, who knew the land, escaped easily, and not one of 
 them was taken. On the following day, in good order, we entered the 
 inhabited country. Cibola was the first village we discovered ; on be 
 holding it the army broke forth with maledictions on Friar Marcos de 
 Niga. God grant that he may feel none of them ! 
 
 " Oibola is built on a rock $ this village is so small that, in truth, there 
 are many farms in New Spain that make a better appearance. It may 
 contain two hundred warriors. The houses are built in three or four 
 stories ; they are small, not spacious, and have no courts, as a single 
 court serves for a whole quarter. The inhabitants of the province were 
 united there. It is composed of seven towns, some of which are larger 
 and better fortified than Cibola. These Indians, ranged in good order, 
 awaited us at some distance from the village. They were very loth to 
 accept peace ; when they were required to do so by our interpreters, 
 they menaced us by their gestures. Shouting our war-cry of Saiit lago, 
 we charged upon and quickly caused them to fly. 
 
 * Castaileda's Rel., Ternaux Compaus' Col., p. 149. 
 
fi CORONADO'S MARCH. 
 
 "Nevertheless, it was necessary to get possession of Cibola, which was 
 no easy achievement, for the road leading to it was both narrow and 
 winding. The general was knocked down by the blow of a stone as he 
 mounted in the assault, and he would have boon slain had it not been 
 for Garci Lopez de Cardenas and Ilernando d'Alvarado, who threw them 
 selves before him and received the blows of the stones which were de 
 signed for him and fell in largo numbers 5 nevertheless, as it is impos 
 sible to resist the first impetuous charge of Spaniards, the village 
 was gained in less than an hour. It was found lillecl with provisions 
 which were much needed, and, in a short time the whole province was 
 forced to accept peace."* 
 
 The main army, which had been left at Culiacan under the command 
 of Don Tristan d ? Arellano, followed Coronado as directed by him. 
 every one matching on foot, with lance in hand and carrying supplies. 
 All the horses were laden. Slowly and with much fatigue, after estab 
 lishing and colonizing Sonora, and endeavoring to find the vessels under 
 Alarcon already referred to, by descending the river, in which they 
 failed, the army reached Cibola. Here they found quarters prepared 
 for them and rejoiced in the reunion of the troops, with the exception 
 of certain captains and soldiers who had- been detached on explorations. 
 
 Meantime, Captain Melchior Diaz, who had been left at Sonora, placed 
 himself at the head of twenty-five choice men, and under the lead of 
 guides directed his steps towards the southwest in hopes of discovering 
 the coasts. His course was probably down the liio Sonora, and not 
 finding the vessels there he doubtless marched northward, keeping as 
 close to the coast as the rivers would permit him. After traveling 
 about one hundred and fifty leaguesf it appears he arrived in a country 
 in which there was a large river, called liio del Tizon, whose mouth was 
 two leagues wide. Here the captain learned that the vessels under 
 Alarcou had been on the sea-coast, at a distance of three day.V journey 
 from that place. In the language of Castaneda, " When he reached the 
 spot that was indicated, and which was on the bank of the river more 
 than fifteen leagues from its mouth, he found a tree on which 
 was written 'Alarcon has come thus tar; there are letters at the foot of 
 this tree.' They dug and found the letters, which apprised them that 
 Alarcou, after having waited a certain length of time at that spot, had 
 returned to 3sTcw Spain, and could not advance further because that 
 sea was a gulf; that it turned around the Isle of the Marquis, which had 
 been called the Isle of California, and that California was not an island, 
 but a part of land forming the gulf. v j 
 
 It appears that after a good deal of difficulty and a threatened attack 
 from the natives, the party crossed the liio del Tizon, on rafts, some iive 
 or six days' travel higher up, and continued its journey along the coast. 
 Quoting from Castaneda. ' When the explorers had crossed the liio del 
 Tizon, they continued following the coast, which at that place turns to 
 ward the southeast, for this gulf penetrates the land directly toward 
 the north, and the stream flows exactly toward the mouth from north 
 to south." No better description could be given of the relative posi 
 tion of the Gulf of California, with respect to the Rio Colorado flowing 
 into it from the north, than the foregoing. 
 
 This expedition was terminated by the death of Melchior Diaz, which 
 occurred in a very singular manner, as fallows: " One day a greyhound 
 belonging to a Soldier attacked some sheep which the Spaniards were 
 
 * Cast a m 'da's Relations, Tcnwux C'nmpaiis, pp. -lit, -11, -1\>, 43. 
 
 t Castufk'ihi's Relations. Tcrnaux Coiupans, p. -U). 
 
 t Castaiicda'a Relations, Ternaux Oompan, pp. r>0, 51. $ Ibid, p. 104. 
 
CORONADO'S MARCH. 7 
 
 driving with them to serve as food in case of need, when Captain Mel- 
 chior Diaz threw his lance at the beast, in order to drive him off. Un 
 fortunately the weapon stuck in the ground with the point uppermost, 
 and as Diaz could not rein in his horse, who was at a gallop, quickly 
 enough, it pierced his thigh through and through, and severed his blad 
 der. The soldiers at once decided to retrace their steps, taking their 
 wounded chief with them. The Indians, who were always in rebellion, 
 did not cease attacking them. The captain lived about twenty days, 
 during which he was borne along with the utmost difficulty. When, 
 at length, he died, all his troops returned in good array, (to Sonora,) 
 without the loss of a single man, and after traversing the most dan 
 gerous places."* 
 
 In this connection it maybe interesting to give some account of Alar- 
 con-s discovery of the Eio Colorado. It will be recollected that he was 
 ordered by the Viceroy Mendoca to follow the march of the army with 
 his vessels along the coast of the Southern Sea, as the Pacific Ocean 
 was then called. From his relation to the viceroy 1 1 gather the following : 
 
 On the 9th of May, 1540, Fernando Alarcon put to sea from La Na- 
 tivitad, in command of two ships, the Saint Peter and the Saint Cath 
 erine. He put into the ports of Xalisco and Agnaival, (respectively the 
 ports of Coinpostella and Culiacan,) and finding Coronado and his army 
 gone from this last-mentioned place, he continued his course northwardly 
 along the coast, taking with him the ship St. Gabriel, which he found 
 there laden with supplies for the army. At length arriving towards the 
 upper end of what was till then believed to be a strait separating an 
 island from the main land, but which he discovered to be a gulf, (the 
 Gulf of California,) he experienced great difficulty in navigating, even 
 with his small boats; and there were some in the expedition, he remarks, 
 who lost heart and were anxious to return, as did Captain Francisco de 
 Ullva, with his vessels, in a former voyage of discovery. Alarcon, it 
 seems, however, had the necessary pluck, and, agreeably to the orders 
 of the Viceroy Mendoga, he was determined to make his explorations as 
 thorough as possible. After incredible hardships he managed to get 
 his vessels to the bottom of the gulf, ("au fond du gulfed) Here he 
 found a very great river, the current of which was so rapid, that they 
 could scarcely stem it. Taking two shallops and leaving the others with 
 the ships, and providing himself with some guns of small caliber, on 
 the 26th of August, 1540, he commenced the ascent of the river by haul 
 ing the boats with ropes-! R u ^ s wa J ne me ^ a large number of Indians, 
 
 * Castafieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 105. 
 
 t Ternaux Compans' Coll., p. 299-348. 
 
 tTlie most reliable information in relation to the Colorado River will be found in the 
 report of Lieutenant Ives's ascent of that stream in 1858. (Ex. Doc. No. , 36th Con 
 gress, 1st session.) 
 
 " From his account the region at the mouth of the Colorado is a flat expanse of mud, 
 and the channels that afford entrance from the gulf are shifting and changeable. For 
 30 miles above the mouth the navigation is rendered periodically dangerous by the 
 strength and magnitude of the spring tides. 
 
 " Between the tide- water and Fort Yuma, which is 150 miles from the mouth, the 
 principal obstructions are sand-bars, continually shifting, having in some places but 
 two feet of water upon them. There are no rocks, but snags are numerous although 
 not very dangerous. 
 
 " For 180 miles above Fort Yuma the navigation is similar. The river passes througl 
 several chains of hills and mountains, forming gorges or caiions, sometimes of a con 
 siderable size. In these there is generally a better channel than in the valley. 
 
 " In the next 100 miles gravelly bars are frequent, with many stretches of good river 
 and although the bad places are worse, the channel is better than below. For the sue 
 ceeding 50 miles there are many swift rapids. The river bed is of coarse gravel 'aucT 
 sand, and there are some dangerous sunken rocks. The Black Canon, which is 25 miles 
 
8 CORONADO'S MARCH. 
 
 who made signs to him to return down the river, but by good manage 
 inent lie so appeased them that he was enabled to reach a distance 
 above the mouth of the river, such that in two and a halt' days, on his 
 return to the ships, on account of the swiftness of the current, lie made 
 the same distance he had in iil'teen and a half days in ascending the 
 river. Oil this expedition he learned from the Indians he met, some 
 particulars of the death of the negro Stephen, before referred to, at 
 Cibola, and of there being white persons like themselves at that place, 
 who doubtless belonged to Coronado's army. Alarcon was, however, 
 unable to communicate with the army on account of the desert inter 
 vening between them, and the great distance they were apart. 
 
 Ketitting all his shallops this time for a second voyage up the river. 
 he left its mouth on the 14th of September, but was no more successful 
 in this than in his former expedition in communicating with Coronado. 
 Having, therefore, reached as far up the river as he thought expedient, 
 he planted a cross at that point, and deposited at its foot some letters, 
 in the hope that some persons of Coronado's army, searching for news 
 of the vessels, might find them. These letters, it has already 1 >een stated, 
 were found by Melchior Diaz on the Kio del Tizon, called by Alarcon 
 the " ]>on Guide," after the device of his lordship Don Antonio de Men- 
 a, and at the present day the Kio Colorado. 
 
 At the end of Alarcon's relation to the viceroy he reports that he 
 found the latitude, as given by the " patrons and pilots of the Marquis 
 del Yalle," wrong by two degrees ; that he had gone further by four de 
 grees than they, and that he had ascended the river a distance of eighty- 
 five leagues.* This report of Alarcon's is very interesting from its -great 
 particularity and the many incidents it gives of the expedition ; it shows 
 also that he was fully equal to the trust committed to him, and that 
 no explorer could have done more to carry out the orders of the Viceroy 
 Meudoa. 
 
 YVe will now return to the army under Coronado, at Cibola. This 
 general immediately set to work to explore the adjacent country. Hear 
 ing there was a province in which there were seven towns similar to 
 those of Cibola, he dispatched hither Don Pedro de Tobar with seven 
 teen horsemen, three or four soldiers, and Friar Juan de Padilla, a Fran 
 ciscan, who had been a soldier in his youth, to explore it. u The rumor 
 had spread among its inhabitants that Cibola was captured by a very 
 ferocious race of people who bestrode horses that devoured men, and as 
 they knew nothing of horses, this information filled them with the greatest 
 astonishment.''! They, however, made sonic show of resistance to the 
 invaders in their approach to their towns, but the Spaniards charging 
 upon them with vigor, many were killed, when the remainder lied to the 
 houses and sued for peace, offering, as an inducement, presents of cotton 
 stuff, tanned hides, flour, pine nuts, maize, native fowls, and some 
 turquoises. 
 
 These people informing the Spaniards of a great river on which there 
 
 long, is now readied, and in it the rapids are numerous and difiicult. Calville is Minn- 
 six miles above the head of this canon." (Letter of GeneraJ A. A. Humphreys. Chief 
 of Corps of Engineers United States Army, to Secretary of War, June &4, l-' ; ~. in his 
 annual report for 1868, part 2, p. 11J>5.) 
 
 *Alareon's orders from the Viceroy Mendoca, as before staled, in a note, were to 
 explore as high as the MOth degree of hit itnde. According to his own account of tin- 
 distance he \vent nj) the .Kio del Ti/on, (Colorado.) he must have explored as far as 
 about the i'.tth degree, and ii' lie went DO higher up than where Melrhior Dia/. found 
 the tree, at the foot of which were letters fronf Alarcon, showing that there was the 
 highest point to \\hich he had attained, the highest latitude he reached must have been 
 only about the :r.d degree. 
 
 tCastaflcda's Relations, Ternaux Conipans, p. 59. 
 
CORONADC-'S MARCH. 9 
 
 were Indians living, who were very tall, a report of the same on his 
 return to Cibola was made by Don Pedro de Tobar to Coronado, who 
 sent out another party consisting of twelve men, under Don Garci-Lopez 
 de Cardenas, to explore this river. It appears from Castaneda's Eela- 
 tious that the party passed through Tusayan again on its way to the 
 river and obtained from its inhabitants the necessary supplies and 
 guides. 
 
 After a journey of twenty days through a desert it seems they reached 
 the river, whose banks were so high that, as Castaiieda expresses it, 
 " they thought themselves elevated three or four leagues in the air.' 7 
 For three days they marched along the banks of the river, hoping always 
 to find a downward path to the water, which from their elevation did 
 not seem more than a yard in width, but which according to the Indi 
 ans' account was more than half a league broad. But their efforts to 
 descend were all made in vain. Two or three days afterward, having 
 approached a place where the descent appeared practicable, the cap 
 tain, Melgosa Juan Galeras, and a soldier, who were the lightest men in 
 the party, resolved to make the attempt. They descended until those 
 who remained above lost sight of them, They returned in the afternoon 
 declaring that they had encountered so many difficulties that they could 
 not reach the bottom ; for what appeared easy when beheld from aloft, 
 was by means so whtn approached. They added <that they compassed 
 about one-third of the descent, and that from thence the river already 
 seemed very wide, w T hich confirmed what the Indians stated. They 
 assured them that some rocks which were seen from on high, and did 
 not appear to be scarcely as tall as a man, were in truth loftier than the 
 tower of the cathedral of Seville.* 
 
 Castaneda, after describing the further progress of the exploring party, 
 goes on to say: "The river was the Tizoii (Colorado.) A spot was 
 reached much nearer its source than the crossing of Melchior Diaz and 
 his people (before referred to ;) and it was afterward known that the 
 Indians which have been spoken of were the same nation that Diaz saw. 
 The Spaniards retraced their steps (to Cibola) and this expedition had 
 no other result.' 7 ! 
 
 During the march they met with a cascade falling from a rock. The 
 guides said that the white crystals hanging around it were formed of 
 salt. They gathered and carried away a quantity thereof, which was 
 distributed at Cibola.f 
 
 * For 300 miles the cut edges of the table land rise abruptly, often perpendicularly, 
 from the water's edge, forming walls from 3,000 to 6,000 feet in height. This is the 
 great canon of the Colorado, the most magnificent gorge as well as the grandest geo 
 logical section of which we have any knowledge. 
 
 Again, the caiion of the Colorado at the mouth of Grand River is but a portion of the 
 stupendous chasm which its waters have cut in the strata of the fable lands, and of 
 which a general description has been given. At this point its walls have an altitude 
 of over 3,000 feet above the Colorado, and the bed of the stream is about 1,200 feet 
 above the level of the sea, or 500 feet higher than those in the Black Canon. A few 
 miles further east, where the surface of the table lands has an altitude of nearly 7,000 
 feet, the dimensions of the caiion become far more imposing, and its cliffs rise to the 
 height of more than a mile above the river. (Report of Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives, 
 Corps of Topographical Engineers United States Army, upon the Colorado River, 
 1857-'58, Senate Ex. Doc. 30th Congress, 1st session. Geology, chapter v, p. 42 ; Chap 
 ter vi, p. 54.) 
 
 t Castafieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 64. 
 
 t Lieutenant Ives speaks of having found salt on the Flax River, which Cardenas, 
 party undoubtedly crossed or followed : 
 
 "At noon to-day we came to the object of our search a well-beaten Indian trial' 
 running toward the north. Camp was pitched at the place where it strikes the Flax 
 River, and it is the intention to make the second attempt to-morrow to penetrate the 
 unexplored region. Near by are several salt springs, and scattered over the adjacent 
 surface are crystals of excellent salt." (Report of Lieutenant Ives, p. 117.) 
 
10 CORONADO'S MARCH. 
 
 I have thus briefly, described the explorations which were made by 
 Coronado and his captains, as tar as Cibola, on the northern edge of the 
 great desert northward of Chichiltieale ; the branch expedition of Mel- 
 chior Diaz from Sonora northwestward to and around the head of the 
 Gulf of California, after crossing the Tizou (Colorado,) in search of the 
 vessels; the exploration of the river Tizou, by Alarcon, in boats 
 for 'a distance of 85 Spanish leagues,* or about 200 miles, above its 
 mouth ; the expedition of Don Pedro de Tobar from Cibola to Tusayan, 
 lying to the northwest of Cibola twenty-live leagues ; and the exploration 
 of Don Garci Lopez de Cardenas from Cibola through Tusayan west- 
 wardly to the deeply canoned river Tizou. I shall now give in as few 
 words as I can some account of Coronado's subsequent explorations to 
 the eastward of Cibola. 
 
 While the discoveries above mentioned were being made, some In 
 dians living seventy leagues towardsthe east, in a province called Cieuye, 
 arrived at Cibola. There was with them a Cacique, surname Bigotes 
 (Mustaches) on account of his wearing these long appendages. They 
 had heard of the Spaniards, and came to oifer their services and their 
 friendship. They ottered gifts of tanned skins, shields, and helmets, 
 which the general reciprocated by giving them necklaces of glass beads, 
 and bells, which they had never before beheld. They informed him of 
 cows, because one of these Indians had one painted on his body." Gas- 
 taueda goes on to say, but "we would never have guessed it, from 
 seeing the skins of these animals, for they are covered with a frizzled 
 hair, which resembles woolj"t thus showing that they certainly were 
 buffaloes. 
 
 The general ordered Captain Hernaudo d'Alvarado to take twenty 
 nien and to accompany these Indians, but to return in eighty days to ren 
 der an account of what he might have seen. Alvarado. departed with 
 them, and "five days after they arrived at a village named Acuco, built 
 on a rock. The inhabitants, who are able to send about two hundred 
 warriors into the field, are the most formidable brigands in the province. 
 This village was very strongly posted, inasmuch as it was reached by 
 only one path, and was built upon a rock precipitous on all its other 
 sides, and at such a height that the ball from an arquebuse could scarcely 
 reach its summit. It was entered by a stairway cut by the hand of man, 
 which began at the bottom of the declivitous rock and led up to the vil 
 lage. This stairway was of suitable width for the first two hundred 
 steps, but after these there were a hundred more much narrower, and 
 when the top was finally to be reached it was necessary to scramble up 
 the three last toises by placing the feet in holes scraped in the rock, and 
 as the ascender could scarcely make the point of his toe enter them he 
 was forced to cling to the precipice with his hands. On the summit 
 there was a great arsenal of huge stones, which the defenders, without 
 exposing themselves, could roll down on the assailants, so that no army, 
 no matter what its strength might be, could force this passage. There 
 was on the top a sufficient space of ground to cultivate and store a large 
 supply of corn, as well as cisterns to contain water and suow/'J 
 
 The Indians here, as at Tusayan, traced lines on the ground, and for 
 bade the Spaniards to pass over them; but seeing the latter disposed 
 
 * Common Spanish league equals 3.42 American miles. (Uiiitcd States Ordnance 
 Manual.) 
 
 t Castaueda'3 Krlaj ions, Ternaux Compaus, p. G& " II est ici la question tlt-s biaonfl, quo 
 1'auteur nommr toujmirs racas. Jo me servirai dor<5navnnt du mot de bison." (Note 
 
 by Ternaux Compans.) 
 t Castafieda's Relations, 
 
 Ternaux Compans, pp. 66, 69, 70. 
 
CORONADO'S MARCH. 11 
 
 for an attack, they quickly sued for peace, and presented to their con 
 querors a supply of birds' bread, tanned deer-skins, pine-nuts, seeds, 
 flour, and cbrn. 
 
 Three days' journey thence Captain Alvarado and party reached a 
 province called ^Tiguex^ where, on account of Bigotes, whom the inhab 
 itants knew, they were received very kindly ; and the captain was so 
 well pleased with what he saw that he sent a messenger to Corouado 
 inviting him to winter- in that country, which pleased the general greatly, 
 as it made him believe that his affairs were growing better. 
 
 Five days' journey thence, Alvarado reached Cicuye, a village very 
 strongly fortified, and whose houses had four stories. He reposed here 
 with his party some days, when he fell in with an "Indian slave who 
 was a native of the county adjacent to Florida, the interior of which 
 Fernando de Soto had lately explored."* 
 
 This Indian, whom they called il Turco, (the Turk,) on account of his 
 resemblance to the people of that nation, spoke of certain large towns, 
 and of large stores of gold and silver in his country ,t and also of the 
 country of the bisons, (buffaloes.) Alvarado took him as a guide to the 
 bison country, and after he had seen a few of them he returned to Tig- 
 uex to give an account of the news to Coronado. 
 
 In the order of events, Coronado, who had remained at Cibola with 
 the main body of the army, hearing of a province composed of eight 
 towns, took with him thirty of the most hardy of his men and set out 
 to visit it on his way to Tiguex. In eight or. eleven days (the narrative 
 is here obscure) he reached this province, called Tutahaco, which ap 
 pears to have been situated on the Eio de Tiguex, below the city of Tig 
 uex, for Castaiieda expressly states that he afterward ascended the 
 river and visited the whole province until he arrived at Tiguex. The 
 eight villages composing this province were not like those of Cibola, 
 built of stone, but of earth. He also learned of other villages still fur 
 ther down the river. 
 
 " On his arrival at Tiguex, Coronado found Hemando d'Alvarado 
 with the Turk, and was not a little pleased with the news they gave 
 him. This Indian told him that in his country there was a river two 
 leagues wide, in which fish as large as horses were found ; that there 
 were canoes with twenty oarsmen on each side, which were also pro 
 pelled by sails ; that the lords of the land were seated in their sterns 
 upon a dais, while a large golden eagle was affixed to their prows. He 
 added that the sovereign of this region took his siesta beneath a huge 
 tree, to whose branches golden bells were hung, which were rung by 
 the agitation of the summer breeze. He declared, moreover, that the 
 commonest vessels were of sculptured silver ; that the bowls, plates, and 
 dishes were of gold. He called gold acocJiis. He was believed because 
 he spoke with great assurance, and because when some trinkets of cop 
 per were shown him he smelt them, and said they were not gold. 
 He knew gold and silver very well, and made no account of the other 
 metals. The general sent Hernando d'Alvarado to Cicuye to reclaim 
 the golden bracelets which the Turk pretended had been taken from 
 him when he was made prisoner. When Alvarado arrived there the 
 inhabitants received him kindly, as they had done before, but they pos- 
 
 * Castaneda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 72. The basin of the Mississippi River 
 and tributaries, in former days, were included in Florida by the Spaniards. (See note, 
 p. 90.) 
 
 tThe country of Quivira, which Coronada, as will be seen in the sequel, visited, and 
 which, being adjacent to Florida, as stated above, must have been situated in the coun 
 try tributary to the Missouri or Mississippi, and not near the Rio Grande, as some com 
 mentators have supposed. 
 
12 CORONADO'S MARCH. 
 
 itively affirmed that they liad no knowledge of the bracelets, and they 
 assured him that the Turk was a great liar, who deceived him. Alvu- 
 rado, seeing there was nothing else he could do, lured the chief, Bigotes, 
 and the Cacique under his tent, and caused them to be chained. The 
 inhabitants reproached the captain with being a man without faith or 
 friendship, and launched a shower of arrows oifliini." Alvarado con 
 ducted these prisoners to Tiguex, where the general retained them more 
 than six months."* 
 
 This affair seems to have been the beginning of Coron ado's troubles 
 with the Indians, which were subsequently increased by his exacting 
 a large quantity of clothing, which he divided among his soldiers. 
 
 Two weeks after Coronado left Cibola for Tiguex, agreeably to his 
 orders, the army under the command of Don Tristan cr Arellano took up 
 its march from that place for Tiguex. The first day they reached the 
 handsomest, and largest village in the province, where they lodged. 
 " There they found houses of seven stories, which were seen no 
 where else. These belonged to private individuals, and served as 
 fortresses. They rise so far above the others that they have the appear 
 ance of towers. There are embrasures and loop-holes from which lances 
 may be thrown and the place defended. As all these villages have no 
 streets, all the roofs are flat, and common for all the inhabitants ; it is 
 therefore necessary to take possession, first of all, of those large houses 
 which serve as defenses."! 
 
 The army passed near the great rock of Acuco, already described, 
 where they were well received by the inhabitants of the city perched 
 on its summit. 
 
 Finally it reached Tiguex, where it was well received and lodged. 
 The good news given by the Turk cast their past fatigues into oblivion, 
 though the whole province was found in open revolt, and not without 
 cause, for on the preceding day the Spaniards had burnt a village; and 
 we have already seen that the imprisonment of Bigotes and the Turk', 
 and the exactions of clothing by Cpronada, had also very greatly exas 
 perated them. The result of all this was that the Indians generally re 
 volted, as they said, on account of the bad faith of the Spaniards, and 
 the latter retaliated by burning some of their villages, killing a largo 
 number of the natives, and at last laying siege to and capturing Tiguex. 
 This siege lasted fifty days, and was terminated at the close of 1540.J 
 
 After the siege the general dispatched a captain to Chia, which had 
 sent in its submission. It was a large and populous village, four leagues 
 west of the Tiguex River. Six other Spaniards went to Quirix, a prov 
 ince composed of seven villages. All these villages were at length 
 tranquilized by the assiduous efforts of the Spaniards to regain the 
 confidence which they had justly lost by their repeated breaches of 
 faith ; but no assurances that could be given to the twelve villages in the 
 province of Tiguex would induce them to return to their homes so long 
 as the Spaniards remained in the country ; and no wonder, for no more 
 barbarous treachery was ever shown to a submissive foe than had been 
 shown to these Tigueans by these faithless Spaniards. 
 
 So soon as the Tiguex Kiver, (Uio Grande,) which had been frozen for 
 four months, was sufficiently free from ice, the army took up its march 
 on the 5th of May, 1541, to Quivira, in search of the gold and silver which 
 
 *Castafu da's Ivrlations, Tornanx Compans. pp.70, 77, 78. 
 
 tCastafieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans. p. 80. 
 
 tCastafirda Bays ir..i-_>, evidently an error, as may be ascertained by accounting for 
 the tirao consumed by the army in its march from Chiametla, "which it left on tlio next 
 day after Easter, 1540. (See ante, p. 12.) 
 
CORON ADO'S MARCH. 13 
 
 
 
 the Turk had said could be found there. Its route was via Cicuye, 
 twenty -five leagues distant. The fourth day after leaving Cicuye and 
 crossing some mountains it reached a large and very deep river, which 
 passed pretty near to Cicuye, and was therefore called the Rio de Cicuye. 
 Here it was delayed four days to build a bridge. Ten days after, on 
 their march, they discovered some tents of tanned buffalo skins, inhabited 
 by Indians who were like Arabs, and who were called Querechaos ; 
 continuing their march in a northeastwardly direction they soon came 
 to a village in which Cabeca de Vaca and Dorantes (mentioned in the 
 first part of this paper) had passed through on their way from Florida 
 to Mexico.* The army met with and killed an incredible number of 
 buft'alo.t and after reaching a point 250 leagues (850 miles) from Tiguex, 
 the provision giving out, Coronado, with thirty horsemen and six foot- 
 soldiers, continued his march in search of Quivira, while the rest of the 
 army returned to Tiguex under the command of Don Tristan d'Arellano. 
 The narrative goes on to say : " The guides conducted the general to 
 Quivira in forty-eight days, for they had traveled too rnucji in the direc 
 tion of Florida. At Quivira they found neither gold nor silver, and 
 learning from the Turk that he had, at the instance of the people of 
 Cicuye, purposely decoyed the army far into the plains to kill the horses, 
 and thus make the men helpless and fall an easy prey to the natives, 
 and that all he had said about the great quantity of silver and gold to 
 be found there was false, they strangled him. The Indians of this 
 region, so far from having large quantities of gold and silver, did not 
 even know these metals. The Cacique wore on his breast a copper plate, 
 of which he made a great parade, which he would not have done had he 
 known anything about those precious metals. The army, as stated 
 above, retreated to Tiguex before reaching Quivira. They took as 
 guides some Teyans, through whose country they were passing, and 
 were led back by a much more direct way than that they pursued in 
 coming. These Teyaus were a nomadic nation, and being constantly m 
 the pursuit of game knew the country perfectly." It is narrated they 
 guided the army thus : Every morning they watched to note where the 
 sun rose, and directed their way by shooting an arrow in advance, and 
 then before reaching this arrow they discharged another ; in this way 
 they marked the whole of their route to the spot where water was to be 
 found, and where they encamped. " The army consumed only twenty- 
 
 * It will be recollected that it was on information given by these persons and two 
 others, Maldonado and the negro Estevan, that this expedition was founded. (See 
 ante p. 310.) 
 
 t The following minute and graphic description of the buffalo, seen by Coronado and 
 his army, is taken from Goinara, as quoted in Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. iii. " These oxen 
 are of the bigness and color of our bulls, but their horns are not so great. They have 
 a great bunch upon their fore-shoulders, and more hair upon their fore part than on 
 their hinder part ; and it is like wool. They have, as it were, a horse inane upon their 
 back bone, and much hair, and very long from the knees downward. They have great 
 tufts of hair hanging down their foreheads, and it seeineth they have beards, because 
 of the great store of hair hanging down at their chins and throats. The males have 
 very long tails, and a great knob or flock at the end, so that in some respects they 
 resemble the lion, and in some other the camel. They push with their horns, they run, 
 they overtake and kill a horse when they are in their rage and anger. Finally, it is a 
 fierce beast of countenance and form of body. The horses fled from them, either be 
 cause of their deformed shape, or else because they had never seen them. Their mas 
 ters have no other riches nor substance ; of them they eat, they drink, they apparel, 
 they shoe themselves ; and of their hides they make many things, as houses, shoes, 
 apparel, and ropes ; of their bones they make bodkins ; of their sinews and hair, thread ; 
 of their horns, maws and bladders, vessels ; of their dung, fire ; and of their calf skins, 
 budgets, wherein they draw and keep water. To be short, they make so many things 
 of them as they have need of, or as may suffice them in the use of this life." 
 
 21 S 
 
14 CORONADO'S MARCH. 
 
 five days on the journey, and oven then much time was lost. The first 
 time it had taken thirty-seven days."* 
 
 " On the road they passed a great number of salt marshes where there 
 was a considerable quantity of salt. Pieces longer than tables and four 
 or five inches thick were seen floating on the surface. On the plains 
 they found an immense number of small animals resembling squirrels, 
 and numerous holes burrowed by them in the earth ."t These animals 
 were most unquestionably the little prairie-dogs whose villages have 
 been so naively described by Washington Irving and George Wilkins 
 Kendall. On this march the army reached the river Cicuye, more than 
 thirty leagues below the place where they had before crossed it by a 
 bridge. They then ascended the river, by following the banks, to the 
 town of Cicuye. The guides declared that this river, the Cicuye, (no 
 doubt the Pecos,) at a distance of more than twenty days' journey, 
 threw itself into that of Tiguex, (the Kio Grande,) and that subsequently 
 it flowed toward the east. Castaiieda goes on to say: "It is believed 
 that it (the Tiguex) joins the great river of Espiritu Sancto (Mississippi 
 Kiver) that the party of Heruando de Soto discovered in Florida. "t 
 
 The army under Arellano reaching Tiguex, on its return from the 
 prairies in the mouth of July, 1541, this ofiicer immediately ordered 
 Captain Francisco de Barrio-Nuevo to ascend the Rio de Tiguex (Eio 
 Grande) in another direction with some soldiers on an exploring expe 
 dition. They reached the provinces, one of which, comprising seven 
 villages, was called Hemes ; the other, Yuque- Yunque. 
 
 Twenty leagues (G8 miles) further in ascending the river, they came to 
 a large and powerful village named Braba, to which the Spaniards gave 
 the new title of Yalladolid. " It was built on the two banks of the river, 
 which was crossed by bridges built with nicely-squared timber." The 
 country was very high and cold. From Braba the exploring party re 
 tained to Tiguex. Another party, it seems, went down the Bio de Tig 
 uex (Kio Grande) eighty leagues, where they discovered four large vil 
 lages, and " reached a place where the river plunged beneath the ground; 
 but inasmuch as their orders confined them toa distauceof eighty leagues, 
 they did not push on to the place where, according to the Indians' accounts, 
 this stream escapes again from the earth with considerably augmented 
 volume." || 
 
 * Castaneda's Relations, pp. 133, 134. 
 
 t Castaneda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. I'M. . 
 
 j" VARIOUS NAMES OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. I remember to have seen in the 
 course of my reading the following Indian, Spanish, and French names applied to the 
 river Mississippi ; and it may be well to record them in your maga/.ine for p reserva 
 tion, and prohaMy to be augmented in number by other students ot' American history : 
 
 "Indian )iai>u-x. Mien king of rivers; Mescha-Sil>i-Meseha, great and Sibi River; 
 Namosi-Sipon Fish River; Okimo-chitto Great Water path aChocta name : M 
 seepe ; Meaet-eliassipi old father of rivers, according to Du Pratz; Malbonehia, 
 according to Ibervillc. 
 
 "Frenrh. Riviere do St. Louis; Riviere do Colbert ; Mississippi. 
 
 "Spanish. Rio Grande; Rio Grande del Espiritu Santo; Rio de la Enlata ; Rio de la 
 Talisada ; Rio de Chuchaqna. 
 
 " The Vernci Ptolemy of 1513 lays it down, or, at least, marks a river without a name, 
 at the site of its embouchure. Orbus Typis, 1515; Pineda's map. 1. ">!!>: other I 'to!. 
 l.Yj;>; C'abeea de Vaea saw it ill 1528. Do Soto crossed it in June, 1541, and died in 
 Louisiana, on the west bank of the Mississippi, opposite the month of the llig Black 
 River. .May -Jl, l.Vl^. 
 
 "BRANT/ MAYER. 
 
 "BAI.TIMUKK, October 15, 1857." 
 
 (See Historical Magazine, vol. 1, p. 342.) 
 
 $ Castaneda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 139. 
 
 || Castaneda's Rrlat ions, Ternanx Compans, p. 1 10. Mr. Albert Gallatin, commenting 
 on this passage, cays : " The assertion that the river was lost under ground wi> $ a mistake. 
 
CORONADO'S MARCH. 15 
 
 We shall now return to Coronado, whom we left at Quivira. It appears 
 that, in consequence of his not arriving at Tiguex at the expected time, 
 Don Tristan d> Arellano set out in search of him with forty horsemen. 
 At Cicuye the inhabitants attacked Don Tristan, by which he was de 
 layed four days. Hearing of the approach of Coronado, he contented 
 himself with guarding the passes in the vicinity of the village till the 
 arrival of the general. Castaneda says that, " notwithstanding he had 
 good guides, and was not incumbered with baggage, Coronado was forty 
 days in making the journey from Quivira."* From Cicuye he journeyed 
 to Tiguex, where he went into winter quarters, with the intention in the 
 spring of pursuing his discoveries by pushing his whole army toward 
 Quivira. 
 
 " When winter was over Corouada ordered the preparation to be made 
 for the march to Quivira. Every one then began to make his arrange 
 ments. Nevertheless, as often happens in the Indies, things did not 
 turn out as people intended, but as God pleased. One day of festival 
 the general went forth on horseback, as was his custom, to run at the 
 ring with Don Pedro Maldonado. He was mounted on an excellent 
 horse, but his valets having changed the girth of his saddle and having 
 taken a rotten one, it broke in mid-course and the rider unfortunately 
 fell near Don Pedro, whose horse was in full career, and in springing 
 over his body kicked him in the head, thus inflicting an injury which 
 kept him a long while in bed and placed him within two fingers of 
 death."! 
 
 The result of this was that being of a superstitious nature and hav 
 ing been foretold by a certain mathematician of Salamanca, who was 
 his friend, that he should one day find himself the omnipotent lord of a 
 distant country, but that he should have a fall which would cause his 
 death, he was very anxious to hasten home to die near his wife and 
 children. From this time, Castaneda states, that -Corooado, feigning 
 himself to be more ill than he was, worked upon his soldiery in so subtle 
 a way as to induce the greater part of them to petition him to return to 
 New Spain. They then began openly to declare their belief that it was 
 better to return, inasmuch as f no rich country had been found, and it 
 was not populous enough to distribute it among the army. The general, 
 finding no one to oppose him, took up his line of march on his return to 
 
 This was, undoubtedly, the place in latitude 31 39', where the Rio del Norte, cutting 
 through the mountains, empties into a deep and impassable canon, from which it emerges 
 some distance below, as has been before stated." (See Transactions of American Ethno 
 logical Society, vol. ii, p. 71.) 
 
 Mr. Gallatiu, though usually very judicious in his remarks, I think is at fault here. 
 The cause of the river disappearing at the point referred to, and then appearing again 
 further down, was not on account of its entering a canon, which the Spaniards could 
 have noticed and not been deceived about, but because the Rio Tiguex, (Rio Grande,) 
 like most of the rivers which I have seen on the plains and in New Mexico, is liable, 
 when very low, to be lost in its sandy bed, and then to appear again further down, where 
 the sand is not sufficient to absorb it. It is on this account, as I have seen, when the 
 heat of the sun added its potent influence to cause a river to disappear through the 
 day, that during the night, when this influence did not prevail, it would again appear 
 a running stream. 
 
 Hurnboklt refers to a disappearance of the Rio Grande, which appears to have taken 
 place about the same locality, and also attributes it to a wrong cause. " The inhab 
 itants of Paso del Norte preserve the memory of a very extraordinary event which 
 occurred in the year 1752. They saw, all at once, the river become dry, thirty leagues 
 above, and more than twenty leagues below, El Paso; the water of the river precipi 
 tated itself in a newly-formed crevasse, and did not appear again above ground until 
 you reach the Presidio de San Elezario." (Humboldt's Essai Politique Sur le Royaume 
 de la Nouvelle Hispagne, edition 1811, p. 303.) 
 
 * Castaneda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 142. 
 
 t Castafleda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 202. 
 
16 CORON ADO'S MARCH. 
 
 Mexico in the beginning of April, 1542. He returned by the way of 
 Cibola and Chichilticale, as he had come.. At length, after skirmishing 
 with the Indians, in which a number of their men and horses were killed. 
 the army reached Culiacan. From this place Ooronado departed for the 
 city of Mexico, to make his report to the viceroy, only about one hun 
 dred of his army continuing with him. "Castaiicda says he was badly 
 received by the viceroy, who nevertheless gave him a discharge; yet be 
 lost Ms reputation and soon after his government o't'Xew Galicia also/'* 
 Thus ended this great expedition, which for extent in distance trav 
 eled, duration in time, extending from the spring of 1540 to the summer 
 of 154.2, or more than two years, and the multiplicity of its cooperating 
 branch explorations, equaled, if it did not exceed, any land expedition 
 that has been undertaken in modern times. 
 
 Having given a general account of the routes pursued by Coronado 
 and his army and of the track of the transport vessels under Alar- 
 con, I will now proceed to fix definitely, so far as I have been enabled, 
 the position of the several important places mentioned by Castaneda 
 and other chroniclers. 
 
 The first important point after leaving the city of Mexico is Compos- 
 tella, where the army rendezvoused preparatory to its setting out on its 
 expedition. This point reached, the army, in an organized condition, 
 took up its line of march along the foot of tlie west base of the Sierra 
 Nevada in the direction, west of nprth, as iar as Soiiora, on the Sonora 
 River; from this place its course was most probably more directly 
 towards Chichilticale, or northerly, through the mountains, as far as 
 the plains of the lower portion of the Kio Santa Cruz, over which it 
 continued its march to Chichilticale. 
 
 The towns of CAmpostella, Culiacan, Cinaloa, and Sonora, points of 
 the routes, are laid down from the " military map of the United States." 
 recently issued from the office of the Chief of Engineers United States 
 War Department. The other points are laid down from data obtained 
 as follows: Chianietla, from "American Atlas, by Mr. Thomas Jell revs, 
 London, A. D. 1775;" Petatlan, 30 leagues north of Culiacau according 
 to Castaiieda,t and four days' journey according to Jaramillo.f 
 
 With regard to the position of the town of Corazones, it is difficult, on 
 account of the vagueness of the narratives of Jaramillo and Corouado, to 
 fix it. Jaramillo speaks of it as having been situated about five days' 
 journey northwardly from the Yaquemi River, and conveys the idea 
 that it was near or on the Rio Souora. Castaneda says, " in the lower 
 part of the valley of Sonora is that of the Corazoues, inhabited by 
 Spaniards." 1 1 Again, "Don Tristan decided to found and colonize a 
 town called San Hieronimo de los Corazones ; but seeing that it could not 
 prosper in this valley, he transferred it to a place called Senora, 
 
 *Castaneda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 227. Gomor;i says, If grieved Don 
 Antonio de Mendoea very much that the army returned home, for he had spent about 
 three-score thousand pe*0* Of cold in tin- enterprise and owed a ^reat part thereof still. 
 Many sought to have dxvelt there, but Francisco V r asi|iiex de C'orouado, who was rich 
 and lately-married a fair wife, would not consent, saying that they could not maintain 
 nor defend themselves In so poor a country and so far iV.m succor, They traveled 
 about 'J(H) leagues in this country." (The rest of the voyage to Acuco, Ti.i^uex, Cieuie, 
 and Quivira, from the General History of the West Indies, by Francis Lopez de Cn>inora, 
 as quoted by Haklnyt, vol. iii.) 
 
 H'astafieda's Delations. TVrnaux Compans, p. 223. 
 
 t Jaramillo' s Delations, p. :j(if>. 
 
 $ Jaramillo's Relations. Ternaux Compaus, p. 366. 
 
 UCastaneda's Relations, p. 137. 
 
CORON ADO^S MARCH. 17 
 
 ;Sonora,) and it lias been so called to this day."* Again, in another 
 part of his Relations, describing the places between the Sonora River 
 and Ohichilticale, he informs us that " it was forty leagues from Sonpra 
 to the valley of the Suya, where was founded the city of San Hier- 
 onimo."t Now, my idea is, that the town of Corazones on the Sonora 
 River was Sonora, so called because it was eminently the town of the 
 province of Corazones, in which it was situated; and that San Hieronimo 
 de los Corazones was situated, according to Coronado, ten or twelve 
 leagues from the sea,f and, as above stated, forty leagues from Sonora, 
 on the Suya River; which would place it about where I have located it, 
 on a river which is now called the San Ignacio.f 
 
 From Sonora the march was, according to Jaramillo, four days to the 
 ]$"expa River. Jaramillo says: "After leaving Sonora we made a journey 
 of four days in a desert, and arrived at another stream, which we under 
 stood was called Nexpa. We descended the stream two days, and we 
 quitted it to the right at a foot of a chain of mountains, which we 
 followed two days. They told us that it was called Chichilticale. After 
 having left the mountains we came to a deep creek, the banks of which 
 were escarped. After quitting this stream, which is beyond the ETexpa 
 of which I have spoken, we took a northeast direction," &c.|| 
 
 Now the Nexpa, the stream they descended two days, I believe was 
 the Santa Cruz, running in a northerly direction, (the proper direction 
 of their march ;) the mountains, at the foot of which they also traveled 
 two days, were the " Santa Catarina Mountains ;" and the stream which 
 they then reached was the Gila, whose deep bed and escarped banks so 
 exactly correspond with the description given by Jaramillo.^ 
 
 The next important place was Chichilticale. Here was the Casa 
 Grande of which so much had been reported, and here the army com 
 menced its march northeastwardly across the great desert, on the far 
 side of which were the seven cities of Cibola. That the Casa Grande 
 was so situated, with regard to Cibola, there is no dispute ; but of its 
 exact location there is some question. 
 
 Castaneda says: " At Chichilticale the country ceases to be covered 
 with thorny trees, and changes its aspect ; it is there the gulf terminates, 
 and the coast turns (C^est la que le golfe se termine et que la cote tourne;) 
 the mountains follow the same direction, and they must be crossed to 
 reach the plains again."** 
 
 * Castaneda's Relations, p. 44. t Ibid., p. 158. 
 
 t The sea (Gulf of California) returneth towards the west, right against the Corazones, 
 the space often or twelve leagues. (Coronado' s ReL, Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 448.) 
 
 In this connection it may be pertinent to remark, that San Hieronimo de los Cora- 
 zones, which seems to have been a sort of dep6t, was transferred to Sonora ; but appears 
 still to have been kept as a post, for we are told that some of its garrison deserted it, 
 for, among other reasons, that they looked on it as useless, " for the road to New Spain 
 passed by a more favorable direction, leaving .Suya to the right." This will account 
 for two routes being laid down on the accompanying map between Sonora and the 
 Nexpa River. 
 
 || Jaramillo's Relations, Ternaux Compaus, pp. 367 and 368. 
 
 IT Mr. E. G. Squier supposes the Nexpa to have been the Rio Gila. His language is : 
 "Allowing 30 miles to the day's march, which is about the average under favorable 
 circumstances, we have 120 miles as the distance between the point on the Sonora 
 River left by Coronado in his advance and Chichilticale, between longitudes 109 and 
 110. This is, according to the best maps, about the distance between the Sonora River 
 and the Gila, called Nexpa by the chronicler." (American Review for November, 1848, . 
 p. 6.) 
 
 I cannot agree with Mr. Squier in the foregoing statement, for the reason that the 
 distance between the Sonora River and the Gila, according to the latest map issued by 
 the Engineer Department of the Army, is not 120 miles, but as much as 290 miles ; and,, 
 therefore, as many as eight or ten days' journey instead of four. 
 
 ** Castaneda's Relations, Ternaux Compaus, p. 160. 
 2 
 
IS CORONADO'S MARCH. 
 
 Now this certainly shows that Castaneda believed Chichilticale was 
 situated at the head of the Gulf of California. But according to Coro- 
 uado's report to the viceroy Meiidoga, this assuredly was not the case; 
 for he says: "I departed for the Corazones, and always kept by the sea- 
 coast as near as I could judge, and, in very deed, I still found myself 
 the farther off, in such sort that, when I arrived at Chichilticale, I found 
 myself ten days 7 journey from the sea, and the father provincial (Marcos 
 de Ni5a) said that it was only five leagues distant, and he had seen the 
 same. We all conceived great grief, and were not a little confounded, 
 when we saw that we found everything contrary to the information 
 which he had given to your lordship."* 
 
 In another place, Corouado states that the transport ships which had 
 been ordered to cooperate with him had been seen off the country of 
 the Corazones, on their way to u discover the haven of Chichilticale, 
 which Marcos de Nic.a said was in five-ami- thirty degrees/'t 
 
 The above certainly shows that both De Nica and Castafieda at one 
 time believed that Chichilticale was at the head of the gulf; and it is 
 probable that both the transport vessels and army were ordered to 
 communicate with each other at that point, on the supposition that it 
 was a good harbor, and would be a capital place for a depot of supplies 
 before entering the great desert. But Coronado's report effectually 
 explodes the idea of its having been found such; and if there were more 
 proof on this point needed, it would appear in the fact that neither 
 Alarcon, who commanded the fleet and passed up the Colorado River in 
 search of the army, nor Melchior Diaz, who explored all around the 
 head of the gulf, make any mention of having seen the place, which 
 they most assuredly would have done had they passed any where near it. 
 
 But where was the exact location of Chichilticale ? In my opinion it 
 was on the Rio Gila at Casa Grande, in latitude 33 4' 21" north, and 
 longitude 111 45' west from Greenwich, and the following are my 
 reasons therefor: 
 
 It is distinctly stated by Castaneda that the place was marked by a 
 Casa Grande, which, though then in ruins on account of having been 
 destroyed by the natives, had evidently been used as a fortress ; that it had 
 been built of red earth, and was evidently the work of a civilized people 
 who had come from a distance.J 
 
 Now, the first ruin to be seen on the Gila, ascending it from its mouth, 
 and the only one along its whole course which bears any resemblance 
 to that mentioned by Castafieda, and of which we have any record, is 
 that described by Father Font, who, with Father Garces, saw it in 1775, 
 
 * Iliiklnyt's Voyages, vol. iii, p. 448. 
 t Castaiieda's Relations, pp. 40, 161, 
 efore referred to, says : " There is no i 
 
 tlbid. 
 
 162. Mr. Morgan, in a foot-note to his paper 
 
 before referred to, says : " There is no ruin on the Gila at the present time that answers 
 the above description," and seems to have come to this conclusion, because Captain A. 
 R. Johnston, United States Army, in his journal, (U. S. Ex. Doc. No. 41. 1-48, p. 596,) 
 says, "The house was built of a sort of white earth and pebbles, probably containing 
 lime." Emory merely says, "The walls were formed of layers of mud," (Thirtieth Con- 
 cress, First Session, Ex. Doc. No. 7, p. 82;) and Bartlctt in his Personal Narrative, p. 
 272, informs us that " The walls arc laid with large square blocks, and the material is 
 the mud of the valley mixed with gravel." 
 
 Mr. N. II. Hutton, civil engineer, assistant to Lieutenant Whipplo, in his explorations 
 for the Pacific Railroad in 1853-'54, and at present my assistant, assures me that h<- has 
 seen the locality and the rnius, and that the Casa had evidently born built of the earth 
 in the, vicinity, which is of a reddish color, though in certain retlections of the same the 
 building appeared whitish, on account of the pebbles contained in the mass. Castaneda 
 in his Relations, p. 41, says : "Cette maison, construite en terre rouge;" and p. 161, 
 "La terre de ces pays est rouge." In addition, what more natural than that 
 Emory and Bartlctt, finding the color of the building nothing different from that of the 
 soil in that region, should tail to say anything about it f 
 
CORON ADO'S MARCH. 19 
 
 on their journey to Monterey and the port of San Francisco, and which 
 same ruin was subsequently visited and described by Emory, of the Corps 
 of Topographical Engineers, in 1847. 
 
 Father Font's description of it is as follows : 
 
 " On the 3d of October, 1775, the commandant ordered us to halt, in 
 order that we might visit the Casa Grande, known by the name of Monte- 
 suma, situated one league from the Rio Gila. We were accompanied by 
 some Indians, and by the governor of Uturituc, who related to us on 
 the way the tradition he had received from his ancestors about this 
 house, some of the particulars of which are doubtless fabulous and others 
 again true. 
 
 " The latitude of the locality we found by an observation of the sun to 
 be 33J. 
 
 " The Casa Grande, or palace of Montesuma, must have been built five 
 hundred years previously, (in the thirteenth century,) if we are to believe 
 the accounts given by the Indians ; for it appears to have been con 
 structed by the Mexicans at the epoch of their emigration when the 
 devil, conducting them through different countries, led them to the 
 promised land of Mexico. The house is seventy feet from north to south, 
 and fifty from east to west.* The interior walls are four feet in thick 
 ness $ they are well constructed ; the exterior walls are six feet thick. 
 The edifice is constructed of earth, in blocks of different thickness, and 
 has three stories. We found no traces of stairways ; we think they 
 must have been burnt when the Apaches burnt this edifice."! 
 
 Emory's description, evidently of this same building for the old maps 
 place Father Font's Casa Grande on the Kio Gila, just above the Pirn a 
 village, where Emory locates it is as follows : " About the time of 
 noon halt, a large pile which seemed the work of human hands was 
 seen to the left. It was the remains of a three- story mud-house sixty 
 feet square, pierced for doors and windows. The whole interior of the 
 house had been burnt out, and the walls much defaced."! 
 
 This description, though not precisely the same as that of Father 
 Font, yet is sufficiently close, with the identity of the location, as before 
 stated, to show that they have reference to the same building. Now, 
 Emory by astronomical observation found the latitude of his camp near 
 this locality to be 33 4' 21" north, and the longitude west from Green 
 wich 111 45'. Father Font, as before stated, determined the latitude 
 to be 33 J; but as Emory had, without doubt, far superior instruments, 
 his results are preferable. 
 
 We have then, as we think, located Chichilticale, the site of Casa 
 Grande, with a strong probability of accuracy. 
 
 On Squier's map of Coronado's route, accompanying the paper on this 
 subject, in the Transactions of the Ethnological Society, (vol. 2,) by 
 Albert Gallatin, I perceive that he makes Coronado to cross the Gila at 
 Casa Grande, but places the latter in about latitude 32, and longitude 
 110 ; or more than a degree too far south, and nearly two degrees too 
 far to the east. Now, as Juan Jaramillo, who was a captain in Coro 
 nado's expedition, in his report says the general direction of their march 
 from Chichilticale to Cibola was northeast, a line drawn from Chichil- 
 
 * A Spanish foot is 0.91319 of an English foot. (United States Ordnance Manual.) 
 
 t Journal of Father Font, of the college of Santa Cruz of Queretaro. Appendix VII, 
 Casteneda's Relations, Ternaux Compans' Collections ; see also Humboldt's " Essai Poli- 
 tkiue Sur la Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne," edition of 1811, pp. 36, 297, 298. 
 
 i Notes of a military reconnoissance made by Lieutenant Colonel William H. Emory, 
 Corps of Topographical Engineers, in 1846-' 47, with the advance guard of the Army of 
 the West, p. 82. 
 
 $ Juan Jaramillo's Relations, Ternaux Compans' Collections, pp. 368, 369. 
 
20 COROXADO'S MARCH. 
 
 ticale as laid down 011 Squier's map would not pass through or near 
 Zufri, (identical on his map with Cibola,) as it ought to do, but more 
 than a degree totheeastof it; thus showing his position of Chichilticale 
 manifestly erroneous. 
 
 Again, on the map of K. n. Kern, accompanying " Schoolcraffs History 
 of the Indian Tribes of North America," he places Chichilticale as much 
 a> a degree of latitude south of the Gila and in longitude 109. Here 
 again a line in a northeast direction from Chichilticale would not pass, 
 as it should, through or near Zufii. (identical, as Kern thinks, with Ci 
 bola,) but more thai! two degrees to the eastward of it ; which also shows 
 his position of Chichilticale very considerably out of the way. 
 
 The next and most important inquiry is the exact locality of the seven 
 cities of Cibola. Gallatin, Squier, YVhipple, Pro lessor Turner, and 
 Kern, have contended for Zufii and its vicinity. Emory and Abert, on 
 the contrary, have conjectured that Cibolletta, Moquino, Pojnati. Covero, 
 Aeoma, Laguna, and Poblacon, a group of villages some ninety miles to 
 the eastward of Zuni, furnish the site of the seven cities ; and 31r. Mor 
 gan, as I have before remarked, in the Xorth American 1'eview for 
 April, 1869, has advanced the idea that the ruins on the Chaco, lying 
 about one hundred miles to the northeast of Zuni, more completely 
 satisfy all the conditions of the problem which the accounts of Coron- 
 ado's journey, by Castaiieda and others, have imposed on its solution. 
 To my mind, however, Zuni and vicinity present the strongest claims 
 to being considered the site of the renowned cities, and the following 
 are my reasons therefor : 
 
 It seems that from Chichilticale to Cibola, the direction of Corouado's 
 route, according to Jaramillo, as before remarked, was generally north 
 east ; and from Coronations report 1 extract in relation to it as follows. 
 He is speaking of what occurred after leaving Chichilticale : 
 
 "I entered the confines of the desert, on Saint Jobu's day eve, and to 
 refresh our former travels we found no grass, but worser way of moun 
 tains and bad passages where we had passed already; and the horses 
 being tired were greatly molested therewith ; but alter we had passed 
 these thirty leagues, we found fresh rivers and grasses like that of Cas 
 tile, &c. ; and there was flax, but chiefly near the banks of a certain 
 river, which, therefore, was called El Kio del Lino, that is to say, the 
 IMvcr of Flax ; we found no Indians at all for a day's travel, but a tier- 
 ward four Indians came out unto us in peaceable manner, saying that 
 they were sent over to that desert place to signify unto us that we were 
 welcome." * 
 
 In addition to the foregoing, Castaneda says that in about fifteen days 
 from Chichilticale " they arrived within eight leagues of Cibola, upon 
 the banks of a river tiiey called the Vermejo, on account of its red 
 color ; M t and Jaramillo remarks that in approaching Cibola " always in 
 the same direction, that is to say, toward the northeast, they came to a 
 river which they called the Vermejo ; that here they met one or two In 
 dians, who afterwards they ivcogni/ed as belonging to the first village 
 of Cibola ; and that they reached this village in two days from when 
 they had first met them. v t 
 
 iSow let any one consult the accompanying map, reduced from the 
 latest map issued by the Engineer liureau at Washington, and he will 
 
 *Hakluyt's Voyuj^vs, vol. iii, p. -Hi'. 
 tCastafi.-.hfs IMuiinns. Teniaux Coinpans, p. 41. 
 t Jaruimllo's Kelatioiis, Teriiaux Coiupaus, p. oU'J. 
 
CORONADO'S MARCH. 21 
 
 see that Coronado's march from Chichilticale, or Casa Grande, must 
 have been very nearly coincident with the route there laid down, to wit : 
 in a northeasterly direction for the first thirty leagues, over the rough 
 Final and Mogollon Mountains ; and then getting on the tributaries of 
 the Rio del Lino, or Flax Kiver, where he found " fresh water and grasses," 
 he followed up the Verinejo, or Colorado Eiver, to Cibola, or Zuni of the 
 present day and its vicinity, where he found the other six cities. The 
 distance by such route, between Chichilticale and Zuiii, would be about 
 270 miles, or require a journey of 17 days, (about 16 miles a day,) the 
 time it took Coronado to accomplish the distance ;* and this agrees quite 
 exactly with the distance, 80 leagues, as given by Castaneda In another 
 place, t 
 
 But there are other good reasons for this Belief. At Zuiii and its 
 vicinity, within a distance of about 16 miles, and on the banks of the 
 Verinejo, or Little Colorado Eiver, there are the ruins of as many as six 
 pueblos, all showing that they were once. built of stone; and, with the 
 present Zuni, doubtless they constituted the " seven cities" which, ac 
 cording to Coronado, were all built "within four leagues together ,"f 
 and according to Castafieda were "situated in a very narrow valley be 
 tween des Montagues Escarpees^ which may have been intended to 
 mean escarped mesas , or table lands, just as close in the valley of the 
 Little Colorado or Eio de Zuiii. 
 
 In my report to the Chief of Topographical Engineers of my recon- 
 noissance made in the Navajo country in 1848, I described Zuiii as fol 
 lows : " The pueblo of Zuiii, when first seen about three miles off, appeared 
 like a low ridge of brownish rocks, not a tree being visible to relieve 
 the nakedness of its appearance. It is a pueblo or Indian town, situ 
 ated on the Eio de Zuni. This river at the town has a bed of about 150 
 yards wide. The stream, however, at the time we saw it, only showed a 
 breadth of about 6 feet and a depth of a few inches. It is represented 
 as running into the Colorado of the West. The town, like Santo Do 
 mingo, is built terrace-Shaped, each story of which there are generally 
 three as you ascend being smaller laterally, so that one story answers, 
 in fact, for the platform of the one above it. It, however, is far more 
 compact than Santo Domingo, its streets being narrow, and in places 
 presenting the appearance of tunnels or covered ways, on account of 
 the houses extending at these places over them.*'|| 
 
 Lieutenant A. W. Whipple, Corps Topographical Engineers, visited 
 the ruins of old Zuiii in 1853-'o4, and in his report to the War Depart 
 ment thus describes the place : " We took a trail and proceeded two 
 miles south to a deep canon, where were springs of water. Thence by 
 a zigzag course we led our mules up the first bench of ascent. At vari 
 ous points of the ascent, where a projecting rock permitted, were barri 
 cades of stone walls, from which, the old man (his guide) told us, they 
 had hurled rocks upon the invading Spaniards. Having ascended, 
 according to our estimate, 1,000 feet, we found ourselves upon a level 
 surface covered with thick cedars. The top of the mesa was of an irregu 
 lar figure a mile in width, and bounded on all sides by perpendicular 
 cliffs. Three times we crossed it, searching in vain for the trace of a 
 
 * Castaneda's Relations, pp. 41, 42. 
 
 t Ibid., p. 188. 
 
 t Coronado's Relations, Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 451. 
 
 $ Castaiieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 164. 
 
 || "Journal of a military reconnoissance from Santa F<5, New Mexico, to the Navajo 
 country, made by Lieutenant J. H. Simpson, Corps of Topographical Engineers, in 
 1849," United States Senate Ex. Doc. No. 64, 31st Congress, 1st session, 1850 ; also, Lip- 
 pincott, Grainbo & Co., Philadelphia, 1852, pp. 89 and 90. 
 
CORONADO'S MARCH. 
 
 ruin. But tlie guide hurried us on half a mile further, when appeared 
 the ruins of a city indeed. Crumbling walls from 2 to 1'2 feet high were 
 crowded together in confused heaps over several acres of ground. Upon 
 examining the pueblo we found that the standing walls rested upon 
 ruins of greater antiquity. The primitive masonry, as well as we could 
 judge, must have been about 6 feet thiek. The more recent was not 
 more than a foot, but the small sandstone blocks had been laid in mud 
 inortar with considerable care."* 
 
 Now I take it that old Zufii was one of the seven towns of Cibola, 
 called by Corouado " Grenada, because it was somewhat like to it;"t and 
 the narrow winding icay, ascending which Coronado was knocked down 
 by stones hurled upon him by the defenders,} was in all probability the 
 very zigzag approach mentioned by Whipple, and which he found so 
 difficult in his ascent to the ruins. 
 
 The other six towns were doubtless Zufii of the present day, and those 
 whose ruins are to be found still further up the valley, showing they had 
 been stone structures, and to which I refer in my report before referred 
 to, as follows : " Within a few yards of us are several heaps of pueblo 
 ruins. Two of them, on examination, I found to be of elliptical shape 
 and approximating 1,000 feet in circuit. The buildings seem to have 
 been chiefly built on the periphery of an ellipse, having a large interior 
 court ; but their style and the details of their construction, except that 
 they were built of stone and mud mortar, are not distinguishable in the 
 general mass. The areas of each are now so overgrown with bushes and 
 so much commingled with mother earth as, except on critical examina 
 tion, to be scarcely distinguishable from natural mounds. The usual 
 quantum of pottery lies scattered around. The governor of Zuni, who 
 is again on a visit to us, informs us that the ruins I have just described, 
 as also those seen a couple of miles back, are the ruins of pueblos which 
 his people formerly inhabited." 
 
 There are other circumstances of relative position of places which 
 point most indubitably to the same conclusion; as follows : Castaueda 
 repeatedly states that Cibola was the first inhabited province they met 
 going north from Chichilticale after they crossed the desert, and the last 
 they left before entering the desert on their return to Mexico. Again. 
 the present relations to each other of Zuili and the Moqui Pueblos, and 
 also of Acoma, perched on a mesa height, in regard to courses and dis 
 tances tally sufficiently near with the positions of Tnsayan and Acuco, 
 as given by Castaneda, namely, the former northwest 25 leagues and the 
 latter eastwardly five days 7 journey from Cibola, || as to make it exceed 
 ingly probable that they refer to the same localities.^ Again, Castanedo, 
 
 * Pacific R. R. Reports, vol. iii, pp. 68, 69. 
 
 t Coronado's Relation, Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 451. 
 
 t "dependant il fallait s'emparer do Cibola co qui n'dtait pas chose facile, car le 
 cliemin qni y conduissat 6tait etroit et tortnenx. Le Ge'ne'ral fut renverse d'un coup 
 de pierre en montant a 1'assaut," &c. Castaneda's Eel., Ternaux Compans, p. 43. 
 
 Simpson's Journal, p. 97. 
 
 jj Castaueda's Relations, Teruaux Compans, pp. 58, 07, 68, 69, 70, 165. 
 
 1IMr. Sqnier, in his article on the "Ancient Monuments, V-c.. in NYw Mexico and Cal 
 ifornia." in American Review for November. l-K oives the position of Tusaynn from 
 Cibola, lyoth northeast and northwest from ('Simla, and on his map accompanying Mr. 
 Albert Gallatin's Essay, in the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, vol. 
 ii. he has placed it in a northeast direction. The proper direction of Tnsayan with 
 regard to Cibola is northwest. (See Castaneda's Relations, Ternanx Compans. p. 165.) 
 II. -sides Cardenas, on his way lo the Ki del Tizon, (Colorado.) passed through Tnsayan 
 fiom Cibola, which makes it all very natural if' Tnsayan was northwest from Cibola, 
 but would not be so if it was in a northeast direction, as laid down on Mr. Sqnier's 
 map. 
 
CORON ADO'S MARCH. 23 
 
 describing the valley in which the province of Cibola was situated, 
 says, "Oest une valle'e tre's-etroite entre des montagnes escarpees,"* 
 which is an exact description of the valley of the Rio de Zuni, confined 
 between the walls of inclosing inesas. Again, Jaramillo says " this first 
 village of Cibola is exposed a little towards the northeast, and to the 
 northwest in about five days' journey is a province of seven villages 
 called Tusayan,t all of which exactly accords with the exposed position 
 to the northeast of old Zulu and correctly describes the location of the 
 Moqui villages. 
 
 But there is some historical evidence upon this point which I consider 
 irrefragable, and which certainly makes Zuni and Cibola identical places. 
 
 Referring to the relation of a notable journey made by Antonio de 
 Espejo to New Mexico, iri 1583, to be found in Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. 
 iii, I read as follows : "Antonio de Espejo also visited Acorna, situated 
 upon a high rock which was about 50 paces high, having no other en 
 trance but by a ladder or pair of stairs hewn into the same rock, whereat 
 our people marveled not a little. 
 
 6i Twenty-five leagues from hence, toward the west, they came to a 
 certain province called by the inhabitants themselves Zuni, and by the 
 Spaniards Cibola, containing a great number of Indians, in which pro 
 vince Francisco Vasquez de Coronaclo had been, and had erected many 
 crosses and other tokens of Christianity, which remained as yet stand 
 ing. Here also they found three Indian Christians who had remained 
 there ever since the said journey, whose names were Andrew de Culia- 
 can, Gaspar de Mexico, and Antonio de Guadalajara, who had about 
 forgotten their language, but could speak the country speech very well ; 
 howbeit after some small conference with our men they easily under 
 stood one another." 
 
 $ow turning to Castaneda's Relations, where he gives an account of 
 Coronado's leaving the country for Mexico, I find his language as fol 
 lows : " When the army arrived at Cibola it rested for a while to pre 
 pare itself for entering the desert, for it is the last point inhabited. We 
 left the country entirely peaceful ; there were some Indians from Mexico 
 who had accompanied us, who remained there and established them 
 selves, (il y ent meme quelques Indiens clu Mexique qui nous avaieni ac- 
 compagnes, qui y resterent et s'y etablirent.")f 
 
 Thus it would seem that the two accounts of Espejo and Castaneda 
 correspond in such a manner as not to leave the slightest doubt that 
 Zuni of the present day is the Cibola of old. Coronado left three of 
 his men at Cibola, who were found living there by Espejo and his party 
 forty years afterwards ; they had nearly forgotten their original lan 
 guage, but yet, after awhile, managed to converse with some of Espejo's 
 men. What more natural, and, indeed, what could have been a more 
 interesting topic than the adventures of these men ; how they got there, 
 and whether Zuni was veritably the far-famed Cibola that forty years 
 previously had excited the attention of the governments of New and 
 Old Spain. Espejo, under the above circumstances, reporting that the 
 Spaniards called Zuni Cibola, certainly could not have meant anything 
 else than that he believed it veritably such. I have been thus particu 
 lar with regard to this testimony, for the reason that Mr. Morgan, in his 
 essay already referred to, while he recognizes the historical fact of Zuni 
 having been called by the Spaniards, according to Espejo's Relations, 
 Cibola, in 1583, yet advances the idea that after all Espejo probably 
 
 * Castaneda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 164. 
 t Jaramillo's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 370. 
 iCastaueda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 217. 
 
CORONADO'S MARCH. 
 
 only meant to express that they conjectured the places to have been 
 identical 
 
 It seems tome that \vhat I have advanced shows most conclusively 
 that Cibola and Zufii are identical localities, and nothing could be said 
 which could make it more certain; but as corroborative I will state that I 
 have seen in the excellent library of the Peabody Institute of Baltimore 
 an atlas entitled "The American Atlas, or a Geographical Description 
 of the whole Continent of America, by Mr. Thomas Jeffreys, Geogra 
 pher, published in London in 1773." On map No. o of this atlas, Zuni 
 and Cibola are laid down as synonymous names, and the locality they 
 express is precisely that of Zuni of the present day.* Again, on a. 
 u Carte coutenant le Koyaume du Mexique et La Floride," in the %; Atlas 
 Historique par Mr. C * * * avec des dissertations sur 1'ilistoire de 
 chaque etat par Mr. Guendeville," tome vi, second edition, published 
 in Amsterdam, 1732, I find Zuni and Cibola laid down as synonymous. 
 
 In this connection it may be proper to observe that the claims of Ci- 
 boletta, Moquino, Poquate, Covero, Acomo, Laguna, Poblaeon, as con 
 jectured by Emory and Abert to be regarded as the seven cities of 
 Cibola, are rendered null by the hi^orical fact mentioned by Castafieda, 
 and also by Jaramillo, that the latter were situated on the Kin Yermejo, 
 (Little Colorado,) a tributary of the Southern Ocean ;t and also, by the 
 circumstance of the army, on its march from Cibola to Tiguex, finding 
 Acuco (Acoma) five days 7 journey to the eastward of Cibola, a circum 
 stance which could not have taken place if Acuco (Acoma) were one of 
 the seven towns of Cibola. Besides, Castafieda, in enumerating the 
 villages dispersed in the country, expressly states that " Cibola is the 
 first province ; it contains seven villages ; Tusayan, seven; the rock of 
 Acuco, one, &c.,J which certainly shows that Cibola and Acuco were 
 separate and district provinces. 
 
 Again, I cannot see that the ruins of the Chaco, which, according to 
 iny explorations and reading are probably, on account of their extent 
 and character, the most remarkable yet discovered in this country, have 
 any just claims, as advanced by Mr. Morgan, to be regarded as the seven 
 cities of Cibola ; first, for the reason that they are not, as required by 
 historical fact, situated on the Rio Vermejo, (Little Colorado,) or tribu 
 tary of the Rio del Lino or Flax Kiver; second, they are not so situated 
 with regard to the desert passed over by Coroiiado, between Chichilticale 
 and Cibola, as to make the statement of Castafieda pertinent, to wit, 
 
 * On this atlas is indorsed, " Presented to the Peabody Institute l>y tin 1 {<.n. Jolm P. 
 Kennedy, April 1, 1864. By this map the great dispute between Daniel Webster and 
 Lord Ashburton (relating doubtless to the northeastern boundary) was settled, particu 
 larly by map No. 5." 
 
 t" All the streams we met, whether rivulet or river, as far as that of Cibola, and I 
 believe even one or two days' journey beyond that place, How in the dim-turn of tin- 
 South Sea, (Mer du Sud,) meaning the Pacific Ocean;" further on they llow to the 
 North Sen, (Mer du Nord,) meaning the Gulf of Mexico. Jarainillo's Relations, Tcrnaux 
 Compans, p. 370. 
 
 t Castaneda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, pp. 181, 182. 
 
 $Mr. Morgan, in his essay before referred to, having already made large extracts 
 from my report to the Government on these ruins, I deem it tmnecesuffy to say any 
 thing further in relation to them than to refer tin- reader for a more detailed aeeonnt 
 to >aid report. It is interesting, however, in this connection, to present the following 
 extract from Humboldt's I-Nsai sur ]< K'nyaunic de la Xouvelle Kspagne, page :M.">. which 
 in all probability refers to these very ruins : "The Indian traditions inform us that 
 sonic twenty leagues to the north of Moqui. near the enihouehureof the river /cjuannes, 
 .a river of the Navajos, was the lirst resting place (dcmcitn 1 } of the A/tccs alter their 
 sortie from At /.I an." Again, on his map accompanying his Kssay, is the following: 
 'Premiere dcmeure des 'A/tc.|Ues sortc's d'At/lan en 11(50, tradition in certuinc," in lon 
 gitude about m-30", latitude 37. 
 
CORONADO'S MAKCH. 25 
 
 that Cibola was the first village to be met after passing the desert, arid. 
 the last on leaving the peopled country to enter the desert ; third, the 
 Moqui villages (undoubtedly Tusayan) do not lie to the northwest from 
 the ruins on the Chaco, as they should do if these ruins were Cibola, but 
 to the south of west; and fourth, the route of Coronado's army eastward 
 from there to Cicuy<, by the way of Acuco, (Acoma,) would have been 
 very much and unnecessarily out of the proper direction. 
 
 Mr. Morgan mentions the fact stated by Coronado, that it was eight 
 days' journey from Cibola to the buffalo range. This, he thinks, could 
 very well have taken place on the hypothesis of the Chaco ruins having 
 been Cibola, but not on the supposition of Zuni. But the distance of 
 Zuiii to the buffalo range east of the Rio Pecos is only about 230 miles, 
 which certainly could have been reached in eight days, allowing the 
 journey he does of 30 miles per day. 
 
 But to proceed with the principal points of Coronado's route eastward 
 from Cibola. I believe that all authorities who have written on the 
 subject concur in the view that the Ipueblo of Acoma, or Hak-koo-kee- 
 ah, as it is now called in the Zuni language, is the Acuco of Colorado.* 
 
 The singular coincidence of the names, as well as the striking resem 
 blance of the two places as described by Castaneda and Abert, which 
 cannot be predicated of any other place in New Mexico, together with 
 the proper relation of Acoma to Zuni (Cibola) and Tiguex in distance 
 and direction, all show that they are identical, t 
 
 The next province Coronado entered was that of Tiguex. Mr. Gallatin 
 has located it on the Eio Puerco. His language relating to it is as fol 
 lows: a Having compared those several accounts (of Castaneda and 
 Jaramillo) with Lieutenant Abert's map and with that of Mr. Gregg, it 
 
 * Lieutenant Colonel J. H. Eaton, United States Army, writing on this subject, re 
 marks: "In a conversation with a very intelligent Zuni Indian I learned that the 
 Pueblo of Acoma is called in the Zuni tongue Hak-koo-kee-ah, (Acuco,) and this name 
 was given to mo without any previous question which would serve to give him an idea 
 of this old Spanish name. Does not this, therefore, seem to give color to the hypothesis 
 that Coronado's army passed by or near to the present Pueblo of Zuiii, and that it was 
 their Cibola, or one of the seven cities of Cibola." (Schoolcraft's History of the Indian 
 Tribes of the United States, part iv, p. 220.) 
 
 t The following graphic description of Acoma is from Abert : " After a journey of 15 
 miles we arrived at Acoma. High on a lofty rock of sandstone, such as I have de 
 scribed, sits the city of Acoma. On the northern side of the rock the rude boreal blasts 
 have heaped up the sand so as to form a practical ascent for some distance ; the rest of 
 the way is through solid rock. At one place a singular opening .or narrow way is 
 formed between a huge, square tower of rock and the perpendicular face of the cliff. 
 Then the road winds round like a spiral stairway; and the Indians have, in some way, 
 fixed logs of wood in the rock, radiating from a vertical axis, like steps. These afford 
 foothold to man and beast in clambering up. 
 
 "We were constantly meeting and passing Indians, who had their 'burros' laden 
 with peaches. At last we reached the top of the rock, which was nearly level, and con 
 tains about sixty acres. Here we saw a large church, and several continuous blocks of 
 buildings, containing sixty or seventy houses in each block. (The wall at the side that 
 faced outward was unbroken, and had no windows until near the top. The houses 
 were three stories high.) In front, each story retreated back as it ascended, so as to 
 leave a platform along the whole front of the story. These platforms are guarded by 
 parapet walls about three feet high. In order to gain admittance you ascend to the 
 second story by means of ladders. The next story is gained by the same means ; but- 
 to reach the ' azotia,' or roof, the partition walls on the platform that separates the 
 quarters of different families have been formed into steps. This makes quite a narrow 
 staircase, as the walls are not more than one foot in width." (Report of Lieutenant J. 
 W. Abert, Corps Topographical Engineers, of his examination of New Mexico in the 
 years 1846-'47, Ex. Doc. 41, 30th Congress, 1st session, pp. 470, 471.) 
 
26 CORON ADO'S MARCH. 
 
 appears to me probable that the Tiguex country lay, not on the main 
 Kio Norte, but on its tributary, the Uio Puerco and its branches, and 
 that the river which the Spaniards called Cicuye", and on which they 
 were obliged to build a bridge, was the main Kio del Norte."* 
 
 Mr. W. H. Davis, author of U E1 Gringo; or New Mexico and her 
 People," published in 1853, takes the same view. 
 
 Mr. Squier believes the Kio de Tiguex to have been the Kio Grande, 
 and the Kio de Cicuye the Pecos, but locates Tiguex on the Kio Grande, 
 above the mouth of the Puerco. Messrs. Kern and Morgan take the same 
 view. 
 
 According to my investigations I believe the Kio Tiguex to have been 
 the Kio Grande, and the Rio deCicuy6 the KioPecos; but while I am 
 willing to admit there are some grounds for the hypothesis that Tiguex 
 was located on the Kio Grande above the mouth of the Puerco, yet I 
 think there are still stronger grounds for the belief that it was situated 
 on the Kio Grande beloic that river. 
 
 Castaiieda says, " Three days' journey from Acuco ( Acoma) Alvarado 
 and his army arrived in' a province which was called Tiguex. v t 
 
 Again, " The province of Tignex contains twelve villages, situated on 
 the banks of a great river in a valley about two leagues broad. It is 
 bounded on the west by some mountains, which are very high and cov 
 ered with snow. Four villages are built at the foot of these mountains 
 and three others upon the heights."^ 
 
 Now, as Coronado and his army marched eastward from Acuco, 
 (Acoma,) and they accomplished the distance in a three days' journey 
 and then came to a large river, on the banks of which was situated the 
 province of Tiguex, it is clear that as the Kio Grande is the first large 
 river to be met eastward from Acuco (Acoma) at a distance varying 
 from sixty to eighty miles, depending on the route taken, this was the 
 great river referred to, or the Kio de Tiguex. 
 
 The idea of Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Davis that the Puerco was this river 
 is, I think, entirely untenable, for the reason that this river in its best 
 stagfe is only about one hundred and twenty miles long, and frequently, 
 as I myself have observed, so dry that its existence could only be in 
 ferred from its dry bed and the occasional pools of water to be met 
 along its track. It certainly, then, could not with any propriety be 
 called a great river, as the Kio de Tiguex was represented to be. 
 
 In addition, we learn that the guides who conducted the army back 
 to Cicuye, on its return from its search after Quivira, declared that the 
 Kio de Cicuye' threw itself into the Kio de Tiguex more than twenty 
 days' journey (or over four hundred miles) below where they struck it;"j| 
 which would have been an absurdity if the Tiguex were the trifling* Kio 
 Puerco, and the Cicuye the Kio Grande, as Mr. Gallatin supposed ; but 
 which is all very plain on the hypothesis that the Tiguex was the Kio 
 Grande, and the Cicuye* the Pecos. 
 
 But where was the exact location of the province of Tiguex? 
 
 It was certainly belowILernez and Quirix, (San Felipe,^}) for the chron- 
 
 * Transactions American Ethnological Society, vol. 2, p. 73. 
 
 t Castafieda's Relations, Ternaux C'onipans, p. 71. 
 
 t Castftfieda'fl Relations, Teruaux Compans, pp. 1G7, 163. 
 
 $ Ibid, p. G7. 
 
 || Castaurdn':* Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 135. 
 
 IT On the old maps, as also on Humholdt's, illustrating his " Nouvelle Hispagne," I 
 notice the pueblo of Sau Felipe is laid down as " S. Felipe di inch I am in 
 
 formed is its name at this day. Indrrd. (Jiv^-. Speaking of Certain pnrblos iu Now 
 Mexico, says, "those of Cochiti, Santo Domingo, San Felipe, and pnhap.s Sandia. s^ak 
 the same tOIlgue, though they seem formerly to have been distinguished as Queues " 
 (Commerce of the Prairies, 2ii edition, vol. i, p. 
 
CORON AD0 7 S MARCH. 27 
 
 icier states that farther to the north (from Tiguex) is the province of 
 Quirix, which contains seven villages ; seven leagues to the northwest 
 (which may mean from Quirix or Tiguex) that of Heinez, which con 
 tains the same number, &c. ; * the text says, " nord-est," but this is 
 evidently a mistake, as the oldest maps extant place Hernez where it is 
 now situated, on the Eio de Heinez, to the west of the Bio Grande. 
 
 The foregoing would seem to show conclusively that Tiguex was sit 
 uated below Quirix, and possibly, under one of the constructions given 
 above, only seven leagues or twenty-four miles below Hemez, which 
 would place it on the Eio Grande just about the mouth of the Eio de 
 Hemez, or about 80 miles above the mouth of the Puerco, where the 
 authorities above given have placed it. But yet the extract before 
 given from Castaneda expressly states also that the "Province of Tig 
 uex was situated upon the banks of a great river (Eio de Tiguex) in a 
 valley about two leagues broad, and bounded on its west by some very 
 high, snowy mountains," &c. Now, the only locality which will answer 
 this description is that part of the valley of the Eio Grande bounded on 
 its west by the Socorro Mountains, situated just below the mouth of the 
 Puerco. These are the first mountains to be met in descending the river 
 from Santo Domingo, or from even above that pueblo, (all the intervening 
 heights being merely table-lands and therefore not so elevated as to be 
 termed snowy,) and they fix the locality, in my judgment, as I have 
 before stated, below the mouth of the Puerco. 
 
 I have, therefore, on my map located the province of Tiguex on the 
 Eio Grande below the Eio Puerco, at the foot of the Socorro Mountains, 
 which bounds it on its west ; and it is somewhat confirmatory of this 
 position that on the map No. 5 of "Thomas Jeffreys' Atlas," before re 
 ferred to as excellent authority, I find Tlgua, no doubt intended for the 
 same place, or province, located in the valley of the Eio Grande, just 
 where I have located Tiguex, namely, at the foot of the Socorro Moun 
 tains. 
 
 The next important place in the route of Coronado from Tiguex was 
 Cicuye*. Castanedo says : "After a journey of five days from Tiguex, 
 Alvarado (with his detachment of twenty men) arrived at Cicuye, a 
 very well fortified village, the houses of which are four stories high."t 
 Again, "The armyquitted Tiguex on the 5th of May (1531) and took the 
 route to Cicuye, which is twenty-five leagues distant."! Jaramillo states 
 the direction to have been " nprtheast." In another place Castaneda 
 remarks that " Cicuye' is built in a narrow valley, in the midst of moun 
 tains covered with pines. It is traversed by a small stream, in which we 
 caught some excellent trout.") | 
 
 Now, all this points, as I believe, to the ruins of Pecos, on the Eio 
 Pecos, as the site of Cicuye', and in this I agree with Mr. Squier and 
 Mr. Kern. These ruins are in a northeast direction from the supposed 
 position of Tiguex, and about five days' journey distant. They are 
 also situated in a narrow valley in the midst of mountains covered 
 with pines, and the site is traversed by a small silvery stream, in which 
 may be caught some excellent trout. I certainly know no other place 
 that in so many respects suits the conditions of the problem ; but the 
 
 * Castaneda's Relations, Teruaux Compans. 
 t Castaiieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 71. 
 t Castaneda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 113. 
 $ Jaramillo's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 371. 
 II Castaiieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 179. 
 
28 CORONADO'S MARCH. 
 
 following remark by Castaneda has perplexed investigators not a little. 
 He remarks, that " when the army quitted Cicuye to go to Quivira we 
 entered the mountains, which it was necessary to cross to reach the 
 plains, and on the fourth day we arrived at a great river, very deep, 
 which passes also near Cicuye'. It is for this reason we call it the Rio 
 de Cicuye'. Here we were obliged to build a bridge, which employed us 
 four days."* 
 
 The difficulty has been to reconcile the statement that Cicuye" (Pecos) 
 was on or near the Eio Cicuye', and yet that after four days' travel, after 
 traversing some mountains in a northeasterly direction, the army should 
 again cross it by a bridge. 
 
 Now all this, I think, can be reconciled by reference to the accom 
 panying map, on which will be found laid down a route, the only one, I 
 believe, existing at the present day between Pecos and Las Vegas, on 
 the Eio Gallinas, a tributary of the Bio Pecos, where the plains com 
 mence.! The general direction of the road is northeast. It traverses 
 some very rough mountains, and the distance between the two places is 
 about fifty miles, which might have necessitated, considering the rough 
 ness of the route, a journey of four days, as the conditions require. Be 
 sides, the Gallinas is liable to be flooded from the melting snows of the 
 neighboring sierras in the month of May and fore-part of June ; this 
 naturally would make necessary at such times a bridge to cross it. 
 Emory, speaking about Las Vegas and its vicinity, says : u As we emerged 
 from the hills into the valley of the Ve'gas, our eyes were greeted for 
 the first time with waving corn. The stream (the Gallinas) was/oorfcrf, 
 and the little drains by which the fields were irrigated full to the brim. r f 
 
 My idea is, then, that this stream being a tributary of the Pecos and 
 larger than the latter at Cicuye', (Pecos,) it was, in all probability, 
 called for those reasons the Eio de Cicuye, though the place by this 
 name was situated distant from it on another branch of the same river, 
 where the ruins of the Pecos village are now to be seen. 
 
 I will also state, as strongly confirmatory of this location of Cicuye, 
 that on map No. 5 of the "American Atlas, by Thomas Jeffreys, pub 
 lished in 1775," twice before referred to, I find laid down, in about the 
 present locality of Pecos, a place named " Sayaque," which might well 
 answer for Cicuye'. 
 
 But where was Quivira? "the last" (place,) as Castaueda remarks, 
 u which was visited by Coronado." Mr. Squier, on his map, before re 
 ferred to, has the route pursued by Coronado laid down as extending 
 indefinitely in a northeastwardly direction, from Cicuye (Pecos ;) but 
 still, in his essay before referred to, says " there is no doubt that Vas- 
 quez Coronado penetrated, in 1541, to the region of Gran Quivira, vis 
 ited and described by Gregg ;" that is the Quivira which on modern 
 maps is laid down in latitude about 34 north, and longitude 106 west 
 from Greenwich, or about 100 miles directly south from Santa Fe. Lieu 
 tenant Abert and Mr. Kern have expressed the same thing ; the latter 
 locating Coronado's route, not in a northeast direction from Cicuyd and 
 extending about six hundred miles, as required by the statements of Cas- 
 tafieda, Coronado, and Jaramillo ; but in a direction almost di redly the 
 reverse at first eastwardly and then westwardly, so as to make him 
 reach a place called Quivira in modern times, but located only about 
 
 * Castnfioda's Relations, Ternanx Compaus, pp. 115, 116. 
 
 t This is tlu only route which for years has bvii taken by travelers and others from 
 Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fe\ 
 
 t Emory's Report, Ex. Doc. No. 7, 30th Congress, 1st session, p. 26. 
 $ American Review for November, 1648, p. 6. 
 
CORONADO'S MARCH. 29 
 
 one hundred miles from Cicuye (Pecos,) and that almost iu a due south 
 direction. 
 
 Mr. Gallatin says, "Coronado appears to have proceeded as far north 
 as near the 40 of latitude," * in search of Quivira. 
 
 Again, quoting from him, " Quivira, (referring to that about one hun 
 dred miles south from Santa Fe, in latitude 34 and longitude 106,) about 
 fourteen miles east of Abo, was not visited by Lieutenant Abert ; but 
 its position was correctly ascertained. It is quite probable that the 
 place now known by that name was the true Quivira of the Indians at 
 the time of Coronado's expedition. But whether deceived by a treach 
 erous Indian guide, as they assert, or having not understood what the 
 Indians meant, which is quite probable, the Spaniards gave the name 
 of Quivira to an imaginary country situated north and represented as 
 abounding in gold." t 
 
 Now, it is something singular that, so far as I have been able to inves 
 tigate, there is no such place as Quivira laid clown on the old maps in 
 the locality where modern maps show it namely, in latitude 34, lon 
 gitude 106 ; but there is a place of that name laid down on these maps 
 in about latitude 40, as high as Coronado located it. I am therefore 
 inclined to believe that at the time of Cpronado's expedition the former 
 Quivira did not exist. At all events, it is scarcely credible that such a 
 remarkable city as Quivira was represented to be, so full of gold, &c., 
 situated as it was, only about fifty miles from Tiguex, the headquarters of 
 Coronado's army, and which might have been reached in two days, could 
 have been kept from the knowledge and observation of the army for 
 about a year and a half, during all the time that a portion of it was sta 
 tioned at that place. 
 
 Again, Gregg, (an excellent authority,) speaking of the ruins of Qui 
 vira, remarks: " By some persons these ruins have been supposed to be 
 the remains of an ancient pueblo, or aboriginal city. That is not proba 
 ble, however, for though the relics of aboriginal temples might possibly 
 be mistaken for those of Catholic churches, yet it is not to be presumed 
 that the Spanish coat of arms would be found sculptured and painted 
 on their facades, as is the case in more than one instance."! 
 
 No ; I am of opinion that Coronado and his army marched just as Cas- 
 taneda, Jaramillo, and Coronado have reported ; that is, generally in a 
 northeast direction, over extensive plains, through countless herds of 
 buffaloes and prairie-dog villages, and at length, after getting in a man 
 ner lost, and finding, as the chronicler says, they had gone " too far 
 toward Florida," that is, to the eastward, and had traveled from Tiguex 
 for thirty-seven days, or a distance of between 700 and 800 miles, their 
 provisions failing them, the main body turned back to Tiguex ; and 
 Coronado, with thirty-six picked men, continued his explorations north 
 wardly to the 40 of latitude, where he reached a province which the 
 lodians called Quivira, in which he expected to find a city containing 
 remarkable houses and stores of gold, but which turned out to be only 
 the abode of very wild Indians, who lived in miserable wigwams, and 
 knew nothing about gold. 
 
 * Transactions American Ethnological Society, vol. ii. p. 64. 
 
 tl'bid., p. 95. 
 
 t Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies, 2d ed., p. 165. 
 
 On some of the old maps Florida embraces all the country west of the Rio Grande 
 and south of Canada. See " Atlas Historique, par Mr. C * * * ; Avec des dissertations 
 sur PHistoire de Chaque 6tat, par Mr. Gnendeville," before alluded to, published in 
 1732. Again, Hakluyt remarks : " The name of Florida was at one time applied to all 
 that tract of territory which extends from Canada to the Rio del Norte." (See his 
 introduction to " The Discovery and Conquest of Peru by Don Fernando de Soto," p. 10.) 
 
30 CORONADO'S MARCH. 
 
 Coronado's description of the region is as follows: "The province of 
 Quivira is 950 leagues (3,230 miles) from Mexico. The place I have 
 reached is the 40 of latitude. The earth is the best possible for all 
 kinds of productions of Spain, for while it is very strong and black, it 
 is very well watered by brooks, springs, and rivers. I found prunes 
 like those of Spain, some of which were black, also some excellent grapes 
 and mulberries."* 
 
 Jaramillo, who accompanied Coronado to Quivira, speaking of this 
 region, says : " This country (Quivira) has a superb appearance, and 
 such that I have not seen better in all of Spain, neither in Italy nor 
 France, nor in any other country where I have been in the service of 
 your Majesty. It is not a country of mountains ; there are only some 
 hills, some plains, and some streams of very fine water, (des ruis-seaux 
 de fort belle eau.) It satisfied me completely. I presume that it is very 
 fertile and favorable for the cultivation of all kinds of fruits."t 
 
 In another portion of his Eelations he mentions having crossed a 
 large river, to which they gave the name of " Saint Peter and Saint 
 Paul," which very probably was the Arkansas, and after traveling sev 
 eral days farther north, they came to the province of Quivira, where 
 they learned that there was a still larger river farther on, to which they 
 gave the name of " Teucarea/ and which I believe to have been the 
 Missouri.} 
 
 Again, Castafieda says : " It is in this country (that of Quivira) that 
 the Espiritu Sancto, (Mississippi,) which Don Fernando de Soto discov 
 ered in Florida, takes its source. * * * * The course of this river 
 is so long, and it receives so many affluents, that it is of prodigious 
 length to where it debouches into the sea, and its fresh waters extend 
 far out after you have lost sight of the land." 
 
 All the authors who have written on this subject seem to have 
 discredited Coronado's report that he explored northwardly as far as 
 the 40 of north latitude ; but not only do the reports of Castafieda and 
 Jaramillo bear him out in his statement, but the peculiar description of 
 the country as given by them all namely, that it was excecdim/ly rich ; 
 its soil black ; that it bore, spontaneously, grapes and prunes, (wild 
 plums 5) was watered by many streams of pure water, &c.; and the cir 
 cumstance of this kind of country not being found anywhere in the 
 probable direction of Coronado's route, except across the Arkansas 
 and on the headwaters of the Arkansas Eiver ; all this, together with 
 the allusion to a large river, the " Saint Peter and Saint Paul," (proba 
 bly the Arkansas,) which they crossed before reaching Quivira, in lati- 
 
 * Following the orders of your Majesty (Don Antonio de Mendoca,) I have observed tho 
 best possible treatment toward the natives of this province, and of all others that I 
 have traversed. They have nothing to complain of me or iny people. I sojour.u-d 
 twenty-five days in the province of Quivira, as much to thoroughly explore the country 
 as to see if I could not find some further occasion to serve your Majesty, for the guides 
 whom I brought with me have spoken of provinces situated still farther on. That 
 which I have been able to learn is, that in all this country one can find neither gold 
 nor any other metal. They spoke to me of small villages, whoso inhabitants for tho 
 most part do not cultivate the soil. They have huts of hides and of willows, and 
 change their places of abode with the vaches (buffaloes.') The tale they told rue then 
 (that Quivira was a city of extraordinary buildings and full of gold) was false. In 
 inducing me to part with all my army to come to this country, the Indians thought 
 that the country being desert and without water, they would conduct us into ] 
 where our horses and ourselves would die of hunger; that is what the guides have 
 confessed. They told that they had acted by the advice of the natives of these coun 
 tries. (Coronado's Relations, Ternaux Compans, pp. 360, 361.) 
 
 t Jaramillo's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 378. 
 
 t Jaramillo's Relations, Ternaux Compans, pp. 375, 377. 
 
 $ CastaSieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 195. 
 
CORONADO'S MARCH. 31 
 
 tude 40 nortli ; and to a still larger river further on (probably the Mis 
 souri) makes it exceedingly probable that he reached the fortieth degree 
 of latitude, or what is now the boundary between the States of Kansas 
 and Nebraska, well on towards the Missouri Eiver ; and in this region I 
 have terminated his explorations north on the accompanying map.* 
 
 In regard to the return route of the army of Coronado, which he 
 dispatched to Tignex before he reached Quivira, it is expressly men 
 tioned that they passed by some salt ponds, and, as I believe they are 
 only to be found in that region of country between the Canadian and 
 Arkansas Eivers, on the Little Arkansas Eiver, a tributary of the latter, 
 in about latitude 37, and longitude 99, I have located this route as 
 passing by these ponds, with some probability of its being correct.t 
 
 Another point of the return route of the army was where it struck 
 the Eio Cicuye', about thirty leagues below the bridge, where it had 
 crossed it on their outward inarch.! 
 
 Besides the provinces I have endeavored to locate there were a num 
 ber, as I have already stated, visited by Coronado, or his officers, which 
 were situated on the Eio Tiguex, (Eio Grande,) or some of its tribu 
 taries, as follows : Quirix, containing seven villages ; in the Snow Mount 
 ains, seven $ Ximena, three ; Ohea, one ; Hemes, seven ; Aguas Calien- 
 tes, three ; Yuque-yunque of the mountain, six ; Valladolid or Braba, 
 one ; Tutahaco, eight. 
 
 Quirix was unquestionably San Phelipe de Queres of the present day ; 
 Chea, Silla; Hemes, Hemes ; Aguas Calientes, the ruins ivhich I have 
 seen at Ojos Calientes, twelve miles above Heniez, on the Eio de Hernez; 
 and Braba, Taos. The situation of all the places named accord so well 
 with that given by Castaneda as to leave but little doubt that they are 
 identical. 
 
 In addition, in relation to Braba, Castaneda states that it was the last 
 town on the Eio Tiguex, north, and was " built on the two banks of a 
 stream which was crossed by bridges built of nicely-squared pine tim 
 ber.' 7 Gregg, speaking of Taos, which is the last pueblo on the Eio 
 Grande north of Santa Fe, says : " There still exists a pueblo of Taos, 
 composed for the most part of but two edifices of very singular con 
 struction, on each side of a creek, and formerly communicating by a 
 bridge. The base story, near 400 feet long and 150 wide, is divided into 
 numerous apartments, upon which other tiers of rooms are built, one 
 above another, forming a pyramidal pile of fifty or sixty feet high, and 
 comprising some six or eight stories." The identity, therefore, of the 
 two places I think certain. 
 
 All the vilages along the Eio de Tiguex, (Eio Grande,) explored by 
 Castaneda, were included in a district thirty leagues (102 miles) broad 
 and one hundred and thirty (442 miles) long. 
 
 Castaneda, speaking of the origin of the people who inhabited these 
 regions, says: " This circumstance, the customs and form of government 
 
 * This hypothesis is also strengthened by the fact that the Turk who guided Coro 
 nado stated that he was " a native of the country on the side of Florida," that is, 
 toward the east from the Rio Tiguex, (Rio Grande,) in the valley of which he was at 
 that time ; that in his country was " a river two leagues broad," &c.; and that when 
 he reached Quivira he told the Spaniards " that his country was still beyond that." 
 (See Castaneda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, pp. 72, 77, 131.) 
 
 t See ante, p. 40. 
 
 t Between the outward and return route the Canadian River is deeply canoned for 
 fifty miles, which doubtless necessitated the army on its return either to cross it where 
 it did when going to Quivira, or at least fifty miles below that point ; and doing .the 
 latter, it naturally struck the Pecos proportionally lower down from the bridge. 
 
 $ Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies, 2d ed., vol(. ii, p. 277. 
 
32 CORONADO'S MARCH. 
 
 of these nations, which are so entirely different from those of all the 
 other nations we have found up to the present time, prove that they 
 came from the region of the Great India, whose coasts touch those of 
 this country on the west. They may have approached by following the 
 course of the river after crossing the mountains, and may havr there 
 fixed themselves in the locations that seemed most advantageous to 
 them. As they multiplied they built other villages along the hanks, 
 until the stream failed them by plunging into the earth. When it 
 reappears it flows toward Florida. It is said that there are other villages 
 on the banks of this river, but we did not visit them, preferring, accord 
 ing to the Turk's advice, to cross the mountains to its source. I believe 
 that great riches would be found in the country whence these Indians 
 came. According to the route they followed they must have come from 
 the extremity of the Eastern India, and from a very unknown region, 
 which, according to the conformation of the coast, would be situated far 
 in the interior of the land betwixt China and Norway. There must, in 
 fact, be an immense distance from one sea to the other, according to the 
 form of the coast as it has been discovered by Captain Villalobos, who 
 took that direction in seeking for China. The same occurs when we 
 follow the coast of Florida ; it always approaches Norway up to the 
 point where the country i des baecalaos, 7 or codfish, is obtained."* 
 
 The foregoing reflections seem crude to us who are better informed 
 with regard to the geography of the earth's surface ; but when we con 
 sider that in the days of Castaueda the whole of that portion of the 
 continent lying east of the Rio Grande was called Florida, and but lit 
 tle, if anything, was known of the exact relations of the northern part 
 of our continent with the other portions of the world, they do not appeal- 
 irrelevant. 
 
 In conclusion, I think it proper to observe that the " Relations " of 
 Coronado, Castaneda, Jarainillo, and Alarcon, though somewhat vague in 
 style, and therefore requiring a great deal of study to comprehend their 
 meaning with certainty, are nevertheless written in a straight-forward, 
 natural manner, and are manifestly entitled to credence whenever they 
 describe what came under their observation. When, however, they 
 describe the tales of others their narratives partake the character of 
 the marvelous ; but, even then, if we carry along with us the idea that 
 they do not mean to deceive, but only to give expression to what might 
 possibly be true but which they do not assert to be so their narratives 
 must be regarded not only as truthful, but as meritorious, and emi 
 nently deserving of careful study and reflection. 
 
 * Castaiieda's Relations, Teruaux Coinpaus, pp. 183, 184.