\ 
 

 
 
 
 
 \s 
 
 /\ 
 
 j> \ 
 
 
 If 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 fays. 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
THE TRAIL MAKERS 
 
 A SERIES OF HISTORIC EXPLORA TIONS 
 PROP. JOHN BACH McMASTER, CONSULTING EDITOR 
 With Introductions, Illustrations, and Maps. 
 
 The First Explorer of the West 
 
 The Journey of Coronado, 1540.42, From the 
 City of Mexico to the Buffalo Plains of Kan 
 sas and Nebraska. 
 
 Translated and Edited, with an Introduction by George 
 Parker Winship. In Press. 
 
 First Across the Continent 
 
 Voyages From Montreal Through the Continent 
 of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific 
 Oceans in 1789 and 1793. 
 
 By Alexander Mackenzie, In two volumes. 
 
 The Greatest American Exploration 
 
 History of tKe Expedition Under the Command 
 of Captains Lewis and Clark to the Sources 
 of the Missouri, Across the Rocky Mountains, 
 Down tKe Columbia River to the Pacific in 
 1804-06. 
 
 With an account of the Louisiana Purchase^ by Prof. 
 John Bach McMaster, and an introduction identifying 
 the route. In three volumes. 
 
 A Contemporary Life of the Famous Iroquois 
 
 The History of the Five Indian Nations of Cana- 
 da Which Are Dependent Upon the Province 
 of New York. 
 
 By Cadwallader Colden, Surveyor-General of the Colony 
 of New York. In two volumes. 
 
 An Early Fur Trader s Life Among the Indians 
 
 A Journal of Voyages and Travels in the Interior 
 of North America. 
 
 Bv Daniel Williams Harmon, a partner in the North 
 west Company, (beginning in 1800). 
 
 Across the Continent in Sub- Arctic America 
 
 TKe Wild NortKland. The Story of a. Winter 
 Journey With Dogs Across Northern North 
 America, 1872-73. 
 By Gen. Sir Wm. Francis Butler, K. C. B. 
 
 Each I2mo. For sale by booksellers, or will be 
 sent on receipt of price, $1.00, plus 8 cents postage, 
 by the publishers, 
 
 A. S. BARNES & CO. 
 J56 Fifth Avenue New Yo*t 
 
THE JOURNEY 
 OF CORONADO 
 
 540-1542 
 
 THE CITY OF MEXICO TO THE GRAND CANON 
 
 OF THE COLORADO AND THE BUFFALO 
 
 PLAINS OF TEXAS, KANSAS, 
 
 AND NEBRASKA 
 
 AS TOLD BY HIMSELF AND 
 HIS FOLLOWERS 
 
 TRANSLATED AND EDITED, WITH AN 
 INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 GEORGE PARKER WINSHIP 
 
 With Map 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 A. S. BARNES & COMPANY 
 
 1904 
 
Copyright 1904 
 By A. S. BARNES & Co. 
 
 New York 
 

 INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE narratives printed in the present vol 
 ume tell the story of one of the most remark 
 able explorations recorded in the annals of 
 American history. Seventy-five years be 
 fore the English succeeded in establishing 
 themselves on the northeastern coast of 
 North America, a band of Spaniards, start 
 ing from what was already a populous and 
 flourishing colony at the City of Mexico, 
 penetrated the opposite extreme of the con 
 tinent, and explored thoroughly a region as 
 extensive as the coast line of the United 
 States from Maine to Georgia. 
 
 The accounts of their experiences printed 
 herewith were all written by members of the 
 expedition. With two exceptions they were 
 written during the journey, and were the 
 official reports prepared by the general and 
 sent to the viceroy in Mexico or the emperor- 
 king in Spain, or by the lieutenants in charge 
 of special explorations. The first and prin 
 cipal narrative was written for the purpose 
 of providing a history of the expedition, by 
 one of the common soldiers some time after 
 his return to Mexico, when he apparently 
 felt that there was danger that posterity 
 would forget the deeds of those with whom 
 
 V 
 
 925 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 he had toiled and suffered in the vain search 
 for something which would reward their 
 costly undertaking. All that is known of 
 the author, Pedro Castaneda, beyond what 
 he relates in this narrative, is that he was a 
 native of the Biscayan town of Najera in 
 northern Spain, who had established himself 
 in the Spanish outpost at Culiacan, in north 
 western Mexico, at the time Coronado organ 
 ized his expedition, and that he was the 
 father of eight surviving children, who, with 
 their mother, presented in 1554 -a claim 
 against the Mexican treasury, on account of 
 the father s exploits. The Spanish text of 
 Castaneda s history is preserved in the Lenox 
 Library, now absorbed into the New York 
 Public Library. It is printed, together with 
 the translations reprinted herewith, in the 
 Fourteenth Annual Report of the United 
 States Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 
 D. C., 1896, a volume which has long been 
 out of print. In the present book many 
 passages in these translations have been re 
 vised and corrected. The editor is under 
 obligations to Mr. F. W. Hodge of the 
 Smithsonian Institution, Mr. W. M. Tipton 
 of Santa F, Mr. Charles F. Lummis of Los 
 Angeles, and Mr. Eipley Hitchcock and Mr. 
 F. S. Dellenbaugh of New York, for sugges 
 tions and assistance in regard to these im 
 provements in the text. 
 
 In February, 1540, the army whose for 
 tunes are recounted in these narratives as 
 sembled at Compostela, on the Pacific coast 
 west of Mexico city. When it passed in 
 vi 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 review before the viceroy Mendoza, who had 
 provided the funds and equipment, the gen 
 eral in command, Francisco Vazquez Corona- 
 do, rode at the head of some two hundred 
 and fifty horsemen and seventy Spanish foot 
 soldiers armed with crossbows and harque 
 buses. Besides these there were three hun 
 dred or more native allies, and upward of a 
 thousand negro and Indian servants and fol 
 lowers, to lead the spare horses, drive the 
 pack mules, carry the extra luggage, and 
 herd the droves of oxen and cows, sheep and 
 swine. 
 
 The expedition started on February 23d, 
 and a month later, on Easter day, it entered 
 Culiacan, then the northwestern out-post 
 of European civilization, half way up the 
 mainland coast of the Gulf of California. 
 Here Coronado reorganized his force and, 
 toward the end of April, he started north 
 ward into the unknown country with a 
 picked force of two hundred men equipped 
 for rapid marching, leaving the rest to follow 
 at the slower pace of the pack trains and the 
 four-footed food supplies. Following the 
 river courses up stream, the advance party 
 was soon deep in the mountains. For two 
 long months they persistently pushed ahead, 
 the inhospitable country steadily growing 
 worse. Eventually other streams showed 
 them the way out on to a level district 
 crossed by well-worn trails which led them 
 toward the " Seven Cities of Cibola. " These 
 were the goal of whose fame they had heard 
 from the Franciscan friar, Marcos of Nice, 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 who had viewed them from a distant hill 
 top two years previously, and who now ac 
 companied the expedition as guide and chap- 
 kin. 
 
 It was perhaps on July 4th, 1540, that 
 Coronado drew up his force in front of the 
 first of the "Seven Cities," and after a sharp 
 fight forced his way into the stronghold, th~ 
 stone and adobe-built pueblo of Hawikuh, 
 whose ruins can still be traced on a low hil 
 lock a few miles southwest of the village 
 now occupied by the New Mexican Zuni 
 Indians. Here the Europeans camped for 
 several weeks, seeking rest, refreshment, and 
 news of the land. A small party was sent 
 off toward the northwest, where another 
 group of seven villages was found in the 
 region still occupied by the descendants of 
 the people whom the Spaniards visited, the 
 Moqui tribes of Tusayan. As a result of 
 the information secured here, another party 
 journeyed westward until its progress was 
 stopped by the Grand Canon of the Colorado, 
 then seen for the first time by Europeans. 
 Explorations were also made toward the east, 
 where the river villages along the Eio Grande 
 were found to be larger and better stocked 
 with food supplies than the settlements at 
 Cibola-Zuni. Coronado therefore moved his 
 headquarters to the largest of these river 
 towns, Tiguex, near the modern Bernalillo, a 
 short distance north of Albuquerque. Here, 
 as the winter of 1540-41 was setting in, he 
 was rejoined by the main body of the army, 
 which had laboriously followed the trail of 
 viii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 its general through the mountains and across 
 the desert. 
 
 In one of the river villages Coronado 
 found an Indian slave who said he was a 
 native of Quivira, which he described as a 
 rich and populous place far away in the east. 
 Acting upon this information, with the In 
 dian as a guide, Coronado started on April 
 23d, 1541, with his whole army to march to 
 Quivira. From Cicuye or Pecos, whose 
 ruins can still be seen by the traveller from 
 the Atchison, Topeka and Santa F4 trains, 
 the guide seems to have led the white men 
 down the Pecos River until they were out of 
 the mountains, and on to the vast plains 
 where they soon met the countless herds 
 of bison or "humpbacked oxen." For 
 five weeks the Europeans plodded onward 
 across what is now known as the "Staked 
 Plains," following a generally easterly direc 
 tion. 
 
 They had probably crossed the upper 
 branches of the Colorado River of Texas and 
 reached the head waters of the Nueces, when 
 Coronado became convinced that his guide 
 was endeavoring to lose him in this limitless 
 expanse of rolling prairie. The food supplies 
 were beginning to run low, and so the army 
 was ordered to return to the villages on the 
 Eio Grande. Some of the natives of the 
 plains, met with on the march, had answered 
 the questions about Quivira by pointing to 
 ward the north. That no chance might be 
 left untried, the general selected thirty of 
 the freshest and best-mounted of his men to 
 ix 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 accompany him in a search in that direction. 
 For forty-two days they followed the compass 
 needle, whose variation probably took them 
 about three degrees west of a true northward 
 course. At last their guides told them that 
 they had reached Quivira, when they were 
 not far from Great Bend on the Arkansas 
 Eiver, whose course they had followed from 
 the neighborhood of Dodge City. It was a 
 village of Wichita Indian tepees. 
 
 Coronado spent a month in exploring the 
 surrounding country, moving his camp to a 
 larger village further north, and sending out 
 messengers and reconnoitering parties in all 
 directions. Having assured himself that 
 there was nothing to reward his search, he 
 returned to the main body of his army, the 
 Quiviran guides leading him by a much 
 shorter route, along the line of the famous 
 Santa F6* trail, to the Eio Grande. Every 
 clew which promised anything of value to 
 the Spaniards had been followed to its ut 
 most, without revealing anything which 
 they desired. In the spring of 1542 Coro 
 nado started back with his men to Cibola- 
 Zufii, through the rough mountain passages 
 to the Gulf of California, and so on down to 
 the city of Mexico, where he arrived in the 
 early autumn, "very sad and very weary, 
 completely worn out and shame-faced." He 
 had failed to find any of the things for which 
 he went in search. But he had added to the 
 world as known to Europeans an extent of 
 country bounded on the west by the Colorado 
 River from its mouth to the Grand Canon, 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 on the east by the boundless prairies, and 
 stretching northward to the upper waters of 
 the Eio Grande and the southern boundary 
 of Nebraska. 
 
 GEORGE PARKER WINSHIP. 
 
 SPANISH EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 (For the use of this outline map and also the frontispiece 
 the publishers are indebted to the courtesy of Messrs. Ginn 
 & Co., publishers of "The Louisiana Purchase and the 
 Early History, Exploration and Building of the West," by 
 Ripley Hitchcock.) 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION, v 
 
 ITINERARY OF THE CORONADO EXPEDITIONS, 
 
 1527-1547, xxi 
 
 TRANSLATION OF THE NARRATIVE OF CASTA- 
 NEDA. ACCOUNT OF THE EXPEDITION TO 
 ClBOLA WHICH TOOK PLACE IN THE YEAR 
 1540, IN WHICH ALL THOSE SETTLE 
 MENTS, THEIR CEREMONIES AND Cus- 
 
 TOMES, ARE DESCRIBED. WRITTEN BY 
 
 PEDRO DE CASTANEDA, OF NAJERA, . xxvii 
 PREFACE, xxix 
 
 FIRST PART 
 
 Chapter I. Treats of the way we first came to 
 know about the Seven Cities, and of how 
 Nuno de Guzman made an expedition to 
 discover them, 1 
 
 Chapter II. Of how Francisco Vazquez Coro- 
 nado came to be governor, and the second 
 account which Cabeza de Vaca gave, . 4 
 
 Chapter III. Of how they killed the negro 
 Stephen at Cibola, and Friar Marcos re 
 turned in flight, ...... 8 
 
 Chapter IV. Of how the noble Don Antonio de 
 Mendoza made an expedition to discover 
 Cibola, ....... 8 
 
 Chapter V. Concerning the captains who went 
 
 to Cibola 11 
 
 xiii 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter VI. Of how all the companies col 
 lected in Compostela and set off on the jour 
 ney in good order, 13 
 
 Chapter VII. Of how the army reached Chia- 
 metla, and the killing of the army-master, 
 and the other things that happened up to 
 the arrival at Culiacan, . . . .16 
 
 Chapter VIII. Of how the army entered the 
 town of Culiacan and the reception it re 
 ceived, and other things which happened 
 before the departure, 18 
 
 Chapter IX. Of how the army started from 
 Culiacan and the arrival of the general at 
 Cibola and of the army at Seiiora and of 
 other things that happened, . . .21 
 
 Chapter X. Of how the army started from the 
 town of Senora, leaving it inhabited, and 
 how it reached Cibola, and of what hap 
 pened to Captain Melchior Diaz on his ex 
 pedition in search of the ships and how he 
 discovered the Tison (Firebrand) river, . 26 
 
 Chapter XI. How Don Pedro de Tovar discov 
 ered Tusayan or Tutahaco and Don Garcia 
 Lopez de Cardenas saw the Firebrand river 
 and the other things that had happened, . 32 
 
 Chapter XII. Of how people came from Cicuye 
 to Cibola to see the Christians, and how 
 Hernando de Alvarado went to see the 
 cows, 37 
 
 Chapter XIII. Of how the general went tow 
 ard Tutahaco with a few men and left the 
 army with Don Tristan, who took it to 
 Tiguex, 42 
 
 Chapter XIV. Of how the army went from 
 Cibola to Tiguex and what happened to 
 them on the way, on account of the snow, . 44 
 xiv 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter XV. Of why Tiguex revolted, and 
 how they were punished, without being to 
 blame for it, ....... 47 
 
 Chapter XVI. Of how they besieged Tiguex 
 and took it and of what happened during 
 the siege, 52 
 
 Chapter XVII. Of how messengers reached the 
 army from the valley of Senora and how 
 Captain Melchior Diaz died on the expedi 
 tion to the Firebrand river, . . .58 
 
 Chapter XVIII. Of how the general managed 
 to leave the country in peace so as to go in 
 search of Quivira, where the Turk said 
 there was the most wealth, . . .61 
 
 Chapter XIX. Of how they started in search of 
 Quivira and of what happened on the way, 64 
 
 Chapter XX. Of how great stones fell in the 
 camp, and how they discovered another 
 ravine, where the army was divided into 
 two parts, to 
 
 Chapter XXI. Of how the army returned to 
 Tiguex and the general reached Quivira, . 73 
 
 Chapter XXII. Of how the general returned 
 from Quivira and of other expeditions 
 toward the North, 77 
 
 SECOND PART 
 
 WHICH TREATS OF THE HIGH VILLAGES AND 
 PROVINCES AND OF THEIR HABITS AND 
 CUSTOMS, AS COLLECTED BY PEDRO DE 
 CASTANEDA, NATIVE OF THE CITY OF 
 NAJARA, 82 
 
 Chapter I. Of the province of Culiacan and of 
 
 its habits and customs, . . . .84 
 xv 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter II. Of the province of Petlatlan and 
 all the inhabited country as far as Chichil- 
 ticalli, 87 
 
 Chapter III. Of Chichilticalli and the desert, 
 of Cibola, its customs and habits, and of 
 other things 90 
 
 Chapter IV. Of how they live at Tiguex, and 
 of the province of Tiguex and its neighbor 
 hood, . 96 
 
 Chapter V. Of Cicuye and the villages in its 
 neighborhood, and of how some people 
 came to conquer this country, . . . 102 
 
 Chapter VI. Which gives the number of vil 
 lages which were seen in the country of the 
 terraced houses, and their population, . 106 
 
 Chapter VII. Which treats of the plains that 
 were c r ossed, of the cows, and of the peo 
 ple who inhabit them, .... 109 
 
 Chapter VIII. Of Quivira, of where it is and 
 some information about it, . . . . 113 
 
 THIRD PART 
 
 WHICH DESCRIBES WHAT HAPPENED TO 
 FRANCISCO VAZQUEZ CORONADO DURING 
 THE WINTER, AND How HE GAVE UP 
 THE EXPEDITION AND RETURNED TO NEW 
 SPAIN, 117 
 
 Chapter I. Of how Don Pedro de Tovar came 
 from Senora with some meii, and Don Gar 
 cia Lopez de Cardenas started back to New 
 Spain, . . 117 
 
 Chapter II. Of the general s fall, ai-d of how 
 the return to New Spain was ordered, . 119 
 
 Chapter III. Of the rebellion at Suya and the 
 reasons the settlers gave for it, . . . 122 
 xvi 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter IV. Of how Friar Juan de Padilla and 
 Friar Luis remained in the country and the 
 army prepared to return to Mexico, . . 125 
 
 Chapter V. Of how the army left the settle 
 ments and marched to Culiacan, and of 
 what happened on the way, . . . 129 
 
 Chapter VI. Of how the general started from 
 Culiacan to give the viceroy an account of 
 the army with which he had been in 
 trusted, . . . . . . .132 
 
 Chapter VII. Of the adventures of Captain 
 Juan Gallego while he was bringing re- 
 enforcements through the revolted coun 
 try, 135 
 
 Chapter VIII. Which describes some remark 
 able things that were seen on the plains, 
 with a description of the bulls, . . . 139 
 
 Chapter IX. Which treats of the direction 
 which the army took and of how another 
 more direct way might be found, if anyone 
 was to return to that country, . . . 143 
 
 TRANSLATION OP THE LETTER FROM MENDOZA 
 TO THE KING, APRIL 17, 1540, . . 149 
 
 TRANSLATION OP THE LETTER FROM CORONADO 
 TO MENDOZA, AUGUST 3, 1540. THE AC 
 COUNT GIVEN BY FRANCISCO VAZQUEZ 
 DE CORONADO, CAPTAIN-GENERAL OP THE 
 FORCE WHICH WAS SENT IN THE NAME 
 OP His MAJESTY TO THE NEWLY DIS 
 COVERED COUNTRY, OP WHAT HAPPENED 
 TO THE EXPEDITION AFTER APRIL 22 OP 
 THE YEAR MDXL, WHEN HE STARTED 
 FORWARD FROM CULIACAN, AND OP WHAT 
 HE FOUND IN THE COUNTRY THROUGH 
 WHICH HE PASSED, . . . . .159 
 xvii 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Francisco Vazquez starts from Culiacan with 
 
 his army, and after suffering various incon 
 veniences on account of the badness of the 
 way, reaches the Valley of Hearts, where 
 he failed to find any corn, to procure which 
 he sends to the valley called Senora. He 
 receives an account of the important Valley 
 of Hearts and of the people there, and of 
 some lands lying along that coast, . . 159 
 
 II. They come to Chichilticale ; after having 
 
 taken two days rest, they enter a country 
 containing very little food and hard to 
 travel for 30 leagues, beyond which the 
 country becomes pleasant, and there is a 
 river called the River of the Flax (del 
 Lino) ; they fight against the Indians, being 
 attacked by these ; and having by their vic 
 tory secured the city, they relieve them 
 selves of the pangs of their hunger, . . 164 
 
 III. Of the situation and condition of the Seven 
 Cities called the kingdom of Cevola, and 
 the sort of people and their customs, and 
 
 of the animals which are found there, . 172 
 
 IV. Of the nature and situation of the king 
 doms of Totonteac, Marata, and Acus, 
 wholly different from the account of Friar 
 Marcos. The conference which they had 
 with the Indians of the city of Granada, 
 which they had captured, who had been 
 forewarned of the coming of Christians into 
 their country fifty years before. The ac 
 count which was obtained from them con 
 cerning seven other cities, of which Tucano 
 is the chief, and how he sent to discover 
 them. A present sent to Mendoza of vari 
 ous things found in this country by Vaz 
 quez Coronado, 177 
 
 xviii 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 TRANSLATION OF THE TRASLADO DE LAS 
 
 NUEVAS, ....... 186 
 
 Copy of the Reports and Descriptions that 
 Have Been Received Regarding the Discov 
 ery of a City which is called Cibola, Situ 
 ated in the New Country, .... 186 
 
 This is the Latest Account of Cibola, and of 
 More than Four Hundred Leagues Beyond, 190 
 
 TRANSLATION OP THE RELACION DEL SUCESO, 197 
 Account of what Happened on the Journey 
 which Francisco Vazquez Made to Discover 
 Cibola, 197 
 
 TRANSLATION OP A LETTER PROM CORONADO 
 TO THE KING, OCTOBER 20, 1541, , . 213 
 
 Letters from Francisco Vazquez Coronado to 
 His Majesty, in which he gives an Ac 
 count of the Discovery of the Province of 
 Tiguex, 213 
 
 TRANSLATION OP THE NARRATIVE OP JARA- 
 MILLO, 222 
 
 Account Given by Captain Juan Jaramillo of 
 the Journey which he made to the New 
 Country, on which Francisco Vazquez Cor 
 onado was the General, .... 222 
 
 TRANSLATION OP THE REPORT OP HERNANDO 
 DE ALVARADO, 241 
 
 Account of what Hernando de Alvarado and 
 Friar Juan de Padilla Discovered Going in 
 Search of the South Sea, . . . .241 
 
 TESTIMONY CONCERNING THOSE WHO WENT 
 ON THE EXPEDITION WITH FRANCISCO 
 VAZQUEZ CORONADO, .... 245 
 
 xix 
 
ITINERARY OF THE CORONADO 
 EXPEDITIONS, 1527-1547 
 
 1527 
 
 JUNE 17 Narvaez sails from Spain to explore the 
 mainland north of the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 1528 
 
 APRIL 15 Narvaez lands in Florida. 
 SEPT. 22 The failure of the Narvaez expedition 
 is assured. 
 
 1535 
 
 Cortes makes a settlement in Lower 
 
 California. 
 Mendoza comes to Mexico as viceroy of 
 
 New Spain. 
 
 1536 
 
 APRIL Cabeza de Vaca and three other sur 
 
 vivors of the Narvaez expedition ar 
 rive in New Spain. 
 
 The Licenciate de la Torre takes the 
 residencia of Nuno de Guzman, who 
 is imprisoned until June 30, 1538. 
 
 1537 
 
 Franciscan friars labor among the In 
 dian tribes living north of New Spain. 
 
 Coronado subdues the revolted miners 
 of Amatepeque. 
 
 The proposed expedition under Dorantes 
 
 comes to naught. 
 
 APRIL 20 De Soto receives a grant of the main 
 land of Florida. 
 
 xxi 
 
ITINERARY OF THE EXPEDITIONS 
 
 1538 
 
 SEPT. It is rumored that Coronado has been 
 
 nominated governor of New Galicia. 
 
 1539 
 
 Pedro de Alvarado returns from Spain 
 to the New World. 
 
 MARCH 7 Friar Marcos de Niza, accompanied by 
 the negro Estevan, starts from Culia- 
 can to find the Seven Cities. 
 
 APRIL 18 The appointment of Corouado as gov 
 ernor of New Galicia is confirmed. 
 
 MAY De Soto sails from Habana. 
 
 MAY 9 Friar Marcos enters the wilderness of 
 
 Arizona. 
 
 MAY 21 Friar Marcos learns of the death of 
 Estevan. 
 
 MAY 25 De Soto lands on the coast of Florida. 
 
 JULY 8 Ulloa sails from Acapulco nearly to the 
 head of the Gulf of California in com 
 mand of a fleet furnished by Cortes. 
 
 AUGUST Friar Marcos returns from the north and 
 
 SEPT. 2 certifies to the truth of his report be 
 
 fore Mendoza and Coronado. 
 
 OCTOBER The news of Niza s discoveries spreads 
 through New Spain. 
 
 Nov. Mendoza begins to prepare for an expe 
 
 dition to conquer the Seven Cities of 
 Cibola. 
 
 Melchior Diaz is sent to verify the re 
 ports of Friar Marcos. 
 De Soto finds the remains of the camp 
 of Narvaez at Bahia de los Cavallos. 
 
 Nov. 12 Witnesses in Habana describe the effect 
 of the friar s reports. 
 
 1540 
 
 JAN. 1 Mendoza celebrates the new year at 
 
 Pasquaro. 
 
 JAN. 9 Coronado at Guadalajara. 
 
 FEB. 5 Cortes stops at Habana on his way to 
 
 Spain. 
 
 FEB. The members of the Cibola expedition 
 
 xxii 
 
ITINERARY OF THE EXPEDITIONS 
 
 assemble at Compostela, where the 
 viceroy finds them on his arrival. 
 
 FEB. 22. Review of the army on Sunday. 
 
 FEB. 23. The army, under the command of Fran 
 cisco Vazquez Coronado, starts for 
 Cibola (not on February 1). 
 
 FEB. 26. Mendoza returns to Compostela, hav 
 ing left the army two days before, 
 and examines witnesses to discover 
 how many citizens of New Spain have 
 accompanied Coronado. He writes a 
 letter to King Charles V, which has 
 been lost. 
 
 MARCH The army is delayed by the cattle in 
 
 crossing the rivers. 
 The death of the army master, Saman- 
 
 iego, at Chiametla. 
 
 Return of Melchior Diaz and Juan de 
 Saldivar from Chichilticalli. 
 
 MARCH 3 Beginning of litigation in Spain over 
 the right to explore and conquer the 
 Cibola country. 
 
 MARCH 28 Reception to the army at Culiacan, on 
 Easter day. 
 
 APRIL The army is entertained by the citizens 
 
 of Culiacan. 
 
 Mendoza receives the report of Melchior 
 Diaz exploration, perhaps at Jacona. 
 Coronado writes to Mendoza, giving an 
 account of what has already hap 
 pened, and of the arrangements which 
 he has made for the rest of the journey. 
 This letter has been lost. 
 
 APRIL 17 Mendoza writes to the Emperor 
 Charles V. 
 
 APRIL 22 Coronado departs from Culiacan with 
 about seventy -five horsemen and a few 
 footmen. 
 
 APRIL Coronado passes through Petatlan, 
 
 MAY Cinaloa, Los Cedros, Yaquemi, and 
 
 other places mentioned by Jaramillo. 
 
 MAY 9 Alarcon sails from Acapulco to co5p- 
 
 erate with Coronado. The army starts 
 from Culiacan and marches toward 
 the Corazones or Hearts valley. 
 
 MAY 26 Coronado leaves the valley of Corazones. 
 
 JUNE He proceeds to Chichilticalli, passing 
 
 xxiii 
 
ITINERARY OF THE EXPEDITIONS 
 
 Senora or Sonora and Ispa, and thence 
 crosses the Arizona wilderness, ford 
 ing many rivers. 
 
 The army builds the town of San Hie- 
 ronimo in Corazones valley. 
 
 JULY 7 Coronado reaches Cibola and captures 
 the first city, the pueblo of Hawikuh, 
 which he calls Granada. 
 
 JULY 11 The Indians retire to their stronghold 
 on Thunder mountain. 
 
 JULY 15 Pedro de Tovar goes to Tusayan or 
 Moki, returning within thirty days. 
 
 JULY 19 Coronado goes to Thunder mountain 
 and returns the same day. 
 
 AUG. 3 Coronado writes to Mendoza. He sends 
 Juan Gallego to Mexico, and Melchior 
 Diaz to Corazones with orders for the 
 army. Friar Marcos accompanies 
 them. 
 
 AUG. 25 (?) Lopez de Cardenas starts to find the 
 canyons of Colorado river, and is gone 
 about eighty days. 
 
 AUG. 26 Alarcon enters the mouth of Colorado 
 river. 
 
 AUG. 29 Hernando de Alvarado goes eastward 
 to Tiguex, on the Rio Grande, and to 
 the buffalo plains. 
 
 Pedro de Alvarado arrives in New 
 Spain. 
 
 SEPT. 7 Hernando de Alvarado reaches Tiguex. 
 Diaz and Gallego reach Corazones about 
 the middle of September, and the 
 army starts for Cibola. 
 Coronado visits Tutahaco. 
 
 SEPT. TO The army reaches Cibola, and goes 
 
 JANUARY thence to Tiguex for its winter quar 
 ters. The natives in the Rio Grande 
 pueblos revolt and are subjugated. 
 The Turk tells the Spaniards about 
 Quivira. 
 
 OCTOBER Diaz starts from Corazones before the 
 end of September, with twenty five 
 men, and explores the country along 
 the Gulf of California, going beyond 
 Colorado river. 
 
 Diego de Alcaraz is left in command of 
 the town of San Hieronimo. 
 xxiv 
 
ITINERARY OF THE EXPEDITIONS 
 
 Nov. 29 Mendoza and Pedro de Alvarado sign 
 an agreement in regard to common ex 
 ploration and conquests. 
 
 1541 
 
 JAN. 8 Diaz dies on the return from the mouth 
 
 of the Colorado, and his companions 
 return to Corazones valley. 
 
 MARCH Alcaraz, during the spring, moves the 
 village of San Hieronimo from Cora- 
 zones valley to the valley of Suya 
 river. 
 
 APRIL 20 Beginning of the Mixton war in New 
 
 Galicia. 
 Coronado writes a letter to the King 
 
 from Tiguex, which has been lost. 
 Tovar and perhaps Gallego return to 
 Mexico. 
 
 APRIL 23 Coronado starts with all his force from 
 Tiguex to cross the buffalo plains to 
 Quivira. 
 
 MAY The army is divided somewhere on the 
 
 great plains, perhaps on Canadian 
 river. The main body returns to 
 Tiguex, arriving there by the middle 
 or last of June. 
 De Soto crosses the Mississippi. 
 
 JUNE Coronado, with thirty horsemen, rides 
 
 north to Quivira, where he arrives 
 forty -two (?) days later. 
 
 JUNE 24 Pedro de Alvarado is killed at Nochis- 
 tlan, in New Galicia. 
 
 AUGUST Coronado spends about twenty -five days 
 in the country of Quivira, leaving 
 " the middle or last of August. " 
 
 SEPT 28 The Indians in New Galicia attack the 
 town of Guadalajara, but are re 
 pulsed. 
 
 OCT. 2 Coronado returns from Quivira to Ti 
 guex and writes a letter to the King. 
 
 Nov. Cardenas starts to return to Mexico with 
 
 some other invalids from the army. 
 He finds the village of Suya in ruins 
 and hastily returns to Tiguex. 
 
 DECEMBER Coronado falls from his horse and is 
 seriously injured. 
 
 XXV 
 
ITINERARY OF THE EXPEDITIONS 
 
 The Mixton peilol is surrendered by the 
 revolted Indians during holiday week. 
 
 1542 
 
 Coronado and his soldiers determine to 
 return to New Spain. They start in 
 the spring, and reach Mexico probably 
 late in the autumn. The general 
 makes his report to the viceroy, who 
 receives him coldly. Coronado not 
 long after resigns his position as gov 
 ernor of New Galicia and retires to his 
 estates. 
 
 APRIL 17 De Soto reaches the mouth of Red river, 
 where he dies, May 21. 
 
 JUNE 27 Cabrillo starts on his voyage up the 
 California coast. He dies in January, 
 1543, and the vessels return to New 
 Spain by April, 1544. 
 
 Nov. 1 Villalobos starts across the Pacific. His 
 fleet meets with many misfortunes 
 and losses. The survivors, five years 
 or more later, return to Spain. 
 
 Nov. 25 Friar Juan de la Cruz is killed at Ti- 
 guex, where he remained when the 
 army departed for New Spain. Friar 
 Luis also remained in the new coun 
 try, at Cicuye, and Friar Juan de 
 Padilla, at Quivira, where he is killed. 
 The companions of Friar Juan de Pa 
 dilla make their way back to Mexico, 
 arriving before 1552. 
 
 1544 
 
 Nov. 30 Promulgation of the New Laws for 
 
 the Indies. 
 
 Sebastian Cabot publishes his map of 
 the New World. 
 
 1547 
 
 Mendoza, before he leaves New Spain 
 to become viceroy of Peru, answers 
 the charges preferred against him by 
 the officials appointed to investigate 
 his administration, 
 xxvi 
 
TRANSLATION OF THE NARRATIVE OF 
 CASTANEDA 
 
 Account of the expedition to Cibola which took place 
 in the year 1540, in which all those settlements, their 
 ceremonies and customer, are described. Written by 
 Pedro de Castaneda, of Najera. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 To me it seems very certain, my very 
 noble lord, that it is a worthy ambition for 
 great men to desire to know and wish to 
 preserve for posterity correct information 
 concerning the things that have happened 
 in distant parts, about which little is known. 
 I do not blame those inquisitive persons 
 who, perchance with good intentions, have 
 many times troubled me not a little with 
 their requests that I clear up for them some 
 doubts which they have had about different 
 things that have been commonly related con 
 cerning the events and occurrences that took 
 place during the expedition to Cibola, or the 
 New Land, which the good viceroy may he 
 be with God in His glory l Don Antonio 
 de Mendoza, ordered and arranged, and on 
 which he sent Francisco Vazquez de Corona- 
 do as captain-general. 
 
 In truth, they have reason for wishing to 
 know the truth, because most people very 
 often make things of which they have heard, 
 and about which they have perchance no 
 knowledge, appear either greater or less than 
 they are. They make nothing of those 
 
 1 Mendoza died in Lima, July 21, 1552. 
 xxix 
 
PREFACE 
 
 things that amount to something, and those 
 that do not they make so remarkable that 
 they appear to be something impossible to 
 believe. This may very well have been 
 caused by the fact that, as that country was 
 not permanently occupied, there has not been 
 anyone who was willing to spend his time in 
 writing about its peculiarities, because all 
 knowledge was lost of that which it was not 
 the pleasure of God He alone knows the 
 reason that they should enjoy. 
 
 In truth, he who wishes to employ him 
 self thus in writing out the things that hap 
 pened on the expedition, and the things that 
 were seen in those lands, and the ceremonies 
 and customs of the natives, will have matter 
 enough to test his judgment, and I believe 
 that the result can not fail to be an account 
 which, describing only the truth, will be so 
 remarkable that it will seem incredible. 
 
 And besides, I think that the twenty 
 years and more since that expedition took 
 place have been the cause of some stories 
 which are related. For example, some make 
 it an uninhabitable country, others have it 
 bordering on Florida, and still others on 
 Greater India, which does not appear to be 
 a slight difference. They are unable to give 
 any basis upon which to found their state 
 ments. There are those who tell about 
 some very peculiar animals, who are contra 
 dicted by others who were on the expe 
 dition, declaring that there was nothing of 
 the sort seen. Others differ as to the limits 
 
 XXX 
 
PREFACE 
 
 of the provinces and even in regard to the 
 ceremonies and customs, attributing what 
 pertains to one people to others. All this 
 has had a large part, my very noble lord, 
 in making me wish to give now, although 
 somewhat late, a short general account for 
 all those who pride themselves on this noble 
 curiosity, and to save myself the time Taken 
 up by these solicitations. Things enough 
 will certainly be found here which are hard 
 to believe. All or the most of these were 
 seen with my own eyes, and the rest is from 
 reliable information obtained by inquiry of 
 the natives themselves. 
 
 Understanding as I do that this little 
 work would be nothing in itself, lacking au 
 thority, unless it were favored and protected 
 by a person whose authority would protect 
 it from the boldness of those who, without 
 reverence, give their murmuring tongues 
 liberty, and knowing as I do how great are 
 the obligations under which I have always 
 been, and am, to your grace, I humbly beg 
 to submit this little work to your protection. 
 May it be received as from a faithful retainer 
 and servant. 
 
 It will be divided into three parts, that 
 it may be better understood. The first will 
 tell of the discovery and the armament or 
 army that was made ready, and of the whole 
 journey, with the captains who were there ; 
 the second, of the villages and provinces 
 which were found, and their limits, and 
 ceremonies and customs, the animals, fruits, 
 xxxi 
 
PREFACE 
 
 and vegetation, and in what parts of the 
 country these are; the third, of the return 
 of the army and the reasons for abandoning 
 the country, although these were insufficient, 
 because tbis is the best place there is for dis 
 coveries the marrow of the land in these 
 western parts, as will be seen. And after 
 this Mas been made plain, some remarkable 
 things which were seen will be described at 
 the end, and the way by which one might 
 more easily return to discover that better 
 land which we did not see, since it would be 
 no small advantage to enter the country 
 through the land which the Marquis of the 
 Valley, Don Fernando Cortes, went in search 
 of under the Western star, and which cost 
 him no small sea armament. 
 
 May it please our Lord to so favor me 
 that with my slight knowledge and small 
 abilities I may be able by relating the truth 
 to make my little work pleasing to the 
 learned and wise readers, when it has been 
 accepted by your grace. For my intention 
 is not t o gain the fame of a good composer 
 or rhetorician, but I desire to give a faithful 
 account and to do this slight service to your 
 grace, who will, I hope, receive it as from a 
 faithful servant and soldier, who took part 
 in it. Although not in a polished style, I 
 write that which happened that which I 
 heard, experienced, saw, and did. 
 
 I always notice, and it is a fact, that for 
 the most part when we have something 
 valuable in our hands, and deal with it 
 xxxii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 without hindrance, we do not value or prize 
 it as highly as if we understood how much 
 we would miss it after we had lost it, and 
 the longer we continue to .have it the less 
 we value it; but after we have lost it and 
 miss the advantages of it, we have a great 
 pain in the heart, and we are all the time 
 imagining and trying to find ways and 
 means by which to get it back again. It 
 seems to me that this has happened to all 
 or most of those who went on the expedition 
 which, in the year of our Savior Jesus 
 Christ 1540, Francisco Vazquez Coronado 
 led in search of the Seven Cities. 
 
 Granted that they did not find the riches 
 of which they had been told, they found a 
 place in which to search for them and the 
 beginning of a good country to settle in, so 
 as to go on farther from there. Since they 
 came back from the country which they con 
 quered and abandoned, time has given them 
 a chance to understand the direction and 
 locality in which they were, and the borders 
 of the good country they had in their hands, 
 and their hearts weep for having lost so fa 
 vorable an opportunity. Just as men see 
 more at the bull fight when they are upon 
 the seats than when they are around in the 
 ring, now when they know and understand 
 the direction and situation in which they 
 were, and see, indeed, that they can not en 
 joy it nor recover it, now when it is too late 
 they enjoy telling about what they saw, and 
 even of what they realize that they lost, 
 xxxiii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 especially those who are now as poor as 
 when they went there. They have never 
 ceased their labors and have spent their time 
 to no advantage. I say this because I have 
 known several of those who came back from 
 there who amuse themselves now by talking 
 of how it would be to go back and proceed 
 to recover that which is lost, while others 
 enjoy trying to rind the reason why it was 
 discovered at all. And now I will proceed 
 to relate all that happened from the begin 
 ning. 
 
 xxxiv 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 FIKST PART 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Treats of the way we first came to know about 
 the Seven Cities, and of how Nuno de Guzman 
 made an expedition to discover them. 
 
 Ix the year 1530 Nuno de Guzman, who 
 was President of New Spain, 1 had in his pos 
 session an Indian, a native of the valley or 
 valleys of Oxitipar, who was called Tejo by 
 the Spaniards. This Indian said he was the 
 son of a trader who was dead, but that when 
 he was a little boy his father had gone into 
 the back country with fine feathers to trade 
 for ornaments, and that when he came back 
 he brought a large amount of gold and silver, 
 of which there is a good deal in that coun 
 try. He went with him once or twice, and 
 saw some very large villages, which he com 
 pared to Mexico and its environs. He had 
 seen seven very large towns which had streets 
 of silver workers. It took forty days to go 
 
 1 President, or head, of the Audiencia, the admin 
 istrative and judicial board which governed the 
 province. 
 
 1 
 
THE JOURNEY OF OORONADO 
 
 there from his country, through a wilderness 
 in which nothing grew, except some very 
 small plants about a span high. The way 
 they went was up through the country be 
 tween the two seas, following the northern 
 direction. Acting on this information, Nuiio 
 de Guzman got together nearly 400 Span 
 iards and 20,000 friendly Indians of New 
 Spain, and, as he happened to be in Mexico, 
 he crossed Tarasca, which is in the province 
 of Michoacan, so as to get into the region 
 which the Indian said was to be crossed 
 toward the North sea, in this way getting to 
 the country which they were looking for, 
 which was already named " The Seven Cities. " 
 He thought, from the forty days of which 
 the Tejo had spoken, that it would be found 
 to be about 200 leagues, and that they would 
 easily be able to cross the country. 
 
 Omitting several things that occurred on 
 this journey, as soon as they had reached 
 the province of Culiacan, where his govern 
 ment ended and where the New Kingdom of 
 Galicia is now, they tried to cross the coun 
 try, but found the difficulties very great, be 
 cause the mountain chains which are near 
 that sea are so rough that it was impossible, 
 after great labor, to find a passageway in that 
 region. His whole army had to stay in the 
 district of Culiacan for so long on this ac 
 count that some rich men who were with 
 him, who had possessions in Mexico, changed 
 their minds, and every day became more 
 anxious to return. Besides this, Nuno de 
 2 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 Guzman received word that the Marquis of 
 the Valley, Don Fernando Cortes, had come 
 from Spain with his new title, 1 and with 
 great favors and estates, and as Nuno de 
 Guzman had been a great rival of his at the 
 time he was president, 2 and had done much 
 damage to his property and to that of his 
 friends, he feared that Don Fernando Cortes 
 would want to pay him back in the same 
 way, or worse. So he decided to establish 
 the town of Culiacan there and to go back 
 with the other men, without doing anything 
 more. 
 
 After his return from this expedition, he 
 founded Xalisco, where the city of Com- 
 postela is situated, and Tonala, which is 
 called Guadalaxara, 3 and now this is the 
 New Kingdom of Galicia. The guide they 
 had, who was called Tejo, died about this 
 time, and thus the name of these Seven 
 Cities and the search for them remains until 
 ru)w, since they have not been discovered. 4 
 
 1 Marques del Valle de Oaxaca y Capitan General 
 de la Nueva Espafia y de la Costa del Sur. 
 
 2 Guzman had presided over the trial of Cortes, 
 who was in Spain at the time, for the murder of his 
 first wife seven years previously (October, 1522). 
 See Zaragoza s edition of Suarez de Peralta s Trata- 
 do, p. 315. 
 
 3 The name was changed in 1540. 
 
 4 The best discussion of the stories of the Seven 
 Caves and the Seven Cities is in Bandelier s Contri 
 butions, p. 9, ff. 
 
THE JOURNEY OF COtfONADO 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Of how Francisco Vazquez Coronado came to be 
 governor, and the second account which Cabeza de 
 Vaca gave. 
 
 EIGHT years after Nuiio de Guzman made 
 this expedition, he was put in prison by a 
 juez de residencia, 1 named the licentiate 
 Diego de la Torre, who came from Spain 
 with sufficient powers to do this. 2 After 
 the death of the judge, who had also man 
 aged the government of that country himself, 
 the good Don Antonio de Mendoza, viceroy 
 of New Spain, appointed as governor of that 
 province Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, a 
 gentleman from Salamanca, who had married 
 a lady in the city of Mexico, the daughter 
 of Alonso de Estrada, the treasurer and at 
 one time governor of Mexico, and the son, 
 most people said, of His Catholic Majesty 
 Don Ferdinand, and many stated it as cer 
 tain. As I was saying, at the time Fran 
 cisco Vazquez was appointed governor, he 
 was traveling through New Spain as an offi 
 cial inspector, and in this way he gained the 
 friendship of many worthy men who after 
 ward went on his expedition with him. 
 
 1 A judge appointed to investigate the accounts 
 and administration of a royal official. 
 
 2 A full account of the licentiate de la Torre and 
 his administration is given by Mota, Padilla (ed. 
 Icazbalceta, pp. 103-106). He was appointed juez 
 March 17, 1536, and died during 1538. 
 
 4 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 It happened that just at this time three 
 Spaniards, named Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, 
 and Castillo Maldonado, and a negro, who 
 had been lost on the expedition which Parn- 
 filo de Narvaez led into Florida, reached 
 Mexico. 1 They came out through Culiacan, 
 having crossed the country from sea to sea, 
 as anyone who wishes may find out for him 
 self by an account which this same Cabeza 
 de Vaca wrote and dedicated to Prince Don 
 Philip, who is now King of Spain and our 
 sovereign. a They gave the good Don An 
 tonio de Mendoza an extended account of 
 some powerful villages, four and five stories 
 high, of which they had heard a great deal 
 iii the countries they had crossed, and other 
 things very different from what turned out 
 to be the truth. The noble viceroy com 
 municated this to the new governor, who 
 gave up the visits he had in hand, on account 
 of this, and hurried his departure for his gov 
 ernment, taking with him the negro who 
 had come [with Cabeza de Vaca] with the 
 three friars of the order of Saint Francis, one 
 of whom was named Friar Marcos of Nice, 
 a regular priest, and another Friar Daniel, a 
 lay brother, and the other Friar Antonio de 
 Santa Maria. When he reached the prov 
 ince of Culiacan he sent the friars just men- 
 
 1 They appeared in New Spain in April, 1536, be 
 fore Coronado s appointment. Castaneda may be 
 right in the rest of his statement. 
 
 * This account has been translated by Buckingham 
 Smith, New York, 1871. 
 
 5 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 tioned and the negro, who was named 
 Stephen, off in search of that country, be 
 cause Friar Marcos offered to go and see it, 
 because he had been in Peru at the time 
 Don Pedro de Alvarado went there overland. 
 It seems that, after the friars I have men 
 tioned and the negro had started, the negro 
 did not get on well with the friars, because 
 he took the women that were given him and 
 collected turquoises, and got together a stock 
 of everything. Besides, the Indians in those 
 places through which they went got along 
 with the negro better, because they had seen 
 him before. This was the reason he was 
 sent on ahead to open up the way and pacify 
 the Indians, so that when the others came 
 along they had nothing to do except to keep 
 an account of the things for which they were 
 looking. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Of how they killed the negro Stephen at Cibola, 
 and Friar Marcos returned in flight. 
 
 AFTER Stephen had left the friars, he 
 thought he could get all the reputation and 
 honor himself, and that if he should discover 
 those settlements with such famous high 
 houses, alone, he would be considered bold 
 and courageous. So he proceeded with the 
 people who had followed him, and attempted 
 to cross the wilderness which lies between 
 the country he had passed through and Ci- 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 bola. He was so far ahead of the friars 
 that, when these reached Chichilticalli, 
 which is on the edge of the wilderness, he 
 was already at Cibola, which is 80 leagues 
 beyond. It is 220 leagues from Culiacan to 
 the edge of the wilderness, and 80 across the 
 desert, which makes 300, or perhaps 10 
 more or less. As I said, Stephen reached 
 Cibola loaded with the large quantity of tur 
 quoises they had given him and some beau 
 tiful women whom the Indians who fol 
 lowed him and carried his things were tak 
 ing with them and had given him. These 
 had followed him from all the settlements 
 he had passed, believing that under his pro 
 tection they could traverse the whole world 
 without any danger. 
 
 But as the people in this country were 
 more intelligent than those who followed 
 Stephen, they lodged him in a little hut 
 they had outside their village, and the older 
 men and the governors heard his story and 
 took steps to find out the reason he had come 
 to that country. For three days they made 
 inquiries about him and held a council. 
 The account which the negro gave them of 
 two white men who were following him, 
 sent by a great lord, who knew about the 
 things in the sky, and how these were com 
 ing to instruct them in divine matters, made 
 them think that he must be a spy or a guide 
 from some nations who wished to come and 
 conquer them, because it seemed to them 
 unreasonable to say that the people were 
 7 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 white in the country from which he came 
 and that he was sent by them, he being 
 black. Besides these other reasons, they 
 thought it was hard of him to ask them for 
 turquoises and women, and so they decided 
 to kill him. They did this, but they did 
 not kill any of those who went with him, 
 although they kept some young fellows 
 and let the others, about 60 persons, return 
 freely to their own country. As these, who 
 were badly scared, were returning in flight, 
 they happened to come upon the friars 
 in the desert 60 leagues from Cibola, and 
 told them the sad news, which frightened 
 them so much that they would not even 
 trust these folks who had been with the 
 negro, but opened the packs they were carry 
 ing and gave away everything they had 
 except the holy vestments for saying mass. 
 They returned from here by double marches, 
 prepared for anything, without seeing any 
 more of the country except what the Indians 
 told them. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Of how the noble Don Antonio de Mendoza made 
 an expedition to discover Cibola. 
 
 AFTER Francisco Vazquez Coronado had 
 sent Friar Marcos of Nice and his party on 
 the search already related, he was engaged 
 hi Culiacan about some business that related 
 to his government, when he heard an account 
 8 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 of a province called Topira, 1 which was to 
 the north of the country of Culiacan. He 
 started to explore this region with several of 
 i lie conquerors and some friendly Indians, 
 but he did not get very far, because the 
 mountain chains which they had to cross 
 were very difficult. He returned without 
 finding the least signs of a good country, and 
 when he got back, he found the friars who 
 had just arrived, and who told such great 
 things about what the negro Stephen had 
 discovered and what they had heard from 
 the Indians, and other things they had heard 
 about the South sea and islands and other 
 riches, that, without stopping for anything, 
 the governor set off at once for the City of 
 Mexico, taking Friar Marcos with him, to 
 tell the viceroy about it. He made the 
 things seem more important by not talking 
 about them to anyone except his particular 
 friends, under promise of the greatest secrecy, 
 until after he had reached Mexico and seen 
 Don Antonio de Mendoza. Then it began 
 to be noised abroad that the Seven Cities for 
 which Nuno de Guzman had searched, had 
 already been discovered, and a beginning 
 was made in collecting an armed force and 
 in bringing together people to go to conquer 
 them. 
 
 The noble viceroy arranged with the 
 friars of the order of Saint Francis so that 
 
 1 Bandelier (Contributions, p. 104) says this was 
 Topia, in Durango, a locality since noted for its rich 
 mines. 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 Friar Marcos was made father provincial, as 
 a result of which the pulpits of that order 
 were filled with such accounts of marvels 
 and wonders that more than 300 Spaniards 
 and about 800 natives of New Spain col 
 lected in a few days. There were so many 
 men of such high quality among the Span 
 iards, that such a noble body was never col 
 lected in the Indies, nor so many men of 
 quality in such a small body, there being 300 
 men. Francisco Vazquez Coronado, governor 
 of New Galicia, was captain-general, because 
 he had been the author of it all. The good 
 viceroy Don Antonio did this because at this 
 time Francisco Vazquez was his closest and 
 most intimate friend, and because he con 
 sidered him to be wise, skillful, and intelli 
 gent, besides being a gentleman. Had he 
 paid more attention and regard to the posi 
 tion in which he was placed and the charge 
 over which he was placed, and less to the 
 estates he left behind in New Spain, or, at 
 least, more to the honor he had and might 
 secure from having such gentlemen under 
 his command, things would not have turned 
 out as they did. When this narrative is 
 ended, it will be seen that he did not know 
 how to keep his position nor the government 
 that he held. 
 
 10 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 Concerning the captains who went to Cibola. 
 
 WHEN the viceroy, Don Antonio de Men- 
 doza, saw what a noble company had come 
 together, and the spirit and good will with 
 which they had all presented themselves, 
 knowing the worth of these men, he would 
 have liked very well to make every one of 
 them captain of an army ; but as the whole 
 number was small he could not do as he 
 would have liked, and so he issued the com 
 missions and captaincies as he saw fit, be 
 cause it seemed to him that if they were 
 appointed by him, as he was so well obeyed 
 and beloved, nobody would find fault with 
 his arrangements. After everybody had 
 heard who the general was, he made Don 
 Pedro de Tovar ensign general, a young gen 
 tleman who was the son of Don Fernando de 
 Tovar, the guardian and lord high steward 
 of the Queen Dona Juana, our demented 
 mistress may she be in glory and Lope 
 de Samaniego, the governor of the arsenal ab 
 Mexico, 1 a gentleman fully equal to the 
 charge, army -master. The captains were 
 Don Tristan de Arellano; Don Pedro de 
 Guevara, the son of Don Juan de Guevara 
 and nephew of the Count of Onate; Don 
 
 1 See Mendoza s letter to the King, regarding Sa 
 maniego s position, 
 
 11 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 Garcia Lopez de Cardenas; Don Rodrigo 
 Maldonado, brother-in-law of the Duke of 
 the Infantado; Diego Lopez, alderman of 
 Seville, and Diego Gutierres, for the 
 cavalry. 
 
 All the other gentlemen were placed un 
 der the flag of the general, as being distin 
 guished persons, and some of them became 
 captains later, and their appointments were 
 confirmed by order of the viceroy and by the 
 general, Francisco Vazquez. To name some 
 of them whom I happen to remember, there 
 were Francisco de -Barrionuevo, a gentleman 
 from Granada; Juan de Saldivar, Francisco 
 de Ovando, Juan Gallego, and Melchior Diaz 
 a captain who had been mayor of Culiacan, 
 who, although he was not a gentleman, 
 merited the position he held. The other 
 gentlemen, who were prominent, were Don 
 Alonso Manrique de Lara ; Don Lope de Ur- 
 rea, a gentleman from Aragon ; Gomez Suarez 
 de Figueroa, Luis Ramirez de Vargas, Juan 
 de Sotomayor, Francisco Gorbalan, the com 
 missioner Riberos, and other gentlemen, men 
 of high quality, whom I do not now recall. 
 The infantry captain was Pablo de Melgosa 
 of Burgos, and of the artillery, Hernando de 
 Alvarado of the mountain district. As I 
 say, since then I have forgotten the names 
 of many gentlemen. It would be well if I 
 could name some of them, so that it might 
 be clearly seen what cause I had for saying 
 that they had on this expedition the most 
 brilliant company ever collected in the In- 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 dies to go in search of new lands. But they 
 were unfortunate in having a captain who 
 left in New Spain estates and a pretty wife, 
 a noble and excellent lady, which were not 
 the least causes for what was to happen. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Of how all the companies collected in Compostela 
 and set off on the journey in good order. 
 
 WHEN the viceroy Don Antonio de Men- 
 doza had fixed and arranged everything as 
 we have related, and the companies and cap 
 taincies had been arranged, h advanced a 
 part of their salaries from the chest of His 
 Majesty to those in the army who were in 
 greatest need. And as it seemed to him 
 that it would be rather hard for the friendly 
 Indians in the country if the army should 
 start from Mexico, he ordered them to as 
 semble at the city of Compostela, the chief 
 city in the New Kingdom of Galicia, 110 
 leagues from Mexico, so that they could 
 begin their journey there with everything 
 in good order. There is nothing to tell 
 about what happened on this trip, since 
 they all finally assembled at Compostela by 
 shrove-tid.e > in the year (fifteen hundred and) 
 forty-one. 1 
 
 1 The correct date is 1540. Castaneda carries the 
 error throughout the narrative. 
 13 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 After the whole force had left Mexico, he 
 ordered Don Pedro de Alarcon to set sail 
 with two ships that were in the port of La 
 Natividad on the South seacoast, and go to 
 the port of Xalisco to take the baggage which 
 the soldiers were unable to carry, 1 and thence 
 to sail along the coast near the army, because 
 he had understood from the reports that they 
 would have to go through the country near 
 the seacoast, and that we could find the har 
 bors by means of the rivers, and that the 
 ships could always get news of the army, 
 which turned out afterward to be false, and 
 so all this stuff was lost, or, rather, those 
 who owned it lost it, as will be told farther 
 on. After the viceroy had completed all his 
 arrangements, he set off for Compostela, ac 
 companied by many noble and rich men. 
 He kept the New Year of (fifteen hundred 
 and) forty-one at Pasquaro, which is the 
 chief place in the bishopric of Michoacan, 
 and from there he crossed the whole of New 
 Spain, taking much pleasure in enjoying 
 the festivals and great receptions which 
 were given him, till he reached Compo 
 stela, which is, as I have said, 110 
 leagues. There he found the whole com 
 pany assembled, being well treated and en 
 tertained by Christobal de Onate, who had 
 the whole charge of that government for 
 the time being. He had had the manage 
 ment of it and was in command of all that 
 
 1 See the instructions given by Mendoza to Alar- 
 con, in Buckingham Smith s Florida, p. 1. 
 14 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 region when Francisco Vazquez was made 
 governor. 1 
 
 All were very glad when he arrived, and 
 he made an examination of the company and 
 found all those whom we have mentioned. 
 He assigned the captains to their companies, 
 and after this was done, on the next day, 
 after they had all heard mass, captains and 
 soldiers together, the viceroy made them a 
 very eloquent short speech, telling them of 
 the fidelity they owed to their general and 
 showing them clearly the benefits which this 
 expedition might afford, from the conversion 
 of those peoples as well as in the profit of 
 those who should conquer the territory, and 
 the advantage to His Majesty and the claim 
 which they would thus have on his favor 
 and aid at all times. After he had finished, 
 they all, both captains and soldiers, gave 
 him their oaths upon the Gospels in a Mis 
 sal that they would follow their general on 
 this expedition and would obey him in 
 everything he commanded them, which they 
 faithfully performed, as will be seen. The 
 next day after this was done, the army 
 started off with its colors flying. The vice 
 roy, Don Antonio, went with them for two 
 days, and there he took leave of them, re 
 turning to New Spain with his friends. 
 
 1 See the writings ol Tello and Mota Padilla con 
 cerning Onate. Much of the early prosperity of 
 New Galicia what there was of it seems to have 
 been due to Onate s skillful management. 
 
 15 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Of how the army reached Chiametla, and the kill 
 ing of the army -master, and the other things that 
 happened up to the arrival at Culiacan. 
 
 AFTER the viceroy Don Antonio left them, 
 the army continued its march. As eacli one 
 was obliged to transport his own baggage 
 and all did not know how to fasten the 
 packs, and as the horses started off fat and 
 plump, they had a good deal of difficulty 
 and labor during the first few days, and 
 many left many valuable things, giving 
 them to anyone who wanted them, in order 
 to get rid of carrying them. In the end 
 necessity, which is all powerful, made them 
 skillful, so that one could see many gentle 
 men become carriers, and anybody who 
 despised this work was not considered a 
 man. 
 
 Witli such labors, which they then thought 
 severe, the army reached Chiametla, where 
 it was obliged to delay several days to pro 
 cure food. During this time the army-mas 
 ter, Lope de Samaniego, went off with some 
 soldiers to find food, and at one village, a 
 crossbowman having entered it indiscreetly 
 in pursuit of the enemies, they shot him 
 through the eye and it passed through his 
 brain, so that he died on the spot. They 
 also shot five or six of his companions before 
 Diego Lopez, the alderman from Seville, 
 16 
 
TIffi JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 since the commander was dead, collected the 
 men and sent word to the general. He put 
 a guard in the village and over the provi 
 sions. There was great confusion in the 
 arm} 7 when this news became known. He 
 was buried here. Several sorties were made, 
 by which food was obtained and several of 
 the natives taken prisoners. They hanged 
 those who seemed to belong to the district 
 where the army-master was killed. 
 
 It seems that when the general, Francisco 
 Vazquez, left Culiacan with Friar Marcos to 
 tell the viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza, 
 the news, as already related, he left orders 
 for Captain Melchior Diaz and Juan de Saldi- 
 var to start off with a dozen good men from 
 Culiacan and verify what Friar Marcos had 
 seen and heard. They started and went as 
 far as Chichilticalli, which is where the 
 wilderness begins, 220 leagues from Culia 
 can, and there they turned back, not finding 
 anything important. They reached Chia- 
 metla just as the army was ready to leave, 
 and reported to the general. Although they 
 were kept secret, the bad news leaked out, 
 and there were some reports which, al 
 though they were exaggerated, did not fail 
 to give an indication of what the facts were. 1 
 Friar Marcos, noticing that some were feol- 
 
 1 The report of Diaz is incorporated in the letter 
 from Mendoza to the King, translated herein. This 
 letter seems to imply that Diaz stayed at Chichilti 
 calli ; but if such was his intention when writing 
 the report to Mendoza, he must have changed his 
 mind and returned with Saldivar as far as Chiametla. 
 2 17 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 ing disturbed, cleared away these clouds, 
 promising that what they would see should 
 be good, and that he would place the army 
 in a country where their hands would be 
 filled, and in this way he quieted them so 
 that they appeared well satisfied. From 
 there the army marched to Culiacan, mak 
 ing some detours into the country to seize 
 provisions. They were two leagues from 
 the town of Culiacan at Easter vespers, when 
 the inhabitants came out to welcome their 
 governor and begged him not to enter the 
 town till the day after Easter. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Of how the army entered the town of Culiacan 
 and the reception it received, and other things which 
 happened before the departure. 
 
 WHEN the day after Easter came, the army 
 started in the morning to go to the town and, 
 as they approached, the inhabitants of the 
 town came out on to an open plain with foot 
 and horse drawn up in ranks as if for a bat 
 tle, and having its seven bronze pieces of 
 artillery in position, making a show of de 
 fending their town. Some of our soldiers 
 were with them. Our army drew up in the 
 same way and began a skirmish with them, 
 and after the artillery on both sides had been 
 fired they were driven back, just as if the 
 town had been taken by force of arms, which 
 was a pleasant demonstration of welcome, 
 18 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 except for the artilleryman who lost a hand 
 by a shot, from having ordered them to fire 
 before he had finished drawing out the ram 
 rod. 
 
 After the town was taken, the army was 
 well lodged and entertained by the towns 
 people, who, as they were all very well-to-do 
 people, took all the gentlemen and people of 
 quality who were with the army into their 
 own apartments, although they had lodgings 
 prepared for them all just outside the town. 
 Some of the townspeople were not ill repaid 
 for this hospitality, because all had started 
 with fine clothes and accoutrements, and as 
 they had to carry provisions on their animals 
 after this, they were obliged to leave their 
 fine stuff, so that many preferred giving it 
 to their hosts instead of risking it on the 
 sea by putting it in the ship that had fol 
 lowed the army along the coast to take the 
 extra baggage, as I have said. After they 
 arrived and were being entertained in the 
 town, the general, by order of the viceroy 
 Don Antonio, left Fernandarias de Saabedra, 
 uncle of Hernandarias de Saabedra, count of 
 Castellar, formerly mayor of Seville, as his 
 lieutenant and captain in this town. The 
 army rested here several days, because the 
 inhabitants had gathered a good stock of 
 provisions that year and each one shared his 
 stock very gladly with his guests from our 
 army. They not only had plenty to eat 
 here, but they also had plenty to take away 
 with them, so that when the departure came 
 19 
 
THE JOURNEY OF COKONADO 
 
 they started off with more than six hundred 
 loaded animals, besides the friendly Indians 
 and the servants more than a thousand 
 persons. After a fortnight had passed, the 
 general started ahead with about fifty horse 
 men and a few foot soldiers and most of the 
 Indian allies, leaving the army, which was 
 to follow him a fortnight later, with Don 
 Tristan de Arellano in command as his lieu 
 tenant. 
 
 At this time, before his departure, a pretty 
 sort of thing happened to the general, which 
 I will tell for what it is worth. A young 
 soldier named Trugillo (Truxillo) pretended 
 that he had seen a vision while he was bath 
 ing in the river. Feigning that he did not 
 want to, he was brought before the general, 
 whom he gave to understand that the devil 
 had told him that if he would kill the gen 
 eral, he could marry his wife, Dona Beatris, 
 and would receive great wealth and other 
 very fine things. Friar Marcos of Nice 
 preached several sermons on this, laying it 
 all to the fact that the devil was jealous of 
 the good which must result from this jour 
 ney and so wished to break it up in this 
 way. It did not end here, but the friars 
 who were in the expedition wrote to their 
 convents about it, and this was the reason 
 the pulpits of Mexico proclaimed strange 
 rumors about this affair. 
 
 The general ordered Truxillo to stay in 
 that town and not to go on the expedition, 
 which was what he was after when he made 
 20 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 up that falsehood, judging from what after 
 ward appeared to be the truth. The general 
 started off with the force already described 
 to continue his journey, and the army fol 
 lowed him, as will be related. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Of how the army started from Culiacan and the 
 arrival of the general at Cibola and of the arm} r at 
 Senora and of other things that happened. 
 
 THE general, as has been said, started to 
 continue his journey from the valley of Cu 
 liacan somewhat lightly equipped, taking 
 with him the friars, since none of them 
 wished to stay behind with the army. After 
 they had gone three days, a regular friar who 
 could say mass, named Friar Antonio Vic 
 toria, broke his leg, and they brought him 
 back from the camp to have it doctored. He 
 stayed with the army after this, which was 
 no slight consolation for all. The general 
 and his force crossed the country without 
 trouble, as they found everything peaceful, 
 because the Indians knew Friar Marcos and 
 some of the others who had been with Mel- 
 chior Diaz when he went with Juan de Sal- 
 dibar to investigate. 
 
 After the general had crossed the inhab 
 ited region and came to Chiehilticalli, where 
 the wilderness begins, and saw nothing favor 
 able, he could not help feeling somewhat 
 downhearted, for, although the reports were 
 21 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 very fine about what was ahead, there was 
 nobody who had seen it except the Indians 
 who went with the negro, and these had 
 already been caught in some lies. Besides 
 all this, he was much affected by seeing that 
 the fame of Chichilticalli was summed up in 
 one tumble-down house without any roof, 
 although it appeared to have been a strong 
 place at some former time when it was in 
 habited, and it was very plain that it had 
 been built by a civilized and warlike race of 
 strangers who had come from a distance. 
 This building was made of red earth. From 
 here they went on through the wilderness, 
 and in fifteen days came to a river about 
 8 leagues from Cibola, which they called 
 Red River, 1 because its waters were muddy 
 and reddish. In this river they found mul 
 lets like those of Spain. The first Indians 
 from that country were seen here two of 
 them, who ran away to give the news. Dur 
 ing the night following the next day, about 
 2 leagues from the village, some Indians 
 in a safe place yelled so that, although the 
 men were ready for anything, some were so 
 excited that they put their saddles on hind- 
 side before ; but these were the new fellows. 
 When the veterans had mounted and ridden 
 round the camp, the Indians fled. None of 
 them could be caught because they knew the 
 country. 
 
 1 Bandelier, in his Gilded Man, identifies this with 
 Zuni river. The Rio Vermejo of Jaramillo is the 
 Little Colorado or Colorado Chiquito. 
 
 22 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 The next day they entered the settled 
 country in good order, and when they saw 
 the first village, which was Cibola, such 
 were the curses that some hurled at Friar 
 Marcos that I pray God may protect him 
 from them. 
 
 It is a little, crowded village, looking as 
 if it had been crumpled all up together. 
 There are ranch houses in New Spain which 
 make a better appearance at a distance. 1 It 
 is a village of about 200 warriors, is three 
 and four stories high, with the houses small 
 and having only a few rooms, and without 
 a courtyard. One yard serves for each sec 
 tion. The people of the whole district had 
 collected here, for there are seven villages 
 in the province, and some of the others 
 are even larger and stronger than Cibola. 
 These folks waited for the army, drawn up 
 by divisions in front of the village. When 
 they refused to have peace on the terms 
 the interpreters extended to them, but 
 
 Mota Padilla, p. 113: "They reached Tzibola. 
 which was a village divided into two parts, which 
 were encircled in such a way as to make the village 
 round, and the houses adjoining three and four 
 stories high, with doors opening on a great court or 
 plaza, leaving one or two doors in the wall, so as to 
 go in and out. In the middle of the plaza there is a 
 hatchway or trapdoor, by which they go down to a 
 subterranean hall, the roof of which was of large 
 pine beams, and a little hearth in the floor, and the 
 walls plastered. The Indian men stayed there days 
 and nights playing (or gaming) and the women 
 brought them food ; and this was the way the In 
 dians of the neighboring villages lived." 
 23 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 appeared defiant, the Santiago was given, 
 and they were at once put to flight. The 
 Spaniards then attacked the village, which 
 was taken with not a little difficulty, since 
 they held the narrow and crooked entrance. 
 During the attack they knocked the general 
 down with a large stone, and would have 
 killed him but for Don Garcia Lopez de Car 
 denas and Hernando de Alvarado, who threw 
 themselves above him and drew him away, 
 receiving the blows of the stones, which 
 were not few. But the first fury of the 
 Spaniards could not be resisted, and in less 
 than an hour they entered the village and 
 captured it. They discovered food there, 
 which was the thing they were most in need 
 of. 2 After this the whole province was at 
 peace. 
 
 The army which had stayed with Don 
 Tristan de Arellano started to follow their 
 general, all loaded with provisions, with 
 lances on their shoulders, and all on foot, so 
 as to have the horses loaded. With no 
 slight labor from day to day, they reached a 
 province which Cabeza de Vaca had named 
 Hearts (Corazones), because the people here 
 offered him many hearts of animals. He 
 founded a town here and named it San 
 
 1 The war cry or " loud invocation addressed to 
 Saint James before engaging in battle with the In- 
 tidels." Captain John Stevens Dictionary. 
 
 2 Compare the translation of the Traslado de las 
 Nuevas herein. There are some striking resem 
 blances between that account and Castaneda s nar 
 rative. 
 
 24 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 Hieronimo de los Corazones (Saint Jerome 
 of the Hearts). After it had been started, 
 it was seen that it could not be kept up here, 
 and so it was afterward transferred to a val 
 ley which had been called Senora. 1 The 
 Spaniards call it Senora , and so it will be 
 known by this name. 
 
 From here a force went down the river to 
 the seacoast to rind the harbor and to find 
 out about the ships. Don Eodrigo Maldo- 
 nado, who was captain of those who went in 
 search of the ships, did not find them, but 
 he brought back with him an Indian so large 
 and tall that the best man in the army 
 reached only to his chest. It was said that 
 other Indians were even taller on that coast. 
 After the rains ceased the army went on to 
 where the town of Senora was afterward lo 
 cated, because there were provisions in that 
 region, so that they were able to wait there 
 for orders from the general. 
 
 About the middle of the month of Octo 
 ber 2 Captains Melchior Diaz and Juan Gal- 
 lego came from Cibola, Juan Gallego on his 
 way to New Spain and Melchior Diaz to 
 stay in the new town of Hearts, in command 
 of the men who remained there. He was to 
 go along the coast in search of the ships. 
 
 1 The persistent use of the form Seficra, Madame, 
 for the place Sonora, may be due to the copyists. 
 
 2 This should be September. 
 
 25 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Of how the army started from the town of Sefiora, 
 leaving it inhabited, and how it reached Cibola, and 
 of what happened to Captain Melchior Diaz on his 
 expedition in search of the ships and how he dis 
 covered the Tison (Firebrand) river. 
 
 AFTER Melchior Diaz and Juan Gallego 
 had arrived in the town of Seiiora, it was 
 announced that the army was to depart for 
 Cibola; that Melchior Diaz was to remain 
 in charge of that town with 80 men; that 
 Juan Gallego was going to New Spain with 
 messages for the viceroy, and that Friar 
 Marcos was going back with him, because 
 he did not think it was safe for him to 
 stay in Cibola, seeing that his report had 
 turned out to be entirely false, because the 
 kingdoms that he had told about had not 
 been found, nor the populous cities, nor the 
 wealth of gold, nor the precious stones 
 which he had reported, nor the fine clothes, 
 nor other things that had been proclaimed 
 from the pulpits. When this had been an 
 nounced, those who were to remain were 
 selected and the rest loaded their provisions 
 and set off in good order about the middle of 
 September on the way to Cibola following 
 their general. 
 
 Don Tristan de Arellano stayed in this 
 new town with the weakest men, and from 
 this time on there was nothing but mutinies 
 26 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 and strife, because after the army had gone 
 Captain Melchior Diaz took 25 of the most 
 efficient men, leaving in his place one Diego 
 de Alcaraz, a man unfitted to have people 
 under his command. He took guides and 
 went toward the north and west in search 
 of the seacoast. After going about 150 
 leagues, they came to a province of ex 
 ceedingly tall and strong men like giants. 
 They are naked and live in large straw 
 cabins built underground like smoke houses, 
 with only the straw roof above ground. 
 They enter these at one end and come out 
 at the other. More than a hundred per 
 sons, old and young, sleep in one cabin. 
 When they carry anything, they can take a 
 load of more than three or four hundred 
 weight on their heads. Once when our men 
 wished to fetch a log for the fire, and six 
 men were unable to carry it, one of these 
 Indians is reported to have come and raised 
 it in his arms, put it on his head alone, and 
 carried it very easily. 1 They eat bread 
 cooked in the ashes, as big as the large two- 
 pound loaves of Castile. On account of the 
 great cold, they carry a firebrand (tison) in 
 
 Fletcher, in The World Encompassed by Sir 
 Francis Drake, p. 131 (ed. 1854) tells a similar story 
 of some Indians whom Drake visited on the coast of 
 California : " Yet are the men commonly so strong of 
 body, that that which 2 or 3 of our men could hard 
 ly beare, one of them would take vpon his backe, 
 and without grudging, carrie it easily away, vp hill 
 and downe hill an English mile together." Mota 
 Padilla, cap. xxxii., p. 158, describes an attempt to 
 catch one of these Indians. 
 27 
 
THE JOURNEY OF COROXADO 
 
 the hand when they go from one place to 
 another, with which they warm the other 
 hand and the body as well, and in this way 
 they keep shifting it every now and then. 1 
 On this account the large river which is 
 in that country was called Eio del Tison 
 (Firebrand River). It is a very great river 
 and is more than 2 leagues wide at its 
 mouth; here it is half a league across. 
 Here the captain heard that there had been 
 ships at a point three days down toward the 
 sea. When he reached the place where the 
 ships had been, which was more than 15 
 leagues up the river from the mouth of the 
 harbor, they found written on a tree : " Alar- 
 con reached this place ; there are letters at 
 the foot of this tree." He dug up the letters 
 and learned from them how long Alarcon 
 had waited for news of the army and that 
 he had gone back with the ships to New 
 Spain, because he was unable to proceed 
 farther, since this sea was a bay, which was 
 formed by the Isle of the Marquis, 2 which is 
 called California, and it was explained that 
 California was not an island, but a point of 
 the mainland forming the other side of that 
 gulf. 
 
 After he had seen this, the captain turned 
 back to go up the river, without going down 
 to the sea to find a ford by which to cross 
 
 1 Father Sedelmair, in his Relacion, mentions this 
 custom of the Indians. (See Bandelier, Final Re 
 port, vol. i., p. 108.) 
 
 2 Cortes. 
 
 28 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 to the other side, so as to follow the other 
 bank. After they had gone five or six days, 
 it seemed to them as if they could cross on 
 rafts. For this purpose they called together 
 a large number of the natives, who were 
 waiting for a favorable opportunity to make 
 an attack on our men, and whe"n they saw 
 that the strangers wanted to cross, they 
 helped make the rafts with all zeal and dili 
 gence, so as to catch them in this way on 
 the water and drown them or else so divide 
 them that they could not help one another. 
 While the rafts were being made, a soldier 
 who had been out around the camp saw a 
 large number of armed men go across to a 
 mountain, where they were waiting till the 
 soldiers should cross the river. He reported 
 this, and an Indian was quietly shut up, in 
 order to find out the truth, and when they 
 tortured him he told all the arrangements 
 that had been made. These were, that 
 when our men were crossing and part of 
 them had got over and part were on the 
 river and part were waiting to cross, those 
 who were on the rafts should drown those 
 they were taking across and the rest of their 
 force should make an attack on both sides of 
 the river. If they had had as much discre 
 tion and courage as they had strength and 
 power, the attempt would have succeeded. 
 
 When he knew their plan, the captain had 
 
 the Indian who had confessed the affair killed 
 
 secretly, and that night he was thrown into 
 
 the river with a weight, so that the Indians 
 
 29 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 would not suspect that they were found out. 
 The next day they noticed that our men sus 
 pected them, and so they made an attack, 
 shooting showers of arrows, but when the 
 horses began to catch up with them and the 
 lances wounded them without mercy and 
 the musketeers likewise made good shots, 
 they had to leave the plain and take to the 
 mountain, until not a man of them was to 
 be seen. The force then came back and 
 crossed all right, the Indian allies and the 
 Spaniards going across on the rafts and the 
 horses swimming alongside the rafts, where 
 we will leave them to continue their jour 
 ney. 
 
 To relate how the army that was on its 
 way to Cibola got on : Everything went 
 along in good shape, since the general had 
 left everything peaceful, because he wished 
 the people in that region to be contented and 
 without fear and willing to do what they 
 were ordered. In a province called Vacapan 
 there was a large quantity of prickly pears, 
 of which the natives make a great deal of 
 preserves. 1 They gave this preserve away 
 freely, and as the men of the army ate much 
 of it, they all fell sick with a headache and 
 fever, so that the natives might have done 
 much harm to the force if they had wished. 
 This lasted regularly twenty-four hours. 
 After this they continued their march until 
 
 1 The Zunis make a similar sort of preserves from 
 the fruit of the tuna and the yucca. See Gushing in 
 The Millstone, Indianapolis, July, 1884, pp. 108-109. 
 30 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 they reached Chichilticalli. The men in 
 the advance guard saw a flock of sheep one 
 day after leaving this place. I myself saw 
 and followed them. They had extremely 
 large bodies and long wool; their horns 
 were very thick and large, and when they 
 run they throw back their heads and put 
 their horns on the ridge of their back. 
 They are used to the rough country, so that 
 we could not catch them and had to leave 
 them. 
 
 Three days after we entered the wilderness 
 we found a horn on the bank of a river that 
 flows in the bottom of a very steep, deep 
 gully, which the general had noticed and 
 left there for his army to see, for it was six 
 feet long and as thick at the base as a man s 
 thigh. It seemed to be more like the horn 
 of a goat than of any other animal. It was 
 something worth seeing. The army pro 
 ceeded and was about a day s march from 
 Cibola when a very cold tornado came up in 
 the afternoon, followed by a great fall of 
 snow, which was a bad combination for the 
 carriers. The army went on till it reached 
 some caves in a rocky ridge, late in the even 
 ing. The Indian allies, who were from New 
 Spain, and for the most part from warm 
 countries, were in great danger. They felt 
 the coldness of that day so much that it was 
 hard work the next day taking care of them, 
 for they suffered much pain and had to be 
 carried on the horses, the soldiers walking. 
 After this labor the army reached Cibola, 
 31 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 where their general was waiting for them, 
 with their quarters all ready, and here they 
 were reunited, except some captains and 
 men who had gone oft to discover other prov 
 inces. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 How Don Pedro de Tovar discovered Tusayan or 
 Ttitahaco J and Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas saw 
 the Firebrand river and the other things that had 
 happened. 
 
 WHILE the things already described were 
 taking place, Cibola being at peace, the Gen 
 eral Francisco Vazquez found out from the 
 people of the province about the provinces 
 that lay around it, and got them to tell their 
 friends and neighbors that Christians had 
 come into the country, whose only desire 
 was to be their friends, and to find out about 
 good lands to live in, and for them to come 
 to see the strangers and talk with them. 
 They did this, since they know how to com 
 municate with one another in these regions, 
 and they informed him about a province 
 with seven villages of the same sort as 
 theirs, although somewhat different. They 
 had nothing to do with these people. This 
 province is called Tusayan. It is twenty- 
 five leagues from Cibola. The villages are 
 high and the people are warlike. 
 
 The general had sent Don Pedro de Tovar 
 
 1 Compare chapter 13. These two groups of pue 
 blos were not the same. 
 
 32 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 to these villages with seventeen horsemen 
 and three or four foot soldiers. Juan cle 
 Padilla, a Franciscan friar, who had been a 
 fighting man in his youth, went with them. 
 When they reached the region, they entered 
 the country so quietly that nobody observed 
 them, because there were no settlements or 
 farms between one village and another and 
 the people do not leave the villages except 
 to go to their farms, especially at this time, 
 when they had heard that Cibola had been 
 captured by very fierce people, who travelled 
 on animals which ate people. This infor 
 mation was generally believed by those who 
 had never seen horses, although it was so 
 strange as to cause much wonder. Our men 
 arrived after nightfall and were able to con 
 ceal themselves under the edge of the village, 
 where they heard the natives talking in 
 their houses. But in the morning they were 
 discovered and drew up in regular order, 
 while the natives came out to meet them, 
 with bows, and shields, and wooden clubs, 
 drawn up in lines without any confusion. 
 The interpreter was given a chance to speak 
 to them and give them due warning, for they 
 were very intelligent people, but nevertheless 
 they drew lines and insisted that our men 
 should not go across these lines toward their 
 village. 1 
 
 1 Compare the lines which the Hopi or Moqui In 
 dians still mark with sacred meal during their festi 
 vals, as described by Dr. Fewkes in his "Few Sum 
 mer Ceremonials," in vol. ii. of the Journal of 
 American Ethnology and Archaeology. 
 33 
 
THE JOURNEY OF* CORONADO 
 
 While they were talking, some men acted 
 as if they would cross the lines, and one of 
 the natives lost control of himself and struck 
 a horse a blow on the cheek of the bridle 
 with his club. Friar Juan, fretted by the 
 time that was being wasted in talking with 
 them, said to the captain: "To tell the 
 truth, I do not know why we came here." 
 When the men heard this, they gave the 
 Santiago so suddenly that they ran down 
 many Indians and the others fled to the 
 town in confusion. Some indeed did not 
 have a chance to do this, so quickly did the 
 people in the village come out with presents, 
 asking for peace. The captain ordered his 
 force to collect, and, as the natives did not 
 do any more harm, he and those who were 
 with him found a place to establish their 
 headquarters near the village. They had 
 dismounted here when the natives came 
 peacefully, saying that they had come to 
 give in the submission of the whole province 
 and that they wanted him to be friends with 
 them and to accept the presents which they 
 gave him. This was some cotton cloth, 
 although not much, because they do not 
 make it in that district. They also gave 
 him some dressed skins and corn meal, 
 and pine nuts and corn and birds of 
 the country. Afterward they presented 
 some turquoises, but not many. The 
 people of the whole district came to 
 gether that day and submitted themselves, 
 and they allowed him to enter their vil- 
 34 
 
THE JOURNEY OF COKONADO 
 
 lages freely to visit, buy, sell, and barter 
 with them. 
 
 It is governed like Cibola, by an assembly 
 of the oldest men. They have their gover 
 nors and generals. This was where they 
 obtained the information about a large river, 
 and that several days down the river there 
 were some people with very large bodies. 
 
 As Don Pedro de Tovar was not commis 
 sioned to go farther, he returned from there 
 and gave this information to the general, 
 who dispatched Don Garcia Lopez de Carde 
 nas with about twelve companions to go to 
 see this river. He was well received when 
 he reached Tusayan and was entertained by 
 the natives, who gave him guides for. his 
 journey. They started from here loaded 
 with provisions, for they had to go through 
 a desert country before reaching the inhab 
 ited region, which the Indians said was more 
 than twenty days journey. After they had 
 gone twenty days they came to the banks 
 of the river. It seemed to be more than 3 
 or 4 leagues in an air line across to the 
 other bank of the stream which flowed be 
 tween them. 
 
 This country was elevated and full of low 
 twisted pines, very cold, and lying open tow 
 ard the north, so that, this being the warm 
 season, no one could live there on account 
 of the cold. They spent three days on this 
 bank looking for a passage down to the river, 
 which looked from above as if the water was 
 6 feet across, although the Indians said it 
 35 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 was half a league wide. It was impossible 
 to descend, for after these three days Captain 
 Melgosa and one Juan Galeras and another 
 companion, who were the three lightest and 
 most agile men, made an attempt to go down 
 at the least difficult place, and went down 
 until those who were above were unable to 
 keep sight of them. They returned about 
 4 o clock in the afternoon, not having 
 succeeded in reaching the bottom on account 
 of the great difficulties which they found, 
 because what seemed to be easy from above 
 was not so, but instead very hard and diffi 
 cult. They said that they had been down 
 about a third of the way and that the river 
 seemed very large from the place which they 
 reached, and that from what they saw they 
 thought the Indians had given the width 
 correctly. Those who stayed above had 
 estimated that some huge rocks on the sides 
 of the cliffs seemed to be about as tall as a 
 man, but those who went down swore that 
 when they reached these rocks they were 
 bigger than the great tower of Seville. They 
 did not go farther up the river, because they 
 could not get water. 
 
 Before this they had had to go a league or 
 two inland every day late in the evening in 
 order to find water, and the guides said that 
 if they should go four days farther it would 
 not be possible to go on, because there was 
 no water within three or four days, for when 
 they travel across this region themselves 
 they take with them women loaded with 
 36 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 water in gourds, and bury the gourds of 
 water along the way, to use when they re 
 turn, and besides this, they travel in one 
 day over what it takes us two days to ac 
 complish. 
 
 This was the Tison (Firebrand) river, 
 much nearer its source than where Melchior 
 Diaz and his company crossed it. These 
 were the same kind of Indians, judging from 
 what was afterward learned. They came 
 back from this point and the expedition did 
 not have any other result. On the way 
 they saw some water falling over a rock and 
 learned from the guides that some bunches 
 of crystals which were hanging there were 
 salt. They went and gathered a quantity of 
 this and brought it back to Cibola, dividing 
 it among those who were there. They gave 
 the general a written account of what they 
 had seen, because one Pedro de Sotomayor 
 had gone with Don Garcia Lopez as chroni 
 cler for the army. The villages of that prov 
 ince remained peaceful, since they were never 
 visited again, nor was any attempt made to 
 find other peoples in that direction. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Of how people came from Cicuye to Cibola to see 
 the Christians, and how Hernando de Alvarado went 
 to see the cows. 
 
 WHILE they were making these discov 
 eries, some Indians came to Cibola from 
 a village which was 70 leagues east of 
 37 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 this province, called Cicuye. Among them 
 was a captain who was called Bigotes 
 (Whiskers) by our men, because he wore a 
 long mustache. He was a tall, well-built 
 young fellow, with a fine figure. He told 
 the general that they had come in response 
 to the notice which had been given, to offer 
 themselves as friends, and that if we wanted 
 to go through their country they would con 
 sider us as their friends. They brought a 
 present of tanned hides and shields and head 
 pieces, which were very gladly received, and 
 the general gave them some glass dishes and 
 a number of pearls and little bells which 
 they prized highly, because these were things 
 they had never seen. They described some 
 cows which, from a picture that one of them 
 had painted on his skin, seemed to be cows, 
 although from the hides this did not seem 
 possible, because the hair was woolly and 
 snarled so that we could not tell what sort 
 of skins they had. The general ordered 
 Hernando de Alvarado to take 20 compan 
 ions and go with them, and gave him a 
 commission for eighty days, after which he 
 should return to give an account of what he 
 had found. 1 
 
 Captain Alvarado started on this journey 
 and in five days reached a village which was 
 on a rock called Acuco, 2 having a popu- 
 
 1 The report of Alvarado is probably the official 
 account of what he accomplished. 
 
 >2 In regard to the famous rock fortress of Acoma 
 see Bandelier s Introduction, p. 14, and his Final 
 
 38 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 lation of about 200 men. These people 
 were robbers, feared by the whole country 
 round about. The village was very strong, 
 because it was up 011 a rock out of reach, 
 having steep sides in every direction, and so 
 high that it was a very good musket that 
 could throw a ball as high. There was only 
 one entrance by a stairway built by hand, 
 which began at the top of a slope which is 
 around the foot of the rock. There was a 
 broad stairway for about 200 steps, then a 
 stretch of about 100 narrower steps, and at 
 the top they had to go up about three times 
 as high as a man by means of holes in the 
 rock, in which they put the points of their 
 feet, holding on at the same time by their 
 hands. There was a wall of large and small 
 stones at the top, which they could roll 
 down without showing themselves, so that 
 no army could possibly be strong enough to 
 capture the village. On the top they had 
 room to sow and store a large amount of 
 corn, and cisterns to collect snow and water. 
 These people came down to the plain ready 
 to fight, and would not listen to any argu 
 ments. They drew lines on the ground and 
 determined to prevent our men from crossing 
 these, but when they saw that they would 
 have to fight they offered to make peace be- 
 
 Report, vol. i., p. 133. The Spaniards called it by 
 a name resembling that which they heard applied to 
 it in Zuni-Cibola. The true Zuni name of Acoma, 
 on the authority of Mr. F. W. Hodge, is Hakukia; 
 that of the Acoma people, Hakukwe. 
 39 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 fore any harm had been done. They went 
 through their forms of making peace, which 
 is to touch the horses and take their sweat 
 and rub themselves with it, and to make 
 crosses with the fingers of the hands. But 
 to make the most secure peace they put their 
 hands across each other, and they keep this 
 peace inviolably. They made a present of a 
 large number of [turkey] cocks with very 
 big wattles, much bread, tanned deerskins, 
 pine [pifion] nuts, flour [corn meal], and 
 corn. 
 
 From here they went to a province called 
 Triguex, 1 three days distant. The people all 
 came out peacefully, seeing that Whiskers 
 was with them. These men are feared 
 throughout all those provinces. Alvarado 
 sent messengers back from here to advise the 
 general to come and winter in this country. 
 The general was not a little relieved to hear 
 that the country was growing better. Five 
 days from here he came to Cicuye, 2 a very 
 strong village four stories high. The people 
 came out from the village with signs of joy 
 to welcome Hernando de Alvarado and their 
 captain, and brought them into the town 
 with drums and pipes something like flutes, 
 
 1 An error for Tiguex, at or near the present Ber- 
 nalillo. Simpson located this near the mouth of the 
 river Puerco, southeast of Acoma, but I follow 
 Bandelier, according to whom Alvarado pursued a 
 northeasterly direction from Acoma. See his Intro 
 duction, p. 30, and Final Report, vol. i., p. 129. 
 
 2 Pecos. Besides his Final Report, vol. i., p. 127, 
 see Bandelier s Report on the Pecos Ruins. 
 40 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 of which they have a great many. They 
 made many presents of cloth and turquoises, 
 of which there are quantities in that region. 
 The Spaniards enjoyed themselves here for 
 several days and talked with an Indian slave, 
 a native of the country toward Florida, which 
 is the region Don Fernando de Soto discov 
 ered. This fellow said that there were large 
 settlements in the farther part of that coun 
 try. Hernando de Alvarado took him to 
 guide them to the cows ; but he told them 
 so many and such great things about the 
 wealth of gold and silver in his country that 
 they did not care about looking for cows, 
 but returned after they had seen some few, 
 to report the rich news to the general. 
 They called the Indian "Turk," because he 
 looked like one. 
 
 Meanwhile the general had sent Don Gar 
 cia Lopez de Cardenas to Tiguex with men 
 to get lodgings ready for the army, which 
 had arrived from Senora about this time, 
 before taking them there for the winter ; and 
 when Hernando de Alvarado reached Tiguex, 
 on his way back from Cicuye, he found Don 
 Garcia Lopez de Cardenas there, and so there 
 was no need for him to go farther. As it 
 was necessary that the natives should give 
 the Spaniards lodging places, the people in 
 one village had to abandon it and go to 
 others belonging to their friends, and they 
 took with them nothing but themselves and 
 the clothes they had on. Information was 
 obtained here about many towns up toward 
 41 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 the north, and I believe that it would have 
 been much better to follow this direction 
 than that of the Turk, who was the cause of 
 all the misfortunes which followed. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Of how the general went toward Tutahaco with a 
 few men and left the army with Don Tristan, who 
 took it to Tiguex. 
 
 EVERYTHING already related had happened 
 when Don Tristan de Arellano reached Ci- 
 bola from Senora. Soon after he arrived, 
 the general, who had received notice of a 
 province containing eight villages, took 30 
 of the men who were most fully rested and 
 went to see it, going from there directly to 
 Tiguex with the skilled guides who con 
 ducted him. He left orders for Don Tristan 
 de Arellano to proceed to Tiguex by the di 
 rect road, after the men had rested twenty 
 days. On this journey, between one day 
 when they left the camping place and mid 
 day of the third day, when they saw some 
 snow-covered mountains, toward which they 
 went in search of water, neither the Span 
 iards nor the horses nor the servants drank 
 anything. They were able to stand it be 
 cause of the severe cold, although with great 
 difficulty. In eight days they reached Tuta 
 haco, 1 where they learned that there were 
 
 1 Coronado probably reached the Rio Grande near 
 the present Isleta. Jaramillo applies this name to 
 42 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO . 
 
 other towns down the river. These people 
 were peaceful. The villages are terraced, 
 like those at Tiguex, and of the same style. 
 The general went up the river from here, 
 visiting the whole province, until he reached 
 Tiguex, where he found Hernando de Alva- 
 radaand the Turk. He felt no slight joy at 
 such good news, because the Turk said that 
 in his country there was a river in the level 
 country which was 2 leagues wide, in which 
 there were fishes as big as horses, and large 
 numbers of very big canoes, with more 
 than 20 rowers on a side, and that they 
 carried sails, and that their lords sat on the 
 poop under awnings, and on the prow they 
 had a great golden eagle. He said also that 
 the lord of that country took his afternoon 
 nap under a great tree on which were hung 
 a great number of little gold bells, which put 
 him to sleep as they swung in the air. He 
 said also that everyone had their ordinary 
 dishes made of wrought plate, and the jugs 
 and bowls were of gold. He called gold 
 acochis. For the present he was believed, 
 on account of the ease with which he told 
 it and because they showed him metal orna 
 ments and he recognized them and said they 
 were not gold, and he knew gold and silver 
 very well and did not care anything about 
 other metals. 
 
 Acoma, and perhaps he is more correct, if we ought 
 to read it Tutahaio, since the Tiguas (the inhabitants 
 of Isleta, Sandia, Taos, and Picuris pueblos) call 
 Acoma Tuthea-uay, according to Bandelier, Gilded 
 Man, p. 211. 
 
 43 
 
TPIE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 The general sent Hernando de Alvarado 
 back to Cicuye to demand some gold brace 
 lets which this Turk said they had taken 
 from him at the time they captured him. 
 Alvarado went, and was received as a friend 
 at the village, and when he demanded the 
 bracelets they said they knew nothing at all 
 about them, saying the Turk was deceiving 
 him and was lying. Captain Alvarado, see 
 ing that there were no other means, got the 
 Captajii Whiskers and the governor to come 
 to his tent, and when they had come he put 
 them in chains. The villagers prepared to 
 fight, and let fly their arrows, denouncing 
 Hernando de Alvarado, and saying that he 
 was a man who had no respect for peace and 
 friendship. Hernando de Alvarado started 
 back to Tiguex, where the general kept them 
 prisoners more than six months. This be 
 gan the want of confidence in the word of 
 the Spaniards whenever there was talk of 
 peace from this time on, as will be seen by 
 what happened afterward. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Of how the army went from Cibola to Tiguex and 
 what happened to them on the way, on account of 
 the snow. 
 
 WE have already said that when the gen 
 eral started from Cibola, he left orders for 
 Don Tristan de Arellano to start twenty days 
 later. He did so as soon as he saw that the, 
 44 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONA DO 
 
 men were well rested and provided with food 
 and eager to start off to find their general. 
 He set off with his force toward Tiguex, and 
 the first day they made their camp in the 
 best, largest, and finest village of that (Cibola) 
 province. 1 This is the only village that has 
 houses with seven stories. In this village 
 certain houses are used as fortresses; they 
 are higher than the others and set up above 
 them like towers, and there are embrasures 
 and loopholes in them for defending the roofs 
 of the different stories, because, like the other 
 villages, they do not have streets, and the 
 flat roofs are all of a height and are used in 
 common. The roofs have to be reached first, 
 and these upper houses are the means of de 
 fending them. It began to snow on us there, 
 and the force took refuge under the wings of 
 the village, which extend out like balconies, 
 with wooden pillars beneath, because they 
 generally use ladders to go up to those bal 
 conies, since they do not have any doors 
 below. 
 
 The army continued its march from here 
 after it stopped snowing, and as the season 
 had already advanced into December, during 
 the ten days that the army was delayed, it 
 did not fail to snow during the evenings and 
 nearly every night, so that they had to clear 
 away a large amount of snow when they 
 came to where they wanted to make a camp. 
 
 1 This was Matsaki, at the northwestern base of 
 Thunder mountain, about 18 miles from Hawikuh, 
 where the advance force had encamped. 
 45 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 The road could not be seen, but the guides 
 managed to find it, as they knew the coun 
 try. There are junipers and pines all over 
 the country, which they used in making 
 large brushwood fires, the smoke and heat of 
 which melted the snow from 2 to 4 yards 
 all around the fire. It was a dry snow, 
 so that although it fell on the baggage and 
 covered it for half a man s height it did 
 not hurt it. It fell all night long, covering 
 the baggage and the soldiers and their beds, 
 piling up in the air, so that if any one had 
 suddenly come upon the army nothing 
 would have been seen but mountains of 
 snow. The horses stood half buried in it. 
 It kept those who were underneath warm 
 instead of cold. The army passed by the 
 great rock of Acuco, and the natives, who 
 were peaceful, entertained our men well, giv 
 ing them provisions and birds, although 
 there are not many people here, as I have 
 said. Many of the gentlemen went up to 
 the top to see it, and they had great difficulty 
 in going up the steps in the rock, because 
 they were not used to them, for the natives 
 go up and down so easily that they carry 
 loads and the women carry water, and they 
 do not seem even to touch their hands, al 
 though our men had to pass their weapons 
 up from one to another. 
 
 From here they went on to Tiguex, where 
 
 they were well received and taken care of, 
 
 and the great good news of the Turk gave 
 
 no little joy and helped lighten their hard 
 
 46 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 labors, although when the army arrived we 
 found the whole country or province in re 
 volt, for reasons which were not slight in 
 themselves, as will be shown, and our men 
 had also burnt a village the day before the 
 army arrived, and returned to the camp. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 Of why Tiguex revolted, and how they were pun 
 ished, without being to blame for it. 
 
 IT has been related how the general 
 reached Tiguex, where he found Don Garcia 
 Lopez de Cardenas and Hernando de Alva- 
 rado, and how he sent the latter back to 
 Cicuye, where he took the Captain Whiskers 
 and the governor of the village, who was an 
 old man, prisoners. The people of Tiguex 
 did not feel well about this seizure. 
 
 In addition to this, the general wished to 
 obtain some clothing to divide among his 
 soldiers, and for this purpose he summoned 
 one of the chief Indians of Tiguex, with 
 whom he had already had much intercourse 
 and with whom he was on good terms, who 
 was called Juan Aleman by our men, after a 
 Juan gentleman who lived in Mexico, whom 
 he was said to resemble. The general told 
 him that he must furnish about three hun 
 dred or more pieces of cloth, which he needed 
 to give his people. He said that he was not 
 able to do this, but that it pertained to the 
 governors ; and that besides this, they would 
 47 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 have to consult together and divide it among 
 the villages, and that it was necessary to 
 make the demand of each town separately. 
 The general did this, and ordered certain of 
 the gentlemen who were with him to go and 
 make the demand ; and as there were twelve 
 villages, some of them went on one side of 
 the river and some on the other. As they 
 were in very great need, they did not give 
 the natives a chance to consult about it, but 
 when they came to a village they demanded 
 what they had to give, so that they could 
 proceed at once. Thus these people could 
 do nothing except take off their own cloaks 
 and give them to make up the number de 
 manded of them. And some of the soldiers 
 who were in these parties, when the collec 
 tors gave them some blankets or cloaks which 
 were not such as they wanted, if they saw 
 any Indian with a better one on, they ex 
 changed with him without more ado, not 
 stopping to find out the rank of the man 
 they were stripping, which caused not a lit 
 tle hard feeling. 
 
 Besides what I have just said, one whom 
 I will not name, out of regard for him, left 
 the village where the camp was and went to 
 another village about a league distant, and 
 seeing a pretty woman there he called her 
 husband down to hold his horse by the bri 
 dle while he went up; and as the village 
 was entered by the upper story, the Indian 
 supposed he was going to some other part of 
 it. While he was there the Indian heard 
 48 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 some slight noise, and then the Spaniard 
 came down, took his horse, and went away. 
 The Indian went up and learned that he had 
 violated, or tried to violate, his wife, and so 
 he came with the important men of the town 
 to complain that a man had violated his 
 wife, and he told how it happened. When 
 the general made all the soldiers and the 
 persons who were with him come together, 
 the Indian did not recognize the man, either 
 because he had changed his clothes or for 
 whatever other reason there may have been, 
 but he said that he could tell the horse, be 
 cause he had held his bridle, and so he was 
 taken to the stables, and found the horse, 
 and said that the master of the horse must 
 be the man. He denied doing it, seeing 
 that he had not been recognized, and it may 
 be that the Indian was mistaken in the 
 horse ; anyway, he went off without getting 
 any satisfaction. 1 The next day one of the 
 Indians, who was guarding the horses of the 
 army, came running in, saying that a com 
 panion of his had been killed, and that the 
 Indians of the country were driving off the 
 horses toward their villages. The Spaniards 
 tried to collect the horses again, but many 
 were lost, besides seven of the general s 
 mules. 
 
 The next day Don Garcia Lopez de Car 
 denas went to see the villages and talk with 
 
 1 The instructions which Mendoza gave to Alarcon 
 show how carefully the viceroy tried to guard 
 against any such trouble with the natives. 
 49 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 the natives. He found the villages closed 
 by palisades and a great noise inside, the 
 horses being chased as in a bull fight and shot 
 with arrows. They were all ready for fight 
 ing. Nothing could be done, because they 
 would not come down on to the plain and 
 the villages are so strong that the Spaniards 
 could not dislodge them. The general then 
 ordered Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas to 
 go and surround one village with all the rest 
 of the force. This village was the one where 
 the greatest injury had been done and where 
 the affair with the Indian woman occurred. 
 Several captains who had gone on in ad 
 vance with the general, Juan de Saldivar and 
 Barrionuevo and Diego Lopez and Melgosa, 
 took the Indians so much by surprise that 
 they gained the upper story, with great dan 
 ger, for they wounded many of our men from 
 within the houses. Our men were on top 
 of the houses in great danger for a day and a 
 night and part of the next day, and they 
 made some good shots with their crossbows 
 and muskets. The horsemen on the plain 
 with many of the Indian allies from New 
 Spain smoked them out from the cellars l into 
 which they had broken, so that they begged 
 for peace. 
 
 Pablo de Melgosa and Diego Lopez, the 
 alderman from Seville, were left on the roof 
 and answered the Indians with the same 
 
 Evidently the underground, or partially under 
 ground, ceremonial chambers or kivas. 
 50 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 signs they were making for peace, which 
 was to make a cross. They then put down 
 their arms and received pardon. They were 
 taken to the tent of Don Garcia, who, accord 
 ing to what he said, did not know about the 
 peace and thought that they had given them 
 selves up of their own accord because they 
 had been conquered. As he had been or 
 dered by the general not to take them 
 alive, but to make an example of them so 
 that the other natives would fear the Span 
 iards, he ordered 200 stakes to be prepared 
 at once to burn, them alive. Nobody told 
 him about the peace that had been granted 
 them, for the soldiers knew as little as he, 
 and those who should have told him about 
 it remained silent, not thinking that it was 
 any of their business. Then when the ene 
 mies saw that the Spaniards were binding 
 them and beginning to roast them, about a 
 hundred men who were in the tent began to 
 struggle and defend themselves with what 
 there was there and with the stakes they 
 could seize. Our men who were on foot 
 attacked the tent on all sides, so that there 
 was great confusion around it, and then the 
 horsemen chased those who escaped. As 
 the country was level, not a man of them 
 remained alive, unless it was some who re 
 mained hidden in the village and escaped 
 that night to spread throughout the country 
 the news that the strangers did not respect 
 the peace they had made, which afterward 
 proved a great misfortune. After this was 
 51 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 over, it began to snow, and they abandoned 
 the village and returned to the camp just as 
 the army came from Cibola. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Of how they besieged Tiguex and took it and of 
 what happened during the siege. 
 
 As I have already related, it began to 
 snow in that country just after they captured 
 the village, and it snowed so much that for 
 the next two months it was impossible to do 
 anything except to go along the roads to ad 
 vise them to make peace and tell them that 
 they would be pardoned and might consider 
 themselves safe, to which they replied that 
 they did not trust those who did not know 
 how to keep good faith after they had once 
 given it, and that the Spaniards should re 
 member that they were keeping Whiskers 
 prisoner and that they did not keep their 
 word when they burned those who surren 
 dered in the village. Don Garcia Lopez de 
 Cardenas was one of those who went to give 
 this notice. He started out with about 
 30 companions and went to the village of 
 Tiguex to talk with Juan Aleman. Al 
 though they were hostile, they talked with 
 him and said that if he wished to talk with 
 them he must dismount and they would 
 come out and talk with him about a peace, 
 and that if he would send away the horse- 
 52 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 men and make his men keep away, Juan 
 Alemau and another captain would come 
 out of the village and meet him. Every 
 thing was done as they required, and then 
 when they approached they said that they 
 had no arms and that he must take his off. 
 Don Garcia Lopez did this in order to give 
 them confidence, on account of his great de 
 sire to get them to make peace. When he 
 met them, Juan Aleman approached and 
 embraced him vigorously, while the other 
 two who had come with him drew two mal 
 lets l which they had hidden hehind their 
 hacks and gave him two such blows over his 
 helmet that they almost knocked him sense 
 less. Two of the soldiers on horseback had 
 been unwilling to go very far off, even when 
 lie ordered them, and so they were near by 
 and rode up so quickly that they rescued 
 him from their hands, although they were 
 unable to catch the enemies because the 
 meeting was so near the village that of the 
 great shower of arrows which were shot at 
 them one arrow hit a horse and went 
 through his nose. The horsemen all rode 
 up together and hurriedly carried off their 
 captain, without being able to harm the 
 enemy, while many of our men were dan 
 gerously wounded. 
 
 They then withdrew, leaving a number of 
 men to continue the attack. Don Garcia 
 Lopez de Cardenas went on with a part of 
 
 1 Wooden warclubs shaped like potato-mashers. 
 53 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 the force to another village about half a 
 league distant, because almost all the people 
 in this region had collected into these two 
 villages. As they paid no attention to the 
 demands made on them, except by shooting 
 arrows from the upper stories with loud 
 yells, and would not hear of peace, he re 
 turned to his companions whom he had left 
 to keep up the attack of Tiguex. A large 
 number of those in the village came out and 
 our men rode off slowly, pretending to flee, 
 so that they drew the enemy on to the plain, 
 and then turned on them and caught several 
 of their Leaders. The rest collected on the 
 roofs of the village and the captain returned 
 to his camp. 
 
 After this affair the general ordered the 
 army to go and surround the village. He 
 set out with his men in good order, one day, 
 with several scaling ladders. When he 
 reached the village, he encamped his force 
 near by, and then began the siege; but as 
 the enemy had had several days to provide 
 themselves with stores, they threw down 
 such quantities of rocks upon our men that 
 many of them were laid out, and they 
 wounded nearly a hundred with arrows, 
 several of whom afterward died on account 
 of the bad treatment by an unskillful surgeon 
 who was with the army. The siege lasted 
 fifty days, during which time several assaults 
 were made. The lack of water was what 
 troubled the Indians most. They dug a 
 very deep well inside the village, but were 
 54 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 not able to get water, and while they were 
 making it, it fell in and killed 30 persons. 
 Two hundred of the besieged died in the 
 fights. One day when there was a hard 
 fight, they killed Francisco de Obando, a 
 captain who had been army-master all the 
 time that Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas was 
 away making the discoveries already de 
 scribed, and also Francisco Pobares, a fine 
 gentleman. Our men were unable to pre 
 vent them from carrying Francisco de Oban 
 do inside the village, which was regretted 
 not a little, because he was a distinguished 
 person, besides being honored on his own 
 account, affable and much beloved, which 
 was noticeable. 
 
 One day, before the capture was com 
 pleted, they asked to speak to us, and said 
 that, since they knew we would not harm 
 the women and children, they wished to 
 surrender their women and sons, because 
 they were using up their water. It was im 
 possible to persuade them to make peace, 
 as they said that the Spaniards would not 
 keep an agreement made with them. So 
 they gave up about a hundred persons, wom 
 en and boys, who did not want to leave 
 them. Don Lope de Urrea rode up in front 
 of the town without his helmet and received 
 the boys and girls in his arms, and when all 
 of these had been surrendered, Don Lope 
 begged them to make peace, giving them 
 the strongest promises for their safety. 
 They told him to go away, as they did not 
 55 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 wish to trust themselves to people who had 
 no regard for friendship or their own word 
 which they had pledged. As he seemed 
 unwilling to go away, one of them put an 
 arrow in his bow ready to shoot, and threat 
 ened to shoot him with it unless he went 
 off, and they warned him to put on his hel 
 met, but he was unwilling to do so, saying 
 that they would not hurt him as long as he 
 stayed there. When the Indian saw that 
 he did not want to go away, he shot and 
 planted his arrow between the fore feet of 
 the horse, and then put another arrow in his 
 bow and repeated that if he did not go away 
 he would really shoot him. Don Lope put 
 on his helmet and slowly rode back to 
 where the horsemen were, without receiv 
 ing any harm from them. When they 
 saw that he was really in safety, they 
 began to shoot arrows in showers, with 
 loud yells and cries. The general did not 
 want to make an assault that day, in order 
 to see if they could be brought in some 
 way to make peace, which they would not 
 consider. 
 
 Fifteen days later they decided to leave 
 the village one night, and did so, taking the 
 women in their midst. They started about 
 the fourth watch, in the very early morning, 
 on the side where the cavalry was. The 
 alarm was given by those in the camp of 
 Don Eodrigo Maldonado. The enemy at 
 tacked them and killed one Spaniard and a 
 horse and wounded others, but they were 
 56 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 driven back with great slaughter until they 
 came to the river, where the water flowed 
 swiftly and very cold. They threw them 
 selves into this, and as the men had come 
 quickly from the whole camp to assist the 
 cavalry, there were few who escaped being 
 killed or wounded. Some men from the 
 camp went across the river next day and 
 found many of them who had been over 
 come by the great cold. They brought 
 these back, cured them, and made serv 
 ants of them. This ended that siege, 
 and the town was captured, although there 
 were a few who remained in one part of 
 the town and were captured a few days 
 later. 
 
 Two captains, Don Diego de Guevara and 
 Juan de Saldivar, had captured the other 
 large village after a siege. Having started 
 out very early one morning to make an am 
 buscade in which to catch some warriors 
 who used to come out every morning to try 
 to frighten our camp, the spies, who had 
 been placed where they could see when they 
 were coming, saw the people come out and 
 proceed toward the country. The soldiers 
 left the ambuscade and went to the village 
 and saw the people fleeing. They pursued 
 and killed large numbers of them. At the 
 same time those in the camp were ordered 
 to go over the town, and they plundered it, 
 making prisoners of all the people who were 
 found in it, amounting to about a hundred 
 women and children. This siege ended the 
 57 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 last of March, in the year 42, 1 Other 
 things had happened in the meantime, which 
 would have been noticed, but that it would 
 have cut the thread. I have omitted them, 
 but will relate them now, so that it will be 
 possible to understand what follows. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Of how messengers reached the army from the 
 valley of Sefiora and how Captain Melchior Diaz 
 died on the expedition to the Firebrand river. 
 
 WE have already related how Captain 
 Melchior Diaz crossed the Firebrand river 
 on rafts, in order to continue his discoveries 
 farther in that direction. About the time 
 the siege ended, messengers reached the 
 army from the city of San Hieronimo with 
 letters from Diego de Alarcon, 1 who had re 
 mained there in the place of Melchior Diaz. 
 These contained the news that Melchior 
 Diaz had died while he was conducting his 
 search, and that the force had returned with 
 out finding any of the things they were after. 
 It all happened in this fashion : 
 
 After they had crossed the river they con 
 tinued their search for the coast, which here 
 turned back toward the south, or between 
 south and east, because that arm of the sea 
 
 1 Professor Haynes corrected the error in a note in 
 Winsor s Narrative and Critical History, vol. ii., p. 
 491, saying that "it is evident that the siege must 
 have been concluded early in 1541." 
 2 Should be Alcaraz. 
 
 58 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 enters the land due north and this river, 
 which brings its waters down from the north, 
 flowing toward the south, enters the head of 
 the gulf. Continuing in the direction they 
 had been going, they came to some sand 
 banks of hot ashes which it was impossible 
 to cross without being drowned as in the sea. 
 The ground they were standing on trembled 
 like a sheet of paper, so that it seemed as 
 if there were lakes underneath them. It 
 seemed wonderful and like something infer 
 nal, for the ashes to bubble up here in sev 
 eral places. After they had gone away from 
 this place, on account of the danger they 
 seemed to be in and of the lack of water, 
 one day a greyhound belonging to one of the 
 soldiers chased some sheep which they were 
 taking along for food. When the captain 
 noticed this, he threw his lance at the dog 
 while his horse was running, so that it stuck 
 up iii the ground, and not being able to stop 
 his horse he went over the lance so that it 
 nailed him through the thighs and the iron 
 came out behind, rupturing his bladder. 
 After this the soldiers turned back with 
 their captain, having to fight every day with 
 the Indians, who had remained hostile. He 
 lived about twenty days, during which they 
 proceeded with great difficulty on account of 
 the necessity of carrying him. They re 
 turned in good order without losing a man, 
 until he died, and after that they were re 
 lieved of the greatest difficulty. When they 
 reached Senora, Alcaraz dispatched the mes- 
 59 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 sengers already referred to, so that the gen 
 eral might know of this and also that some of 
 the soldiers were ill disposed and had caused 
 several mutinies, and that he had sentenced 
 two of them to the gallows, but they had 
 afterward escaped from the prison. 
 
 When the general learned this, he sent 
 Don Pedro de Tovar to that city to sift out 
 some of the men. He was accompanied by 
 messengers whom the general sent to Don 
 Antonio de Mendoza the viceroy, with an 
 account of what had occurred and with the 
 good news given by the Turk. When Don 
 Pedro de Tovar arrived there, he found that 
 the natives of that province had killed a sol 
 dier with a poisoned arrow, which had made 
 only a very little wound in one hand. Sev 
 eral soldiers went to the place where this 
 happened to see about it, and they were not 
 very well received. Don Pedro de Tovar 
 sent Diego de Alcaraz with a force to seize 
 the chiefs and lords of a village in what they 
 call the Valley of Knaves (de los Vellacos), 
 which is in the hills. After getting there 
 and taking these men prisoners, Diego de 
 Alcaraz decided to let them go in exchange 
 for some thread and cloth and other things 
 which the soldiers needed. Finding them 
 selves free, they renewed the war and at 
 tacked them, and as they were strong and 
 had poison, they killed several Spaniards 
 and wounded others so that they died on the 
 way back. They retired toward the town, 
 and if they had not had Indian allies from 
 60 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 the country of the Hearts, it would have 
 gone worse with them. They got back to 
 the town, leaving 17 soldiers dead from 
 the poison. They would die in agony 
 from only a small wound, the bodies break 
 ing out with an insupportable pestilential 
 stink. When Don Pedro de Tovar saw the 
 harm done, and as it seemed to them that 
 they could not safely stay in that city, he 
 moved 40 leagues toward Cibola into the 
 valley of Suya, where we will leave them, in 
 order to relate what happened to the general 
 and his army after the siege of Tiguex. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Of how the general managed to leave the country 
 in peace so as to go in search of Quivira, where the 
 Turk said there was the most wealth. 
 
 DURING the siege of Tiguex the general 
 decided to go to Cicuye and take the gover 
 nor with him, in order to give him his liberty 
 and to promise them that he would give 
 Whiskers his liberty and leave him in the 
 village, as soon as he should start for Qui 
 vira. He was received peacefully when he 
 readied Cicuye, and entered the village with 
 several soldiers. They received their gover 
 nor with much joy and gratitude. After 
 looking over the village and speaking with 
 the natives he returned to his army, leaving 
 Cicuye at peace, in the hope of getting back 
 their captain Whiskers. 
 61 
 
THE JOURNEY OP CORONADO 
 
 After the siege was ended, as we have 
 already related, he sent a captain to Chia, 
 a fine village with many people, which had 
 sent to offer its submission. It was 4 
 leagues distant to the west of the river. 
 They found it peaceful and gave it four 
 bronze cannon, which were in poor condition, 
 to take care of. Six gentlemen also went to 
 Quirix, a province with seven villages. At 
 the first village, which had about a hundred 
 inhabitants, the natives fled, not daring to 
 wait for our men ; but they headed them off 
 by a short cut, riding at full speed, and then 
 they returned to their houses in the village 
 in perfect safety, and then told the other 
 villagers about it and reassured them. In 
 this way the entire region was reassured, lit 
 tle by little, by the time the ice in the river 
 was broken up and it became possible to ford 
 the river and so to continue the journey. 
 The twelve villages of Tiguex, however, were 
 not repopulated at all during the time the 
 army was there, in spite of every promise of 
 security that could possibly be given to them. 
 
 And when the river, which for almost 
 four months had been frozen over so that 
 they crossed the ice on horseback, had 
 thawed out, orders were given for the start 
 for Quivira, where the Turk said there was 
 some gold and silver, although not so much 
 as in Arche and the Guaes. There were 
 already some in the army who suspected the 
 Turk, because a Spaniard named Servantes, 1 
 
 1 Or Cervantes. 
 63 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 who had charge of him during the siege, 
 solemnly swore that he had seen the Turk 
 talking with the devil in a pitcher of water, 
 and also that while he had him under lock 
 so that no one could speak to him, the Turk 
 had asked him what Christians had been 
 killed by the people at Tiguex. He told 
 him "nobody," and then the Turk answered : 
 
 "You lie; live Christians are dead, includ 
 ing a captain." And as Cervantes knew 
 that he told the truth, he confessed it so as 
 to find out who had told him about it, and 
 the Turk said he knew it all by himself and 
 that he did not need to have anyone tell him 
 in order to know it. And it was on account 
 of this that he watched him and saw him 
 speaking to the devil in the pitcher, as I 
 have said. 
 
 While all this was going on, preparations 
 were being made to start from Tiguex. At 
 this time people came from Cibola to see the 
 general, and he charged them to take good 
 care of the Spaniards who were coming from 
 Senora with Don Pedro de Tovar. He gave 
 them letters to give to Don Pedro, informing 
 him what he ought to do and how he should 
 go to find the army, and that he would find 
 letters under the crosses which the army 
 would put up along the way. The army 
 left Tiguex on the 5th of May and returned 
 to Cicuye, which, as I have said, is twenty - 
 
 1 Coronado says, in his letter of October 20th, that 
 he started April 23d. 
 
 63 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 five marches, which means leagues, from 
 there, taking Whiskers with them. Arrived 
 there, he gave them their captain, who al 
 ready went about freely with a guard. The 
 village was very glad to see him, and the 
 people were peaceful and offered food. The 
 governor and Whiskers gave the general a 
 young fellow called Xabe, a native of Qui- 
 vira, who could give them information about 
 the country. This fellow said that there 
 was gold and silver, but not so much of it 
 as the Turk had said. The Turk, however, 
 continued to declare that it was as he had 
 said. He went as a guide, and thus the 
 army started off from here. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Of how they started in search of Quivira and of 
 what happened on the way. 
 
 THE army started from Cicuye, leaving 
 the village at peace and, as it seemed, con 
 tented, and under obligations to maintain 
 the friendship because their governor and 
 captain had been restored to them. Pro 
 ceeding toward the plains, which are all on 
 the other side of the mountains, after four 
 days journey they came to a river with a 
 large, deep current, which flowed down to 
 ward Cicuye, and they named this the Cicuye 
 river. 1 They had to stop here to make a 
 
 1 The Rio Pecos. 
 64 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 bridge so as to cross it. It was finished in 
 four days, by much diligence and rapid 
 work, and as soon as it was done the whole 
 army and the animals crossed. After ten 
 days more they came to some settlements of 
 people who lived like Arabs and who are 
 called Querechos in that region. They had 
 seen the cows for two days. These folks 
 live in tents made of the tanned skins of the 
 cows. They travel around near the cows, 
 killing them for food. They did nothing 
 unusual when they saw our army, except to 
 come out of their tents to look at us, after 
 which they came to talk with the advance 
 guard, and asked who we were. The gene 
 ral talked with them, but as they had al 
 ready talked with the Turk, who was with 
 the advance guard, they agreed with what 
 he had said. That they were very intelli 
 gent is evident from the fact that although 
 they conversed by means of signs they made 
 themselves understood so well that there was 
 no need of an interpreter. 1 They said that 
 there was a very large river over toward 
 where the sun came from, and that one 
 could go along this river through an inhab 
 ited region for ninety days without a break 
 from settlement to settlement. They said 
 that the first of these settlements was called 
 Haxa, and that the river was more than a 
 
 1 There is an elaborate account of the sign lan 
 guage of the Indians, by Garrick Mallery, in the 
 lirst annal report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1879- 
 80. 
 
 65 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 league wide and that there were many ca 
 noes on it. These folks started off from 
 here next day with a lot of dogs which 
 dragged their possessions. 
 
 For two days, during which the army 
 marched in the same direction as that in 
 which they had come from the settlements 
 that is, between north and east, but more 
 toward the north they saw other roaming 
 Querechos and such great numbers of cows 
 that it already seemed something incredible. 
 These people gave a great deal of information 
 about settlements, all toward the east from 
 where we were. Here Don Garcia broke his 
 arm and a Spaniard got lost who went off 
 hunting so far that he was unable to return 
 to the camp, because the country is very 
 level. The Turk said it was one or two 
 days to Haya (Haxa). The general sent 
 Captain Diego Lopez with ten companions 
 lightly equipped and a guide to go at full 
 speed toward the sunrise for two days and 
 discover Haxa, and then return to meet the 
 army, which set out in the same direction 
 next day. They came across so many ani 
 mals that those who were on the advance 
 guard killed a large number of bulls. As 
 these fled they trampled one another in their 
 haste until they came to a ravine. So many 
 of the animals fell into this that they filled 
 it up, and the rest went across on top of 
 them. The men who were chasing them on 
 horseback fell in among the animals without 
 noticing where they were going. Three of 
 66 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 the horses that fell in among the cows, all 
 saddled and bridled, were lost sight of com 
 pletely. 
 
 As it seemed to the general that Diego 
 Lopez ought to be on his way back, he sent 
 six of his companions to follow up the banks 
 of the little river, and as many more down 
 the banks, to look for traces of the horses at 
 the trails to and from the river. It was im 
 possible to find tracks in this country, be 
 cause the grass straightened up again as soon 
 as it was trodden down. They were found 
 by some Indians from the army who had 
 gone to look for fruit. These got track of 
 them a good league off, and soon came up 
 with them. They followed the river down 
 to the camp, and told the general that in 
 the 20 leagues they had been over they had 
 seen nothing but cows and the sky. There 
 was another native of Quivira with the army, 
 a painted Indian named Ysopete. This In 
 dian had always declared that the Turk was 
 lying, and on account of this the army paid 
 no attention to him, and even now, although 
 lie said that the Querechos had consulted 
 with him, Ysopete was not believed. 
 
 The general sent Don Eodrigo Maldonado, 
 with his company, forward from here. He 
 traveled four days and reached a large ravine 
 like those of Colima, 1 in the bottom of which 
 he found a large settlement of people. Ca- 
 
 1 The reference is clearly to the district of Colima 
 in western Mexico, where one of the earliest Spanish 
 settlements was made. 
 
 67 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 beza de Vaca and Dorantes had passed 
 through this place, so that they presented 
 Don Eodrigo with a pile of tanned skins and 
 other things, and a tent as big as a house, 
 which he directed them to keep until the 
 army came up. He sent some of his com 
 panions to guide the army to that place, so 
 that they should not get lost, although he 
 had been making piles of stones and cow 
 dung for the army to follow. This was the 
 way in which the army was guided by the 
 advance guard. 
 
 When the general came up with the army 
 and saw the great quantity of skins, he 
 thought he would divide them among the 
 men, and placed guards so that they could 
 look at them. But when the men arrived 
 and saw that the general was sending some 
 of his companions with orders for the guards 
 to give them some of the skins, and that 
 these were going to select the best, they 
 were angry because they were not going to 
 be divided evenly, and made a rush, and in 
 less than a quarter of an hour nothing was 
 left but the empty ground. 
 
 The natives who happened to see this 
 also took a hand in it. The women and 
 some others were left crying, because they 
 thought that the strangers were not going to 
 take anything, but would bless them as Ca- 
 beza de Vaca and Dorantes had done when 
 they passed through here. They found an 
 Indian girl here who was as white as a Cas- 
 tilian lady, except that she had her chin 
 G8 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 painted like a Moorish woman. In general 
 they all paint themselves in this way here, 
 and they decorate their eyes. 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 Of how great stones fell iu the camp, and bow 
 they discovered another ravine, where the army was 
 divided into two parts. 
 
 WHILE the army was resting in this ra 
 vine, as we have related, a tempest came up 
 one afternoon with a very high wind and 
 hail, and in a very short space of time a 
 great quantity of hailstones, as big as bowls, 
 or bigger, fell as thick as raindrops, so that 
 in places they covered the ground two or 
 three spans or more deep. And one hit the 
 horse or I should say, there was not a 
 horse that did not break away, except two 
 or three which the negroes protected by 
 holding large sea nets over them, with the 
 helmets and shields which all the rest wore ; 
 and some of them dashed up on to the sides 
 of the ravine so that they got them down 
 with great difficulty. If this had struck 
 them while they were upon the plain, the 
 army would have been in great danger of 
 being left without its horses, as there were 
 many which they were not able to cover. 
 The hail broke many tents, and battered 
 many helmets, and wounded many of the 
 horses, and broke all the crockery of the 
 army, and the gourds, which was no small 
 69 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 loss, because they do not have any crockery 
 in this region. They do not make gourds, 
 nor sow corn, nor eat bread, but instead raw 
 meat or only half cooked and fruit. 
 
 From here the general sent out to explore 
 the country, and they found another settle 
 ment four days from there . . . The coun 
 try was well inhabited, and they had plenty 
 of kidney beans and prunes like those of 
 Castile, and tall vineyards. These village 
 settlements extended for three days. This 
 was called Cona. Some Teyas, 2 as these 
 people are called, went with the army from 
 here and traveled as far as the end of the 
 other settlements with their packs of dogs 
 and women and children, and then they 
 gave them guides to proceed to a large ravine 
 where the army was. They did not let these 
 guides speak with the Turk and did not re 
 ceive the same statements from these as they 
 had from the others. These said that Qui- 
 vira was toward the north, and that we 
 would not find any good road thither. After 
 this they began to believe Ysopete. The 
 ravine which the army had now reached was 
 a league wide from one side to the other, 
 with a little bit of a river at the bottom, and 
 there were many groves of mulberry trees 
 near it, and rosebushes with the same sort 
 
 1 A manera de alixares. The margin reads Alex- 
 eres. The word means threshing floor. 
 
 2 Bandelier suggests that the name may have origi 
 nated in the Indian exclamation, Texia! Texia! 
 friends ! friends J with which they first greeted the 
 Spaniards. 
 
 70 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 of fruit that they have in France. They 
 made verjuice from the unripe grapes at this 
 ravine, although there were ripe ones. 
 There were walnuts and the same kind of 
 fowls as in New Spain, and large quantities 
 of prunes like those of Castile. During this 
 journey a Teya was seen to shoot a bull 
 right through both shoulders with an arrow, 
 which would be a good shot for a musket. 
 These people are very intelligent ; the women 
 are well made and modest. They cover 
 their whole body. They wear shoes and 
 buskins made of tanned skin. The women 
 wear cloaks over their small under petticoats, 
 with sleeves gathered up at the shoulders, 
 all of skin, and some wore something like 
 little sanbenitos l with a fringe, which 
 reached half-way down the thigh over the 
 petticoat. 
 
 The army rested several days in this ra- 
 
 1 Capt. John Stevens s New Dictionary says the 
 saubeuito was "the badge put upon converted Jews 
 brought out by the Inquisition, being in the nature 
 of a scapula or a broad piece of cloth hanging before 
 and behind, with a large Saint Andrews cross on it, 
 red and yellow. The name corrupted from Saco 
 I3euito, answerable to the sackcloth worn by peni 
 tents in the primitive church." Robert Tomson, in 
 his Voyage into Nova Hispania, 1555, in Hakltiyt, 
 iii., 536, describes his imprisonment by the Holy 
 Office in the city of Mexico : " We were brought into 
 the Church, euery one with a S. Benito vpon his 
 backe, which is a halfe a yard of yellow cloth, with 
 a hole to put in a mans head in the middest, and cast 
 oner a mans head : both flaps hang one before, and 
 another behincle, and in the middest of euery flap, a 
 S. Audrewes crosse, made of red cloth, sowed on 
 vpoii the same, and that is called S. Benito." 
 71 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 vine and explored the country. Up to this 
 point they had made thirty-seven days 
 marches, traveling 6 or 7 leagues a day. It 
 had been the duty of one man to measure 
 and count his steps. They found that it 
 was 250 leagues to the settlements. 1 When 
 the general Francisco Vazquez realized this, 
 and saw that they had been deceived by the 
 Turk heretofore, and as the provisions were 
 giving out and there was no country around 
 here where they could procure more, he 
 called the captains and ensigns together to 
 decide on what they thought ought to be 
 done. They all agreed that the general 
 should go in search of Quivira with thirty 
 horsemen and half a dozen foot-soldiers, and 
 that Don Tristan de Arellano should go back 
 to Tiguex with all the army.- When the 
 men in the army learned of this decision, 
 they begged their general not to leave them 
 to conduct the further search, but declared 
 that they all wanted to die with him and 
 did not want to go back. This did not do 
 any good, although the general agreed to 
 send messengers to them within eight days 
 saying whether it was best for them to fol 
 low him or not, and with this he set off with 
 the guides he had and with Ysopete. The 
 Turk was taken along in chains. 
 
 1 The Tiguex country is often referred to as the 
 region where the settlements were. 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONA] 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 Of bow the army returned to Tiguex and the g 
 ral reached Quivira. 
 
 THE general started from the ravine with 
 the guides that the Teyas had given him. 
 He appointed the alderman Diego Lopez his 
 army-master, and took with him the men 
 who seemed to him to be most efficient, and 
 the best horses. The army still had some 
 hope that the general would send for them, 
 and sent two horsemen, lightly equipped and 
 riding post, to repeat their petition. 
 
 The general arrived I mean, the guides 
 ran away during the first few days and 
 Diego Lopez had to return to the army for 
 guides, bringing orders for the army to re 
 turn to Tiguex to find food and wait there 
 for the general. The Teyas, as before, will 
 ingly furnished him with new guides. The 
 army waited for its messengers and spent a 
 fortnight here, preparing jerked beef to take 
 with them. It was estimated that during 
 this fortnight they killed 500 bulls. The 
 number of these that were there without any 
 cows was something incredible. Many fel 
 lows were lost at this time who went out 
 hunting and did not get back to the army 
 for two or three days, wandering about the 
 country as if they were crazy, in one direc 
 tion or another, not knowing how to get 
 back where they started from, although this 
 73 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 ravine extended in either direction so that 
 they could find it. Every night they took 
 account of who was missing, fired guns and 
 blew trumpets and beat drums and built 
 great fires, but yet some of them went off so 
 far and wandered about so much that all this 
 did not give them any help, although it 
 helped others. The only way was to go 
 back where they had killed an animal and 
 start from there in one direction and another 
 until they struck the ravine or fell in with 
 somebody who could put them on the right 
 road. It is worth noting that the country 
 there is so level that at midday, after one 
 has wandered about in one direction and an 
 other in pursuit of game, the only thing to 
 do is to stay near the game quietly until 
 sunset, so as to see where it goes down, and 
 even then they have to be men who are 
 practiced to do it. Those who are not, had 
 to trust themselves to others. 
 
 The general followed his guides until he 
 reached Quivira, which took forty-eight 
 days marching, on acount of the great de 
 tour they had made toward Florida. He 
 was received peacefully on account of the 
 guides whom he had. They asked the Turk 
 why he had lied and had guided them so far 
 out of their way. He said that his country 
 was in that direction and that, besides this, 
 the people at Cicuye had asked him to lead 
 them off on to the plains and lose them, so 
 that the horses would die when their provi 
 sions gave out, and they would be so weak 
 74 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 if they ever returned that they would be 
 killed without any trouble, and thus they 
 could take revenge for what had been done 
 to them. This was the reason why he had 
 led them astray, supposing that they did not 
 know how to hunt or to live without corn, 
 while as for the gold, he did not know where 
 there was any of it. He said this like one 
 who had given up hope and who found that 
 he was being_. persecuted, since they had 
 begun to believe Ysopete, who had guided 
 them better than he had, and fearing lest 
 those who were there might give some ad 
 vice by which some harm would come to 
 him. They garroted him, which pleased 
 Ysopete very much, because he had always 
 said that Ysopete was a rascal and that he 
 did not know what he was talking about 
 and had always hindered his talking with 
 anybody. Neither gold nor silver nor any 
 trace of either was found among these peo 
 ple. Their lord wore a copper plate on his 
 neck and prized it highly. 
 
 The messengers whom the army had sent 
 to the general returned, as I said, and then, 
 as they brought no news except what the 
 alderman had delivered, the army left the 
 ravine and returned to the Teyas, where 
 they took guides who led them back by a 
 more direct road. They readily furnished 
 these, because these people are always roam 
 ing over this country in pursuit of the ani 
 mals and so know it thoroughly. They keep 
 their road in this way : In the morning they 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 notice where the sun rises and observe the 
 direction they are going to take, and then 
 shoot an arrow in this direction. Before 
 reaching this they shoot another over it, and 
 in this way they go all day toward the water 
 where they are to end the day. In this way 
 they covered in 25 days what had taken 
 them 37 days going, besides stopping to 
 hunt cows on the way. They found many 
 salt lakes on this road, and there was a great 
 quantity of salt. There were thick pieces of 
 it on top of the water bigger than tables, as 
 thick as four or five fingers. Two or three 
 spans down under water there was salt 
 which tasted better than that in the floating 
 pieces, because this was rather bitter. It 
 was crystalline. All over these plains there 
 were large numbers of animals like squirrels 
 and a great number of their holes. 
 
 On its return the army reached the Cicuye 
 river more than 30 leagues below there I 
 mean below the bridge they had made when 
 they crossed it, and they followed it up to 
 that place. In general, its banks are cov 
 ered with a sort of rose, bushes, the fruit of 
 which tastes like muscatel grapes. They 
 grow on little twigs about as high up as a 
 man. It has the parsley leaf. There were 
 unripe grapes and currants ( ?) and wild mar 
 joram. The guides said this river joined 
 that of Tiguexmore than 20 days from here, 
 and that its course turned toward the east. 
 It is believed that it flows into the mighty 
 river of the Holy Spirit (Espiritu Santo), 
 76 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 which the men with Don Hernando de Soto 
 discovered in Florida. A painted Indian 
 woman ran away from Juan de Saldibar and 
 hid in the ravines about this time, because 
 she recognized the country of Tiguex where 
 she had been a slave. She fell into the 
 hands of some Spaniards who had entered 
 the country from Florida to explore it in 
 this direction. After I got back to New 
 Spain I heard them say that the Indian told 
 them that she had run away from other men 
 like them nine clays, and that she gave the 
 names of some captains; from which we 
 ought to believe that we were not far from 
 the region they discovered, although they 
 said they were more than 200 leagues in 
 land. I believe the land at that point is 
 more than 600 leagues across from sea to 
 sea. 
 
 As I said, the army followed the river up 
 as far as Cicuye, which it found ready for 
 war and unwilling to make any advances tow 
 ard peace or to give any food to the army. 
 From there they went on to Tiguex where 
 several villages had been reinhabited, but 
 the people were afraid and left them again. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 Of bow the general returned from Quivira and of 
 other expeditions toward the North. 
 
 AFTER Don Tristan de Arellano reached 
 Tiguex, about the middle of July, . in the 
 
 77 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 year 42, 1 he had provisions collected for the 
 coming winter. Captain Francisco de Bar- 
 rionuevo was sent up the river toward the 
 north with several men. He saw two prov 
 inces, one of which was called Hemes and 
 had seven villages, and the other Yuquey- 
 unque. 2 The inhabitants of Hemes came 
 out peaceably and furnished provisions. At 
 Yuqueyunque the whole nation left two very 
 fine villages which they had on either side 
 of the river entirely vacant, and went into 
 the mountains, where they had four very 
 strong villages in a rough country, where it 
 was impossible for horses to go. In the two 
 villages there was a great deal of food and 
 some very beautiful glazed earthenware with 
 many figures and different shapes. Here 
 they also found many bowls full of a care 
 fully selected shining metal with which they 
 glazed the earthenware. This shows that 
 mines of silver would be found in that 
 country if they should hunt for them. 
 
 There was a large and powerful river, I 
 mean village, which was called Braba, 20 
 leagues farther up the river, which our men 
 called Valladolid. 3 The river flowed through 
 
 1 Castafieda s date is, as usual, a year later than 
 the actual one. 
 
 2 Yuge-uing-ge, as Bandolier spells it, is the abo 
 riginal name of a former Tewa village, the site of 
 which is occupied by the hamlet of Chainita, oppo 
 site San Juan. The others are near by. 
 
 3 Taos, or Te-uat-ha. See Bandolier s Final Re 
 port, vol. L, p. 123, for the identification of these 
 places. 
 
 78 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 the middle of it. The natives crossed it by 
 wooden bridges, made of very long, large, 
 squared pines. At this village they saw the 
 largest and finest hot rooms or estufas that 
 there were in the entire country, for they 
 had a dozen pillars, each one of which was 
 twice as large around as one could reach and 
 twice as tall as a man. Hernando de Alva- 
 rado visited this village when he discovered 
 Cicuye. The country is very high and very 
 cold. The river is deep and very swift, 
 without any ford. Captain Barrionuevo re 
 turned from here, leaving the province at 
 peace. 
 
 Another captain went down the river in 
 search of the settlements which the people 
 at Tutahaco had said were several days dis 
 tant from there. This captain went down 
 80 leagues and found four large villages 
 which he left at peace. He proceeded until 
 he found that the river sank into the earth, 
 like the Guadiana in Estremadura. 1 He did 
 not go on to where the Indians said that it 
 came out much larger, because his commis 
 sion did not extend for more than 80 leagues 
 march. After this captain got back, as the 
 time had arrived which the captain had set 
 for his return from Quivira, and as he had 
 not come back, Don Tristan selected 40 
 
 1 This rendering, doubtless correct, is due to Ter- 
 naux. The Guadiana, however, reappears above 
 ground some time before it begins to mark the 
 boundary of the Spanish province of Estremadura. 
 The Castaneda family had its seat in quite the other 
 end of the peninsula. 
 
 79 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 companions and, leaving the army to Fran 
 cisco de Barrionuevo, he started with them 
 in search of the general. 
 
 When he reached Cicuye the people came 
 out of the village to fight, which detained 
 him there four days, while he punished 
 them, which he did by firing some volleys 
 into the village. These killed several men, 
 so that they did not come out against the 
 army, since two of their principal men had 
 been killed on the first day. Just then 
 word was brought that the general was com 
 ing, and so Don Tristan had to stay there on 
 this account also, to keep the road open. 
 Everybody welcomed the general on his ar 
 rival, with great joy. The Indian Xabe, 
 who was the young fellow who had been 
 given to the general at Cicuye when he 
 started off in search of Quivira, was with 
 Don Tristan de Arellano and when he learned 
 that the general was coming he acted as if 
 he was greatly pleased, and said, "Now 
 when the general comes, you will see that 
 there is gold and silver in Quivira, although 
 not so much as the Turk said." When the 
 general arrived, and Xabe saw that they had 
 not found anything, he was sad and silent, 
 and kept declaring that there was some. 
 He made many believe that it was so, be 
 cause the general had not dared to enter into 
 the country on account of its being thickly 
 settled and his force not very strong, and 
 that he had returned to lead his army there 
 after the rains, because it had begun to rain 
 80 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 there already, as it was early in August when 
 he left. It took him forty days to return, 
 traveling lightly equipped. The Turk had 
 said when they left Tiguex that they ought 
 not to load the horses with too much pro 
 visions, which would tire them so that they 
 could not afterward carry the gold and silver, 
 from which it is very evident that he was 
 deceiving them. 
 
 The general reached Cicuye with his force 
 and at once set off for Tiguex, leaving the 
 village more quiet, for they had met him 
 peaceably and had talked with him. When 
 he reached Tiguex. he made his plans to 
 pass the winter there, so as to return with 
 the whole army, because it was said that he 
 brought information regarding large settle 
 ments and very large rivers, and that the 
 country was very much like that of Spain 
 in the fruits and vegetation and seasons. 
 They were not ready to believe that there 
 was no gold there, but instead had suspicions 
 that there was some farther back in the coun 
 try, because, although this was denied, they 
 knew what the thing was and had a name 
 for it among themselves acochis. With 
 this we end this first part, and now we will 
 give an account of the provinces. 
 
SECOND PAET 
 
 WHICH TREATS OF THE HIGH VILLAGES 
 AND PROVINCES AND OF THEIR HABITS 
 AND CUSTOMS, AS COLLECTED BY PEDRO 
 DE CASTANEDA, NATIVE OF THE CITY OF 
 NAJARA. 
 
 Laus Deo. 
 
 IT does not seem to me that the reader 
 will be satisfied with having seen and under 
 stood what I have already related about the 
 expedition, although that has made it easy 
 to see the difference between the report 
 which told about vast treasures, and the 
 places where nothing like this was either 
 found or known. It is to be noted that in 
 place of settlements great deserts were found, 
 and instead of populous cities villages of 200 
 inhabitants and only 800 or 1,000 people in 
 the largest. I do not know whether this 
 will furnish grounds for pondering and con 
 sidering the uncertainty of this life. To 
 please these, I wish to give a detailed ac 
 count of all the inhabited region seen and 
 discovered by this expedition, and some of 
 their ceremonies and habits, in accordance 
 with what we came to know about them, 
 and the limits within which each province 
 82 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 falls, so that hereafter it may be possible to 
 understand in what direction Florida lies and 
 in what direction Greater India; and this 
 land of New Spain is part of the mainland 
 with Peru, and with Greater India or China 
 as well, there not being any strait between 
 to separate them. On the other hand, the 
 country is so wide that there is room for 
 these vast deserts which lie between the two 
 seas, for the coast of the North sea beyond 
 Florida stretches toward the Bacallaos l and 
 then turns toward Norway, while that of the 
 South sea turns toward the west, making an 
 other bend down toward the south almost 
 like a bow and stretches away toward India, 
 leaving room for the lands that border on the 
 mountains on both sides to stretch out in 
 such a way as to have between them these 
 great plains which are full of cattle and 
 many other animals of different sorts, since 
 they are not inhabited, as I will relate 
 farther on. There is every sort of game and 
 fowl there, but no snakes, for they are free 
 from these. I will leave the account of the 
 return of the army to New Spain until I 
 have shown what slight occasion there was 
 for this. We will begin our account with 
 the city of Culiacan, and point out the differ 
 ences between the one country and the other, 
 on account of which one ought to be settled 
 by Spaniards and the other not. It should 
 be the reverse, however, with Christians, 
 
 1 The Newfoundland region. 
 83 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO. 
 
 since there are intelligent men in one, and 
 in the other wild animals and worse than 
 beasts. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Of the province of Culiacan and of its habits and 
 customs. 
 
 CULIACAN is the last place in the New 
 Kingdom of Galicia, and was the first settle 
 ment made by Nuiio de Guzman when he 
 conquered this kingdom. It is 210 leagues 
 west of Mexico. In this province there are 
 three chief languages, besides other related 
 dialects. The first is that of the Tahus, 
 who are the best and most intelligent race. 
 They are now the most settled and have re 
 ceived the most light from the faith. They 
 worship idols and make presents to the devil 
 of their goods and riches, consisting of cloth 
 and turquoises. They do not eat human 
 flesh nor sacrifice it. They are accustomed 
 to keep very large snakes, which they ven 
 erate. Among them there are men dressed 
 like women who marry other men and serve 
 as their wives. At a great festival they con 
 secrate the women who wish to live unmar 
 ried, with much singing and dancing, at 
 which all the chiefs of the locality gather 
 and dance naked, and after all have danced 
 with her they put her in a hut that has been 
 decorated for this event and the chiefs adorn 
 her with clothes and bracelets of fine tur 
 quoises, and then the chiefs go in one by 
 84 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO. 
 
 one to lie with her, and all the others who 
 wish, follow them. From this time on 
 these women can not refuse anyone who 
 pays them a certain amount agreed on for 
 this. Even if they take husbands, this does 
 not exempt them from obliging anyone who 
 pays them. The greatest festivals are on 
 market days. The custom is for the hus 
 bands to buy the women whom they marry, 
 of their fathers and relatives at a high price, 
 and then to take them to a chief, who is 
 considered to be a priest, to deflower them 
 and see if she is a virgin ; and if she is not, 
 they have to return the whole price, and he 
 can keep her for his wife or not, or let her 
 be consecrated, as he chooses. At these 
 times they all get drunk. 
 
 The second language is that of the Pac- 
 axes, the people who live in the country 
 between the plains and the mountains. 
 These people are more barbarous. Some of 
 them who live near the mountains eat hu 
 man flesh. They are great sodomites, and 
 have many wives, even when these are sis 
 ters. They worship painted and sculptured 
 stones, and are much given to witchcraft and 
 sorcery. 
 
 The third language is that of the Acaxes, 
 who are in possession of a large part of the 
 hilly country and all of the mountains. 
 They go hunting for men just as they hunt 
 animals. They all eat human flesh, and he 
 who has the most human bones and skulls 
 hung up around his house is most feared and 
 85 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO. 
 
 respected. They live in settlements and in 
 very rough country, avoiding the plains. In 
 passing from one settlement to another, there 
 is always a ravine in the way which they 
 can not cross, although they can talk to 
 gether across it. At the slightest call 500 
 men collect, and on any pretext kill and eat 
 one another. Thus it has been very hard to 
 subdue these people, on account of the rough 
 ness of the country, which is very great. 
 
 Many rich silver mines have been found 
 in this country. They do not run deep, but 
 soon give out. The gulf of the sea begins 
 on the coast of this province, entering the 
 land 250 leagues toward the north and end 
 ing at the mouth of the Firebrand (Tizon) 
 river. This country forms its eastern limit, 
 and California the western. From what I 
 have been told by men who had navigated 
 it, it is 30 leagues across from point to point, 
 because they lose sight of this country when 
 they see the other. They say the gulf is 
 over 150 leagues broad (or deep), from shore 
 to shore. The coast makes a turn toward 
 the south at the Firebrand river, bending 
 down to California, which turns toward the 
 west, forming that peninsula which was 
 formerly held to be an island, because it was 
 a low sandy country. It is inhabited by 
 brutish, bestial, naked people who eat their 
 own offal. The men and women couple like 
 animals, the female openly getting down on 
 all fours. 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Of the province of Petlatlan and all the inhabited 
 country as far as Chichilticalli. 
 
 PETJLATLAN is a settlement of houses cov 
 ered with a sort of mats made of plants. 
 These are collected into villages, extending 
 along a river from the mountains to the sea. 
 The people are of the same race and habits 
 as the Culuacanian Tahues. There is much 
 sodomy among them. In the mountain dis 
 trict there is a large population and more 
 settlements. These people have a somewhat 
 diiferent language from the Tahues, although 
 they understand each other. It is called 
 Petlatlau because the houses are made of 
 petates or palm-leaf mats. 1 Houses of this 
 sort are found for more than 240 leagues in 
 this region, to the beginning of the Cibola 
 wilderness. The nature of the country 
 changes here very greatly, because from this 
 point on there are no trees except the pine, 
 nor are there any fruits except a few tunas, 2 
 mesquites, 3 and pitahayas. 4 
 
 Petlatlan is 20 leagues from Culiacan, and 
 
 1 Bandelier found the Opata Indians living in 
 houses made with "a slight foundation of cobble 
 stones which supported a framework of posts stand 
 ing in a thin wall of rough stones and mud, while a 
 slanting roof of yucca or palm leaves covered the 
 whole." Final Report, pt. i., p. 58. 
 
 2 The Opuntia tuna or prickly pear. 
 
 3 Prosopis juliflora. 4 Cereus tJmrberu. 
 
 87 
 
THE JOURNE1 7 OP CORONADO. 
 
 it is 130 leagues from here to the valley of 
 Seiiora. There are many rivers between the 
 two, with settlements of the same sort of 
 people for example, Sinoloa, Boyomo, Teo- 
 como, Yaquimi, and other smaller ones. 
 There is also the Corazones or Hearts, which 
 is in our possession, dovm the valley of Se 
 nora. 1 
 
 Senora is a river and valley thickly settled 
 by able-bodied people. The women wear 
 petticoats of tanned deerskin, and little san 
 benitos reaching half way down the body, 
 The chiefs of the villages go up on some lit 
 tle heights they have made for this purpose, 
 like public criers, and there make proclama 
 tions for the space of an hour, regulating 
 those things they have to attend to. They 
 have some little huts for shrines, all over the 
 outside of which they stick many arrows, 
 like a hedgehog. They do this when they 
 are eager for war. All about this province 
 toward the mountains there is a large popu 
 lation in separate little provinces containing 
 ten or twelve villages. Seven or eight of 
 them, of which I know the names, are Comu- 
 patrico, Mochilagua, Arispa, and the Little 
 Valley. There are others which we did not 
 see. 
 
 It is 40 leagues from Senora to the valley 
 of Suya. The town of Saint Jerome (San 
 Hieronimo) was established in this valley, 
 where there was a rebellion later, and part 
 
 1 Sonora. 
 88 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 of the people who had settled there were 
 killed, as will be seen in the third part. 
 There are many villages in the neighborhood 
 of this valley. The people are the same as 
 those in Seiiora and have the same dress and 
 language, habits, and customs, like all the 
 rest as far as the desert of Chichilticalli. 
 The women paint their chins and eyes like 
 the Moorish women of Barbary. They are 
 great sodomites. They drink wine made of 
 the pitahaya, which is the fruit of a great 
 thistle which opens like the pomegranate. 
 The wine makes them stupid. They make 
 a great quantity of preserves from the tuna; 
 they preserve it in a large amount of its sap 
 without other honey. They make bread of 
 the mesquite, like cheese, which keeps good 
 for a whole year. 1 There are native melons 
 in this country so large that a person can 
 carry only one of them. They cut these 
 into slices and dry them in the sun. They 
 are good to eat, and taste like figs, and are 
 better than dried meat ; they are very good 
 and sweet, keeping for a whole year when 
 prepared in this way. 2 
 
 In this country there were also tame 
 
 1 Bandolier, Final Report, pt. i., p. Ill, quotes 
 from the Relaciones of Zarate-Salmeron, of some 
 Arizona Indians: "Tambien tienen para su sustento 
 Mescali que es conserva de raiz de maguey." The 
 strong liquor is made from the root of the Mexican 
 or American agave. 
 
 2 These were doubtless cantaloupes. The south 
 western Indians still slice and dry them in a manner 
 similar to that here described. 
 
 89 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 eagles, which the chiefs esteemed to be 
 something tine. 1 No fowls of any sort were 
 seen in any of these villages except in this 
 valley of Suya, where fowls like those of 
 Castile were found. Nobody could find out 
 how they came to be so far inland, the peo 
 ple being all at war with one another. Be 
 tween Suya and Chichilticalli there are 
 many sheep and mountain goats with very 
 large bodies and horns. Some Spaniards 
 declare that they have seen flocks of more 
 than a hundred together, which ran so fast 
 that they disappeared very quickly. 
 
 At Chichilticalli the country changes its 
 character again and the spiky vegetation 
 ceases. The reason is that the gulf reaches 
 as far up as this place, and the mountain 
 chain changes its direction at the same time 
 that the coast does. Here they had to cross 
 and pass through the mountains in order to 
 get into the level country. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Of Chichilticalli and the desert, of Cibola, its cus 
 toms and habits, and of other things. 
 
 CHICHILTICALLI is so called because the 
 friars found a house at this place which was 
 formerly inhabited by people who separated 
 from Cibola. It was made of colored or red- 
 
 1 The Pueblo Indians, particularly the Zuni and 
 Hopi, keep eagles for their feathers, which are high 
 ly prized because of their reputed sacred character. 
 90 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 dish earth. 1 The house was large and ap 
 peared to have been a fortress. It must 
 have been destroyed by the people of the 
 district, who are the most barbarous people 
 that have yet been seen. They live in sepa 
 rate cabins and not in settlements. They 
 live by hunting. The rest of the country is 
 all wilderness, covered with pine forests. 
 There are great quantities of the pine nuts. 
 The pines are two or three times as high as 
 a man before they send out branches. There 
 is a sort of oak with sweet acorns, of which 
 they make cakes like sugar plums with dried 
 coriander seeds. It is very sweet, like sugar. 
 Watercress grows in many springs, and there 
 are rosebushes, and pennyroyal, and wild 
 marjoram. 
 
 There are barbels and picones, like those 
 of Spain, in the rivers of this wilderness. 
 Gray lions and leopards were seen. 2 The 
 country rises continually from the beginning 
 of the wilderness until Cibola is reached, 
 which is 85 leagues, going north. From 
 Culiacan to the edge of the wilderness the 
 route had kept the north on the left hand. 
 
 Cibola 3 is seven villages. The largest is 
 
 1 Chichiltic-calli, a red object or house, according 
 to Molina s Vocabulario Mexicano, 1555. Bandelier, 
 Historical Introduction, p. 11, gives references to the 
 ancient and modern descriptions. 
 
 2 These were evidently the mountain lion and the 
 wild-cat. 
 
 3 Albert S. Gatschet, in hisZwolf Sprachen, p. 106, 
 says that this word is now to be found only in the 
 dialect of the pueblo of Isleta, under the form sibii- 
 lodii, buffalo. 
 
 91 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 called Magaque. 1 The houses are ordinarily 
 three or four stories high,*but in Macaque 
 there are houses with four and seven stories. 
 These people are very intelligent. They 
 cover their privy parts and all the immodest 
 parts with cloths made like a sort of table 
 napkin, with fringed edges and a tassel at 
 each corner, which they tie over the hips. 
 They wear long robes of feathers and of the 
 skins of hares and cotton blankets. a The 
 women wear blankets, which they tie or 
 knot over the left shoulder, leaving the right 
 arm out. These serve to cover the body. 
 They wear a neat well-shaped outer garment 
 of skin. They gather their hair over the 
 two ears, making a frame which looks like 
 an old-fashioned headdress. 3 
 
 1 Matsaki, the ruins of which are at the northwest 
 ern base of Thunder mountain. Sec Bandelier s 
 Final Report, pt. i., p. 133, and ITodge, First Dis 
 covered City of Cibola. 
 
 2 The mantles of rabbit hair are still worn at Mold, 
 but those of turkey plumes are out of use altogether. 
 See Bandelier s Final Report, pt. i., pp. 37 and 158. 
 They used also the fiber of the yucca u*ud agave for 
 making clothes. 
 
 3 ,1. G. Owens, Hopi Natal Ceremonies, in Journal 
 of American Archaeology and Ethnology, vol. ii., p. 
 165 11., says : " The dress of the Hopi f Mold, or Tusay- 
 an] women consists of a black blanket about 3 feet 
 square, folded around the body from the left side. 
 It passes under the left arm and over the right 
 shoulder, being sewed together on the right side, 
 except a hole about 3 inches long near the upper 
 end through which the arm is thrust. This is belted 
 in at the waist by a sash about 3 inches wide. Some 
 times, though not frequently, a shirt is worn under 
 this garment, and a piece of muslin, tied together by 
 two adjacent corners, is usually nearby, to be thrown 
 92 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 This country is in a valley between moun 
 tains in the form of isolated cliffs. They 
 cultivate the corn, which does not grow very 
 high, in patches. There are three or four 
 large fat ears having each eight hundred 
 grains on every stalk growing upward from 
 the ground, something not seen before in 
 these parts. There are large numbers of 
 bears in this province, and lions, wild-cats, 
 deer, and otter. There are very fine tur 
 quoises, although not so many as was re 
 ported. They collect the pine nuts each 
 year, and store them up in advance. A 
 man does not have more than one wife. 
 There are estufas or hot rooms in the villages, 
 which are the courtyards or places where 
 they gather for consultation. They do not 
 have chiefs as in New Spain, but are ruled 
 by a council of the oldest men. They have 
 priests who preach to them, whom they call 
 papas. 1 These are the elders. They go up 
 on the highest roof of the village and preach 
 to the village from there, like public criers, 
 in the morning while the sun is rising, the 
 whole village being silent and sitting in the 
 galleries to listen. 2 They tell them how 
 
 over the shoulders. Most of the women have moc 
 casins, which they put on at certain times." 
 
 1 Papa in the Zuni language signifies " elder 
 brother," and may allude either to age or to rank. 
 
 2 Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, in his Few Summer Cere 
 monials at the Tusayan Pueblos, p. 7, describes the 
 Da wa-wyrop-ki-yas, a small number of priests of 
 the sun. Among other duties, they pray to the ris 
 ing sun, whose course they are said to watch, and 
 they prepare offerings to it. 
 
 93 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 they are to live, a ad I believe that they give 
 certain commandments for them to keep, for 
 there is no drunkenness among them nor 
 sodomy nor sacrifices, neither do they eat 
 human flesh nor steal, but they are usually 
 at work. The estufas belong to the whole 
 village. It is a sacrilege for the women to 
 go into the estufas to sleep. 1 They make 
 the cross as a sign of peace. They burn 
 their dead, and throw the implements used 
 in their work into the fire with the bodies. 2 
 
 1 In his Few Summer Ceremonials at Tusayan, p. 
 6, Dr. Fewkes says that " with the exception of their 
 own dances, women do not take part in the secret 
 kibva [estuf a] ceremonials; but it can not be said 
 that they are debarred entrance as assistants in mak 
 ing the paraphernalia of the dances, or when they 
 are called upon to represent dramatizations of tra 
 ditions in which women figure." 
 
 2 Mr. Frank Hamilton Gushing, in the Compte- 
 rendu of the Congres International des American- 
 istes, Berlin, 1888, pp. 171-172, speaking of the exca 
 vations of " Los Muertos " in southern Arizona, says: 
 "All the skeletons, especially of adults [in the 
 intramural burials], were, with but few exceptions, 
 disposed with the heads to the east and slightly 
 elevated as though resting on pillows, so as to face 
 the west; and the hands were usually placed at the 
 sides or crossed over the breast. With nearly all 
 were paraphernalia, household utensils, articles of 
 adornment, etc. This paraphernalia quite inva 
 riably partook of a sacerdotal character." In the 
 pyral mounds outside the communal dwellings, 
 "each burial consisted of a vessel, large or small, 
 according to the age of the person whose thoroughly 
 cremated remains it was designed to receive, to 
 gether, ordinarily, with traces of the more valued 
 and smaller articles of personal property sacrificed 
 at the time of cremation. Over each such vessel 
 was placed cither an inverted bowl or a cover 
 (roughly rounded by chipping) of potsherds, which 
 latter, in most cases, showed traces of having been 
 
 94 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 It is 20 leagues to Tusayan, going north 
 west. This is a province with seven vil 
 lages, of the same sort, dress, habits, and 
 ceremonies as at Cibola. There may be as 
 many as 3,000 or 4,000 men in the fourteen 
 villages of these two provinces. It is 40 
 leagues or more to Tiguex, the road trending 
 
 firmly cemented, by means of mud plaster, to the 
 vessels they covered. Again, around each such bur 
 ial were found always from two or three to ten or a 
 dozen broken vessels, often, indeed, a complete set; 
 namely, eating and drinking bowls, water- jar and 
 bottle, pitcher, spheroidal food receptacle, ladles 
 large and small, and cooking-pot. Sometimes, 
 however, one or another of these vessels actually 
 designed for sacrifice with the dead, was itself used 
 as the recc-ptacle of his or her remains. In every 
 such case the vessel had been either punctured at 
 the bottom or on one side, or else violently cracked 
 from Zuni customs, in the process of killing it." 
 The remains of other articles were around, burned 
 in the same fire. 
 
 Since the above note was extracted, excavations 
 have been conducted by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes at 
 the prehistoric Hopi pueblo of Sikyatki, an exhaus 
 tive account of which will be published in a forth 
 coming report of the Bureau of Ethnology. Sikyat 
 ki is located at the base of the First Mesa of 
 Tusayau, about 3 miles from llano. The house 
 structures were situated on an elongated elevation, 
 the western extremity of the village forming a sort 
 of acropolis. On the northern, western, and south 
 ern slopes of the height, outside the village proper, 
 cemeteries were found, and in these most of the 
 excavations were conducted. Many graves were 
 uncovered at a depth varying from 1 foot to 10 
 feet, but the skeletons were in such condition as to 
 be practically beyond recovery. Accompanying 
 these remains were hundreds of food and water ves 
 sels in great variety of form and decoration, and in 
 quality of texture far better than any earthenware 
 previously recovered from a pueblo people. With 
 the remains of the priests there were found, in addi- 
 95 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 toward the north. The rock of Acuco, 
 which we described in the first part, is be 
 tween these. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Of how they live at Tiguex, and of the province 
 of Tiguex and its neighborhood. 
 
 TIGUEX is a province with twelve villages 
 on the banks of a large, swift river; some 
 villages on one side and some on the other. 
 
 O 
 
 It is a spacious valley two leagues wide, 
 and a very high, rough, snow-covered moun 
 tain chain lies east of it. There are seven 
 villages in the ridges at the foot of this 
 four on the plain and three situated on the 
 skirts of the mountain. 
 
 There are seven villages 7 leagues to the 
 north [i.e. of Tiguex], at Quirix, and the 
 seven villages of the province of Hemes are 
 40 leagues northeast. It is four leagues north 
 or east to Acha. 1 Tutahaco, a province 
 with eight villages, is toward the southeast. 
 In general, these villages all have the same 
 
 tion to the usual utensils, terracotta and stone pipes, 
 beads, prayer-sticks, quartz crystals, arrowpoints, 
 stone and shell fetiches, sacred paint, and other 
 paraphernalia similar to that used by the Hopi of 
 today. The house walls were constructed of small, 
 flat stones brought from the neighboring mesa, laid 
 in adobe mortar and plastered with the same mate 
 rial. The rooms were invariably small, averaging 
 perhaps 8 feet square, and the walls were quite 
 thin. No human remains were found in the houses, 
 nor were an}^ evidences of cremation observed. 
 1 The pueblo of Picuris. 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 habits and customs, although some have 
 some things in particular which the others 
 have not. 1 They are governed by the opin 
 ions of the elders. They all work together 
 to build the villages, the women being en 
 gaged in making the mixture and the walls, 
 while the men bring the wood and put it in 
 place. 2 They have no lime, but they make 
 a mixture of ashes, coals, and dirt which is 
 almost as good as mortar, for when the house 
 is to have four stories, they do not make the 
 walls more than half a yard thick. They 
 gather a great pile of twigs of thyme and 
 
 1 Bandelier gives a general account of the internal 
 condition of the Pueblo Indians, with references to 
 the older Spanish writers, in his Final Report, pt. i., 
 p. 135. 
 
 2 Lewis II. Morgan, in his Ruins of a Stone Pue 
 blo, Peabody Museum Reports, vol. xii., p. 541, 
 says: "Adobe is a kind of pulverized clay with a 
 bond of considerable strength by mechanical cohe 
 sion. In southern Colorado, in Arizona, and New 
 Mexico there are immense tracts covered w r ith what 
 is called adobe soil. It varies somewhat in the de 
 gree of its excellence. The kind of which they 
 make their pottery has the largest per cent, of alu 
 mina, and its presence is indicated by the salt weed 
 which grows in this particular soil. This kind also 
 makes the best adobe mortar. The Indians use it 
 freely in laying their walls, as freely as our masons 
 use lime mortar; and although it never acquires the 
 hardness of cement, it disintegrates slowly. . . . 
 This adobe mortar is adapted only to the dry cli 
 mate of southern Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexi 
 co, where the precipitation is less than 5 inches 
 per annum. . . . To the presence of this adobe soil, 
 found in such abundance in the regions named, and 
 to the sandstone of the bluffs, where masses are 
 often found in fragments, we must attribute the 
 great progress made by these Indians in house 
 building." 
 
 97 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO. 
 
 sedge grass and set it afire, and when it is 
 half coals and ashes they throw a quantity 
 of dirt and water on it and mix it all to 
 gether. They make round balls of this, 
 which they use instead of stones after they 
 are dry, fixing them with the same mixture, 
 which comes to be like a stiff clay. Before 
 they are married the young men serve the 
 whole village in general, and fetch the wood 
 that is needed for use, putting it in a pile in 
 the courtyard of the villages, from which 
 the women take it to carry to their houses. 
 
 The young men live in the estufas, which 
 are in the yards of the village. 1 They are 
 underground, square or round, with pine pil 
 lars. Some were seen with twelve pillars and 
 with four in the center as large as two men 
 could stretch around. They usually had 
 three or four pillars. The floor was made of 
 large, smocth stones, like the baths which 
 they have in Europe. They have a hearth 
 made like the binnacle or compass box of a 
 ship, in which they burn a handful of 
 
 1 Bandelier discusses the estufas in his Final Re 
 port, pt. i., p. 144 ff., giving quotations from the 
 {Spanish writers, with his usual wealth of footnotes. 
 Dr. Fewkes, in his Zuni Summer Ceremonials, says: 
 "These rooms are semisubterranean (in Zuni), situ 
 ated on the first or ground floor, never, so far as I 
 have seen, on the second or higher stories. They 
 are rectangular or square rooms, built of stone, with 
 openings just large enough to admit the head serv 
 ing as windows, and still preserve the old form of 
 entrance by ladders through a sky hole in the roof. 
 Within, the estufas have bare walls and are unfur 
 nished, but have a raised ledge about the walls, 
 serving as seats." 
 
 98 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 thyme at a time to keep up the heat, and 
 they can stay in there just as in a bath. 
 The top was on a level with the ground. 
 Some that were seen were large enough for 
 a game of ball. When any man wishes to 
 marry, it has to be arranged by those who 
 govern. The man has to spin and weave a 
 blanket and place it before the woman, who 
 covers herself with it and becomes his wife. 
 The houses belong to the women, the estufas 
 to the men. If a man repudiates his woman, 
 he has to go to the estufa. It is forbidden 
 for women to sleep in the estufas, or to enter 
 these for any purpose except to give their 
 husbands or sons something to eat. The 
 men spin and weave. The women bring up 
 the children and prepare the food. The 
 country is so fertile that they do not have 
 to break up the ground the year round, but 
 only have to sow the seed, which is pres 
 ently covered by the fall of snow, and the 
 ears come up under the snow. In one year 
 they gather enough for seven. A very large 
 number of cranes and wild geese and crows 
 and starlings live on what is sown, and for 
 all this, when they come to sow for another 
 year, the fields are covered with corn which 
 they have not been able to finish gathering. 
 There are a great many natiyejow.1 in these 
 provinces, and cocks with great hanging 
 chins. 1 When dead, these keep for sixty 
 days, and longer in winter, without losing 
 
 1 The American turkey cocks. 
 99 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 their feathers or opening, and without any 
 bad smell, and the same is true of dead men. 
 
 The villages are free from nuisances, be 
 cause they go outside to excrete, and they 
 pass their water into clay vessels, which 
 they empty at a distance from the village. 1 
 
 They keep the separate houses where they 
 prepare the food for eating and where they 
 grind the meal, very clean. This is a sepa 
 rate room or closet, where they have a trough 
 with three stones fixed in stiff clay. Three 
 women go in here, each one having a stone, 
 with which one of them breaks the corn, the 
 next grinds it, and the thKcTgrinds it again. 2 
 
 *A custom still common at Zufii and other pue 
 blos. Before the introduction of manufactured dyes 
 the Hopi used urine as a mordant. 
 
 2 Mr. Owens, in the Journal of American Ethnol 
 ogy and Archeology, vol. ii., p. 163 n., describes 
 these mealing troughs: "In every house will be 
 found a trough about 6 feet long, 2 feet wide, 
 and 8 inches deep, divided into three or more 
 compartments. In the older houses the sides and 
 partitions are made of stone slabs, but in some of 
 the newer ones they are made of boards. Within 
 each compartment is a stone (trap rock preferred) 
 about 18 inches long and a foot wide, set in a 
 bed of adobe and inclined at an angle of about 35. 
 This is not quite in the center of the compartment, 
 but is set about inches 3 nearer the right side 
 than the left, and its higher edge is against the edge 
 of the trough. This constitutes the nether stone 
 of the mill. The upper stone is about 14 inches 
 long, 3 inches wide, and varies in thickness ac 
 cording to the fineness of the meal desired. The 
 larger stone is called a mata and the smaller one a 
 mataki. The woman places the corn in the trough, 
 then kneels behind it and grasps the mataki in both 
 hands. This she slides, by a motion from the back, 
 back and forth over the mata. At intervals she re- 
 100 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 They take off their shoes, do up their hair, 
 shake their clothes, and cover their heads 
 before they enter the door. A man sits at 
 the door playing on a fife while they grind, 
 moving the stones to the music and singing 
 together. They grind a large quantity at 
 one time, because they make all their bread 
 of nieal soaked in warm water, like wafers. 
 They gather a great quantity of brushwood 
 and dry it to use for cooking all through the 
 year. There are no fruits good to eat in the 
 country, except the pine nuts. They have 
 their preachers. Sodomy is not found among 
 them. They do not eat human flesh nor 
 make sacrifices of it. The people are not 
 cruel, for they had Francisco de Ovando in 
 Tiguex about forty days, after he was dead, 
 and when the village was captured, he was 
 found among their dead, whole and without 
 any other wound except the one which killed 
 him, white as snow, without any bad smell. 
 I found out several things about them from 
 one of our Indians, who had been a captive 
 among them for a whole year. I asked him 
 especially for the reason why the young 
 women in that province went entirely naked, 
 
 leases her hold with her left hand and with it places 
 the material to be ground upon the upper end of the 
 mata. She usually sings in time to her grinding 
 motion." 
 
 There is a more extended account of these troughs 
 in Miudeleff s Pueblo Architecture, in the Eighth 
 Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 208. This 
 excellent monograph, with its wealth of illustra 
 tions, is an invaluable introduction to any study of 
 the southwestern village Indians. 
 101 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 however cold it might be, and he- told me 
 that the virgins had to go around this way 
 until they took a husband, and that they 
 covered themselves after they had known 
 man. The men here wear little shirts of 
 tanned deerskin and their long robes over 
 this. In all these provinces they have earth 
 enware glazed with antimony and jars of ex 
 traordinary labor and workmanship, which 
 were worth seeing. 1 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Of Cicuye and the villages in its neighborhood, 
 and of how some people came to conquer this coun 
 try. 
 
 WE have already said that the people of 
 Tiguex and of all the provinces on the banks 
 of that river were all alike, having the same 
 ways of living and the same customs. It 
 will not be necessary to say anything par 
 ticular about them. I wish merely to give 
 an account of Cicuye and some depopulated 
 villages which the army saw on the direct 
 road which it followed thither, and of others 
 that were across the snowy mountains near 
 Tiguex, which also lay in that region above 
 the river. 
 
 1 See W. H. Holmes, Pottery of the Ancient Pue 
 blos, Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Eth 
 nology ; also his Illustrated Catalogue of a portion 
 of the collections made during the field season of 
 1881, in the Third Annual Report. 
 102 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 Cicujj3 is a village of nearly five hun 
 dred warriors, who are feared throughout that 
 country. It is square, situated on a rock, 
 with a large court or yard in the middle, 
 containing the estufas. The houses are all 
 alike, four stories high. One can go over 
 the top of the whole village without there 
 being a street to hinder. There are cor 
 ridors going all around it at the first two 
 stories, by which one can go around the 
 whole village. These are like outside bal 
 conies, and they are able to protect them 
 selves under these. The houses do not have 
 doors below, but they use ladders, which can 
 be lifted up like a drawbridge, and so go up 
 to the corridors which are on the inside of 
 the village. As the doors of the houses 
 open on the corridor of that story, the corri 
 dor serves as a street. The houses that open 
 on the plain are right back of those that 
 open on the court, and in time of war they 
 go through those behind them. The village 
 is inclosed by a low wall of stone. There is 
 a spring of water inside, which they are able 
 to divert. 2 The people of this village boast 
 that no one has been able to conquer them 
 and that they conquer whatever villages they 
 
 1 Bandelier, in his Visit to Pecos, p. 114, n , states 
 that the former name of the pueblo was Aquin, and 
 suggests the possibility of Castaneda having origi 
 nally written Acuye. The Relacion del Suceso has 
 Acuique. 
 
 2 The spring was " still trickling out beneath a 
 massive ledge of rocks on the west sill" when Ban- 
 delier sketched it in 1880. 
 
 103 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 wish. The people arid their customs are like 
 those of the other villages. Their virgins 
 also go nude until they take husbands, be 
 cause they say that if they do anything 
 wrong then it will be seen, and so they 
 do not do it. They do not need to be 
 ashamed because they go around as they were 
 born. 
 
 There is a village, small and strong, be 
 tween Cicuye and the province of Quirix, 
 which the Spaniards named Ximena, 1 and 
 another village almost deserted, only one part 
 of which is inhabited. 2 This was a large 
 village, and judging from its condition and 
 newness it appeared to have been destroyed. 
 They called this the village of the granaries 
 or silos, because large underground cellars 
 were found here stored with corn. There 
 was another large village farther on, entirely 
 destroyed and pulled down, in the yards of 
 which there were many stone balls, as big as 
 12-quart bowls, which seemed to have been 
 thrown by engines or catapults, which had 
 destroyed the village. All that I was able 
 to find out about them was that, sixteen 
 years before, some people called Teyas, 3 had 
 
 1 The former Tauo pueblo of Galisteo, a mile and 
 a half northeast of the present town of the same 
 name, in Santa Fe county. 
 
 3 According to Mota Padilla, this was called Go- 
 quite. 
 
 3 These Indians were seen by Coronado during his 
 journey across the plains. As Mr. Hodge has sug 
 gested, they may have been the Comanches, who on 
 many occasions are known to have made inroads on 
 the pueblo of Pecos. 
 
 104 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 coine to this country in great numbers and 
 had destroyed these villages. They had be 
 sieged Cicuye but had not been able to cap 
 ture it, because it was strong, and when they 
 left the region, they had made peace with 
 the whole country. It seems as if they must 
 have been a powerful people, and that they 
 must have had engines to knock down the 
 villages. The only thing they could tell 
 about the direction these people came from 
 was by pointing toward the north. They 
 usually call these people Teyas or brave 
 men, just as the Mexicans say chichimecas 
 or braves, for the Teyas whom the army 
 saw were brave. These knew the people in 
 the settlements, and were friendly with them, 
 and they (the Teyas of the plains) went there 
 to spend the winter under the wings of the 
 settlements. The inhabitants do not dare 
 to let them come inside, because they can 
 not trust them. Although they are received 
 as friends, and trade with them, they do 
 not stay in the villages over night, but 
 outside under the wings. The villages are 
 guarded by sentinels with trumpets, who 
 call to one another just as in the fortresses 
 of Spain. 
 
 There are seven other villages along this 
 route, toward the snowy mountains, one of 
 which has been half destroyed by the people 
 already referred to. These were under the 
 rule of Cicuye. Cicuye is in a little valley 
 between mountain chains and mountains 
 covered with large pine forests. There is a 
 105 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 little stream which contains very good trout 
 and otters, and there are very large bears 
 and good falcons hereabouts. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Which gives the number of villages which were 
 seen in the country of the terraced houses, and their 
 population. 
 
 BEFORE I proceed to speak of the plains, 
 with the cows and settlements and tribes 
 there, it seems to me that it will be well for 
 the reader to know how large the settlements 
 were, where the houses with stories, gath 
 ered into villages, were seen, and how great 
 an extent of country they occupied. As 
 I say, Cibola is the first : 
 
 Cibola, seven villages. 
 
 Tusayan, seven villages. 
 
 The rock of Acuco, one. 
 
 Tiguex, twelve villages. 
 
 Tutahaco, eight villages. 
 
 These villages were below the river. 
 
 Quirix, 2 seven villages. 
 
 1 Bandolier, Final Report, pt. i., p. 34. "With the 
 exception of Acoma, there is not a single pueblo 
 standing where it was at the time of Coronado, or 
 even sixty years later, when Juan de Onate accom 
 plished the peaceable reduction of the New Mexican 
 village Indians." Compare with the discussion in 
 this part of his Final Report, Mr. Bandolier s at 
 tempt to identify the various clusters of villages, in 
 his Historical Introduction, pp. 22-24. 
 
 2 The Queres district, now represented by Santo 
 Domingo, San Felipe, Santa Ana, Sia (Castaneda s 
 
 106 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 In the snowy mountains, seven villages. 
 
 Ximena, 1 three villages. 
 
 Cicuye, one village. 
 
 Hemes, 2 seven villages. 
 
 Aguas Calientes, 2 or Boiling Springs, three 
 villages. 
 
 Yuqueyunque, 3 in the mountains, six vil 
 lages. 
 
 Valladolid, called Braba, 4 one village. 
 
 Chia, B one village. 
 
 In all, there are sixty-six villages. Tiguex 
 appears to be in the center of the villages. 
 Valladolid is the farthest up the river tow 
 ard the northeast. The four villages down 
 the river are toward the southeast, because 
 the river turns toward the east." It is 130 
 leagues 10 more or less from the farthest 
 point that was seen down the river to the 
 farthest point up the river, and all the settle 
 ments are within this region. Including 
 those at a distance, there are sixty-six vil 
 lages in all, as I have said, and in all of 
 them there may be some 20,000 men, which 
 
 Cliia), and Cochiti. Acoma and Laguna, to the 
 westward, belong to the same linguistic group. 
 Laguna, however, is a modern pueblo. 
 
 1 One of these was the Tano pueblo of Galisteo, as 
 noted on page 523. 
 
 2 The Jemes pueblo clusters in San Diego and 
 Guadaloupe canyons. See pi. LXX. 
 
 3 The Tewa pueblo of Yugeuingge, where the vil 
 lage of Chamita, above Santa Fe, now stands. 
 
 4 Taos. 
 
 5 The Keres or Queres pueblo of Sia. 
 
 6 The trend of the river in the section of the old 
 pueblo settlements is really westward. 
 
 107 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 may be taken to be a Tair estimate of the 
 population of the villages. There are no 
 houses or other buildings between one vil 
 lage and another, but where we went it is 
 entirely uninhabited. These people, since 
 they are few, and their manners, govern 
 ment, and habits are so different from all the 
 nations that have been seen and discovered 
 in these western regions, must come from 
 that part of Greater India, the coast of which 
 lies to the west of this country, for they 
 could have come down from that country, 
 crossing the mountain chains and following 
 down the river, settling in what seemed to 
 them the best place. 1 As they multiplied, 
 they kept on making settlements until they 
 lost the river when it buried itself under 
 ground, its course being in the direction of 
 Florida. It comes down from the northeast, 
 where they >J could certainly have found signs 
 of villages. He preferred, however, to follow 
 the reports of the Turk, but it would have 
 been better to cross the mountains where 
 this river rises. I believe they would have 
 found traces of riches and would have reached 
 the lands from which these people started, 
 which from its location is on the edge of 
 
 1 The Tusa}~an Indians belong to the same linguis 
 tic stock as the Ute, (Jomanche, Shoshoiii, Bannock, 
 and others. The original habitat of the main body 
 of these tribes was in the far north, although certain 
 clans of the Tusayan people are of southern origin. 
 See Powell, Indian Linguistic Families, 7th Annual 
 Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 108. 
 
 a The Spaniards under Coronado. 
 108 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 Greater India, although the region is neither 
 known nor understood, because from the 
 trend of the coast it appears that the land 
 between Norway and China is very far up. 
 The country from sea to sea is very wide, 
 judging from the location of both coasts, as 
 well as from what Captain Yillalobos discov 
 ered when he went in search of China by the 
 sea to the west, 1 and from what has been 
 discovered on the North sea concerning the 
 trend of the coast of Florida toward the 
 Bacallaos, up toward Norway. 
 
 To return then to the proposition with 
 which I began, I say that the settlements 
 and people already named were all that were 
 seen in a region 70 leagues wide and 130 
 long, in the settled country along the river 
 Tiguex. In New Spain there are not one 
 but many establishments, containing a larger 
 number of people. Silver metals were found 
 in many of their villages, which they use for 
 glazing and painting their earthenware. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Which treats of the plains that were crossed, of 
 the cows, and of the people who inhabit them. 
 
 WE have spoken of the settlements of high 
 houses which are situated in what seems to 
 be the most level and open part of the moun- 
 
 1 See the Carta escrita por Santisteban a Mendoza, 
 which tells nearly everything that is known of the 
 voyage of Villalobos. We can only surmise what 
 Castaneda may have known about it. 
 109 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 tains, since it is 150 leagues across before 
 entering the level country between the two 
 mountain chains which I said were near 
 the North sea and the South sea, which 
 might better be called the Western sea along 
 this coast. This mountain series is the one 
 which is near the South sea. 1 In order to 
 show that the settlements are in the middle 
 of the mountains, I will state that it is 80 
 leagues from Chichilticalli, where we began 
 to cross this country, to Cibola; from Cibola, 
 which is the first village, to Cicuye, which 
 is the last on the way across, is 70 leagues; 
 it is 30 leagues from Cicuye to where the 
 plains begin. It may be we went across in 
 an indirect or roundabout way, which would 
 make it seem as if there was more country 
 than if it had been crossed in a direct line, 
 and it may be more difficult and rougher. 
 This can not be known certainly, because 
 the mountains change their direction above 
 the bay at the mouth of the Firebrand 
 (Tizon) river. 
 
 Now we will speak of the plains. The 
 country is spacious and level, and is more 
 than 400 leagues wide in the part between 
 the two mountain ranges one, that which 
 Francisco Vazquez Coronado crossed, and the 
 other that which the force under Don Fer 
 nando de Soto crossed, near the North sea, 
 entering the country from Florida. No set 
 tlements were seen anywhere on these plains. 
 
 1 More than once Castafieda seems to be addressing 
 those about him where he is writing in Culiacan. 
 110 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 In traversing 250 leagues, the other moun 
 tain range was not seen, nor a hill nor a 
 hillock which was three times as high as a 
 man. Several lakes were found at intervals ; 
 they were round as plates, a stone s throw 
 or more across, some fresh and some salt. 
 The grass grows tall near these lakes ; away 
 from them it is very short, a span or less. 
 The country is like a bowl, so that when a 
 man sits down, the horizon surrounds him 
 all around at the distance of a musket shot. 
 There are no groves of trees except at the 
 rivers, which flow at the bottom of some 
 ravines where the trees grow so thick that 
 they were not noticed until one was right on 
 the edge of them. They are of dead earth. 
 There are paths down into these, made by 
 the cows when they go to the water, which 
 is essential throughout these plains. 
 
 As I have related in the first part, people 
 follow the cows, hunting them and tanning 
 the skins to take to the settlements in the 
 winter to sell, since they go there to pass 
 the winter, each company going to those 
 which are nearest, some to the settlements 
 at Cicuye, others toward Quivira, and others 
 to the settlements which are situated in the 
 direction of Florida. These people are called 
 Querechos and Teyas. They described some 
 large settlements, and judging from what 
 was seen of these people and from the ac 
 counts they gave of other places, there are a 
 good many more of these people than there 
 are of those at the settlements. They have 
 111 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 better figures, are better warriors, and are 
 more feared. They travel like the Arabs, 
 with their tents and troops of dogs loaded 
 with poles l and having Moorish pack saddles 
 with girths. When the load gets disarranged, 
 the dogs howl, calling some one to fix them 
 right. These people eat raw flesh and drink 
 blood. They do not eat human flesh. They 
 are a kind people and not cruel. They are 
 faithful friends. They are able to make 
 themselves very well understood by means 
 of signs. They dry the flesh in the sun, 
 cutting it thin like a leaf, and when dry they 
 grind it like meal to keep it and make a sort 
 of sea soup of it to eat. A handful thrown 
 into a pot swells up so as to increase very 
 much. They season it with fat, which they 
 always try to secure when they kill a cow. 2 
 They empty a large gut and fill it with blood, 
 and carry this around the neck to drink when 
 they are thirsty. When they open the belly 
 of a cow, they squeeze out the chewed grass 
 and drink the juice that remains behind, be 
 cause they say that this contains the essence 
 of the stomach. They cut the hide open at 
 the back and pull it off at the joints, using 
 a flint as large as a finger, tied in a little 
 stick, with as much ease as if working with 
 a good iron tool. They give it an edge with 
 their own teeth. The quickness with which 
 they do this is something worth seeing and 
 noting. 
 
 1 The well known travels of the plains tribes. 
 
 2 Pemmican. 
 
 112 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 There are very great numbers of wolves 
 on these plains, which go around with the 
 cows. They have white skins. The deer 
 are pied with white. Their skin is loose, 
 so that when they are killed it can be pulled 
 off with the hand while warm, coming off 
 like pigskin. The rabbits, which are very 
 numerous, are so foolish that those on horse 
 back killed them with their lances. This is 
 when they are mounted among the cows. 
 They fly from a person on foot. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Of Quivira, of where it is and some information 
 about it. 
 
 QUIVIRA is to the west of those ravines, in 
 the midst of the country, somewhat nearer 
 the mountains toward the sea, for the coun 
 try is level as far as Quivira, and there they 
 began to see some mountain chains. The 
 country is well settled. Judging from what 
 was seen on the borders of it, this country is 
 very similar to that of Spain in the varieties 
 of vegetation and fruits. There are plums 
 like those of Castile, grapes, nuts, mulber 
 ries, oats, pennyroyal, wild marjoram, and 
 large quantities of flax, but this does not do 
 them any good, because they do not know 
 how to use it. 1 The people are of almost 
 
 1 Mr. Savage, in the Transactions of the Nebraska 
 Historical Society, vol. i. , p. 198, shows how closely 
 the descriptions of Castaneda, Jaramillo, and the 
 others on the expedition, harmonize with the flora 
 and fauna of his State. 
 
 113 
 
THE JOURNEY OF COKONADO 
 
 the same sort and appearance as the Teyas. 
 They have villages like those in New Spain. 
 The houses are round, without a wall, and 
 they have one story like a loft, under the 
 roof, where they sleep anJlSqHheir belong 
 ings. The roofs are of straw. There are 
 other thickly settled provinces around it con 
 taining large numbers of men. A friar 
 named Juan de Padilla remained in this 
 province, together with a Spanish-Portuguese 
 and a negro and a half-blood and some In 
 dians from the province of Capothan, in New 
 Spain. They killed the friar because he 
 wanted to go to the province of the Guas, 
 who were their enemies. The Spaniard es 
 caped by taking flight on a rnare, and after 
 ward reached New Spain, coming out by 
 way of Panuco. The Indians from New 
 Spain who accompanied the friar were 
 allowed by the murderers to bury him, and 
 then they followed the Spaniard and over 
 took him. This Spaniard was a Portuguese, 
 named Campo. 
 
 The great river of the Holy Spirit (Espiritu 
 Santo), 1 which Don Fernando de Soto dis 
 covered in the country of Florida, flows 
 through this country. It passes through a 
 province called Arache, according to the 
 reliable accounts which were obtained here. 
 The sources were not visited, because, ac 
 cording to what they said, it comes from a 
 very distant country in the mountains of the 
 
 1 The Mississippi and Missouri rivers. 
 114 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 South sea, from the part that sheds its waters 
 onto the plaius. It flows across all the level 
 country and breaks through the mountains 
 of the North sea, and comes out where the 
 people with Don Fernando de Soto navigated 
 it. This is more than 300 leagues from 
 where it enters the sea. On account of this, 
 and also because it has large tributaries, it 
 is so mighty when it enters the sea that they 
 lost sight of the land before the water ceased 
 to be fresh. 1 
 
 This country of Quivira was the last that 
 was seen, of which I am able to give any 
 description or information. Now it is proper 
 for me to return and speak of the army, 
 which I left in Tiguex, resting for the win 
 ter, so that it would be able to proceed or re 
 turn in search of these settlements of Quivira, 
 which was not accomplished after all, because 
 it was God s pleasure that these discoveries 
 should remain for other peoples and that we 
 who had been there should content ourselves 
 with saying that we were the first who dis 
 covered it and obtained any information con 
 cerning it, just as Hercules knew the site 
 where Julius Csesar was to found Seville or 
 Hispales. May the all-powerful Lord grant 
 that His will be done in everything. It is 
 certain that if this had not been His will 
 Francisco Vazquez would not have returned 
 to New Spain without cause or reason, as he 
 did , and that it would not have been left for 
 
 1 This is probably a reminiscence of Cabeza de Va- 
 ca s narrative. 
 
 115 
 
THE JOURNEY OF COUONADO 
 
 those with Don Fernando de Soto to settle 
 such a good country, as they have done, and 
 besides settling it to increase its extent, after 
 obtaining, as they did, information from our 
 army. 1 
 
 1 Mota Padilla, cap. xxxiii., 4, p. 166, gives his 
 reasons for the failure of the expedition: "It was 
 most likely the chastisement of God that riches were 
 not found on this expedition, because, \vhen this 
 ought to have been the secondary object of the ex 
 pedition, and the conversion of all those heathen 
 their first aim, they bartered with fate and strug 
 gled after the secondary ; and thus the misfortune 
 is not so much that all those labors were without 
 fruit, but the worst is that such a number of souls 
 have remained in their blindness. " 
 
 116 
 
THIRD PART 
 
 WHICH DESCRIBES WHAT HAPPENED TO 
 FRANCISCO VAZQUEZ CORONADO DURING 
 THE WINTER, AND How HE GAVE UP 
 THE EXPEDITION AND KETURNED TO NEW 
 SPAIN. 
 
 Laus Deo. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Of how Don Pedro de Tovar came from Sefiora 
 with some men, and Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas 
 started back to New Spain. 
 
 AT the end of the first part of this book, 
 we told how Francisco Vazquez Coronado, 
 when he got back from Quivira, gave orders 
 to winter at Tiguex, in order to return, when 
 the winter was over, with his whole army 
 to discover all the settlements in those 
 regions. Don Pedro de Tovar, who had 
 gone, as we related, to conduct a force from 
 the city of Saint Jerome (San Hieronimo), 
 arrived in the meantime with the men whom 
 he had brought. He had not selected the 
 rebels and seditious men there, but the most 
 experienced ones and the best soldiers men 
 whom he could trust wisely considering 
 that he ought to have good men in order to 
 go in search of his general in the country of 
 the Indian called Turk. 
 117 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 Although they found the array at Tiguex 
 when they arrived there, this did not please 
 them much, because they had come with 
 great expectations, believing that they would 
 find their general in the rich country of the 
 Indian called Turk. They consoled them 
 selves with the hope of going back there, 
 and lived in anticipation of the pleasure of 
 undertaking this return expedition, which 
 the army would soon make to Quivira. Don 
 Pedro de Tovar brought letters from New 
 Spain, both from the viceroy, Don Antonio 
 de Mendoza, and from individuals. Among 
 these was one from Don Garcia Lopez de 
 Cardenas, which informed him of the death 
 of his brother, the heir, and summoned him 
 to Spain to receive the inheritance. On this 
 account lie was given permission, and left 
 Tiguex with several other persons who re 
 ceived permission to go and settle their affairs. 
 There were many others who would have 
 liked to go, but did not, in order not to ap 
 pear faint-hearted. During this time the 
 general endeavored to pacify several villages 
 in the neighborhood which were not well 
 disposed, and to make peace with the people 
 at Tiguex. He tried also to procure some of 
 the cloth of the country, because the soldiers 
 were almost naked and poorly clothed, full 
 of lice, which they were unable to get rid of 
 or avoid. 
 
 The general, Francisco Vazquez Coronado, 
 had been beloved and obeyed by his captains 
 and soldiers as heartily as any of those who 
 118 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 have ever started out in the Indies. Neces 
 sity knows no law, and the captains who 
 collected the cloth divided it badly, taking 
 the best for themselves and their friends and 
 soldiers, and leaving the rest for the soldiers, 
 and so there began to be some angry mur 
 muring on account of this. Others also com 
 plained because they noticed that some fa 
 vored ones were spared in the work and in 
 the watches and received better portions of 
 what was divided, both of cloth and rood. 
 On this account it is thought that they be 
 gan to say that there was nothing in the 
 country of Quivira which was worth return 
 ing for, which was no slight cause of what 
 afterward happened, as will be seen. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 Of the general s fall, and of how the return to 
 New Spain was ordered. 
 
 AFTER the winter was over, the return to 
 Quivira was announced, and the men began 
 to prepare the things needed. Since noth 
 ing in this life is at the disposition of men, 
 but all is under the ordination of Almighty 
 God, it was His will that we should not ac 
 complish this, and so it happened that one 
 feast day the general went out on horseback 
 to amuse himself, as usual, riding with the 
 captain Don Eodrigo Maldonado. He was 
 on a powerful horse, and his servants had 
 119 
 
THE JOURNEY OF COKONADO 
 
 put on a new girth, which must have been 
 rotten at the time, for it broke during the 
 race and he fell over on the side where Don 
 Eodrigo was, and as his horse passed over 
 him it hit his head with its hoof, which laid 
 him at the point of death, and his recovery 
 was slow and doubtful. 
 
 During this time, while he was in his bed, 
 Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, who had 
 started to go to New Spain, came back in 
 flight from Suva, because he had found that 
 town deserted and the people and horses and 
 cattle all dead. When he reached Tiguex 
 and learned the sad news that the general 
 was near his end, as already related, they did 
 not dare to tell him until he had recovered, 
 and when he finally got up and learned of 
 it, it affected him so much that he had to go 
 back to bed again. He may have done this 
 in order to bring about what he afterward 
 accomplished, as was believed later. 
 
 It was while he was in this condition that 
 he recollected what a scientific friend of his 
 in Salamanca had told him, that he would 
 become a powerful lord in distant lands, and 
 that he would have a fall from which he 
 would never be able to recover. This ex 
 pectation of death made him desire to return 
 and die where he had a wife and children. 
 As the physician and surgeon who was doc 
 toring him, and also acted as a talebearer, 
 suppressed the murmurings that were going 
 about among the soldiers, he treated secretly 
 and underhandedly with several gentlemen 
 120 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 who agreed with him. They set the sol 
 diers to talking about going back to New 
 Spain, in little knots and gatherings, and 
 induced them to hold consultations about it, 
 and had them send papers to the general, 
 signed by all the soldiers, through their en 
 signs, asking for this. They all entered into 
 it readily, and not much time needed to be 
 spent, since many desired it already. When 
 they asked him, the general acted as if he 
 did not want to do it, but all the gentlemen 
 and captains supported them, giving him 
 their signed opinions, and as some were in 
 this, they could give it at once, and they 
 even persuaded others to do the same. 
 
 Thus they made it seem as if they ought 
 to return to New Spain, because they had 
 not found any riches, nor had they discov 
 ered any settled country out of which estates 
 could be formed for all the army. When he 
 had obtained their signatures, the return to 
 New Spain was at once announced, and since 
 nothing can ever be concealed, the double 
 dealing began to be understood, and many 
 of the gentlemen found that they had been 
 deceived and had made a mistake. They 
 tried in every way to get their signatures 
 back again from the general, who guarded 
 them so carefully that he did not go out of 
 one room, making his sickness seem very 
 much worse, and putting guards about his 
 person and room, and at night about the 
 floor on which he slept. In spite of all this, 
 they stole his chest, and it is said that they 
 121 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 did not find their signatures in it, because 
 he kept them in his mattress; on the other 
 hand, it is said that they did recover them. 
 They asked the general to give them 60 
 picked men, with whom they would remain 
 and hold the country until the viceroy could 
 send them support, or recall them, or else 
 that the general would leave them the army 
 and pick out 60 men to go back with him. 
 But the soldiers did not want to remain 
 either way, some because they had turned 
 their prow toward New Spain, and others 
 because they saw clearly the trouble that 
 would arise over who should have the com 
 mand. The gentlemen, I do not know 
 whether because they had sworn fidelity or 
 because they feared that the soldiers would 
 not support them, did what had been decided 
 on, although with an ill-will, and from this 
 time on they did not obey the general as 
 readily as formerly, and they did not show 
 any affection for him. He made much of 
 the soldiers and humored them, with the 
 result that he did what he desired and se 
 cured the return of the whole army. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Of the rebellion at Suya arid the reasons the set 
 tlers gave for it. 
 
 WE have already stated in the last chap 
 ter that Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas carne 
 back from Suya in flight, having found that 
 122 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 country risen in rebellion. He told how 
 and why that town was deserted, which oc 
 curred as I will relate. The entirely worth 
 less fellows were all who had been left in 
 that town, the mutinous and seditious men, 
 besides a few who were honored with the 
 charge of public affairs and who were left to 
 govern the others. Thus the bad disposi 
 tions of the worthless secured the power, 
 and they held daily meetings and councils 
 and declared that they had been betrayed and 
 were not going to be rescued, since the others 
 had been directed to go through another part 
 of the country, where there was a more con 
 venient route to New Spain, which was not 
 so because they were still almost on the 
 direct road. This talk led some of them to 
 revolt, and they chose one Pedro de Avila as 
 their captain. 
 
 They went back to Culiacan, leaving the 
 captain, Diego de Alcaraz, sick in the town 
 of San Hieronimo, with only a small force. 
 He did not have anyone whom he could 
 send after them to compel them to return. 
 They killed a number of people at several 
 villages along the way. Finally they reached 
 Culiacan, where Hernando Arias de Saabedra, 
 who was waiting for Juan Gallego to come 
 back from New Spain with a force, detained 
 them by means of promises, so that Gallego 
 could take them back. Some who feared 
 what might happen to them ran away one 
 night to New Spain. Diego de Alcaraz, 
 who had remained at Suya with a small 
 123 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 force, sick, was not able to bold bis position, 
 although be would have liked to, 011 account 
 of the poisonous herb which the natives use. 
 When these noticed how weak the Spaniards 
 were, they did not continue to trade with 
 them as they formerly had done. Veins of 
 gold had already been discovered before this, 
 but they were unable to work these, because 
 the country was at war. The disturbance 
 was so great that they did not cease to keep 
 watch and to be more than usually careful. 
 
 The town was situated on a little river. 
 One night all of a sudden they saw fires 
 which tbey were not accustomed to, and on 
 this account they doubled the watches, but 
 not having noticed anything during the 
 whole night, they grew careless along toward 
 morning, and the enemy entered the village 
 so silently that they were not seen until they 
 began to kill and plunder. A number of 
 men reached the plain as well as they could, 
 but while they were getting out the captain 
 was mortally wounded. Several Spaniards 
 came back on some horses after they had re 
 covered themselves and attacked the enemy, 
 rescuing some, though only a few. The 
 enemy went off with the booty, leaving three 
 Spaniards killed, besides many of the ser 
 vants and more than twenty horses. 
 
 The Spaniards who survived started off 
 the same day on foot, not having any horses. 
 They went toward Culiacan, keeping away 
 from the roads, and did not find any food 
 until they reached Corazones, where the In- 
 124 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 dians, like the good friends they have always 
 been, provided them with food. From here 
 they continued to Culiacan^ undergoing great 
 hardships. Hernandarias de Saabedra, the 
 mayor, received them and entertained them 
 as well as he could until Juan Gallego ar 
 rived with the reinforcements which he was 
 conducting, on his way to find the army. 
 He was not a little troubled at finding that 
 post deserted, when he expected that the 
 army would be in the rich country which had 
 been described by the Indian called Turk, be 
 cause he looked like one. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Of how Friar Juan dc Padilla and Friar Luis re 
 mained in the country and the army prepared to re 
 turn to Mexico. 
 
 WHEN the general, Francisco Vazquez, 
 saw that everything was now quiet, and that 
 his schemes had gone as he wished, he or 
 dered that everything should be ready to 
 start on the return to New Spain by the be 
 ginning of the month of April, in the year 
 1543. 1 
 
 Seeing this, Friar Juan de Padilla, a regu 
 lar brother of the lesser order, 8 and another, 
 Friar Luis, a lay brother, told the general 
 that they wanted to remain in that country 
 
 1 The correct date is, of course, 1542. 
 
 2 A Franciscan. He was a "frayle de misa." 
 
 125 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 Friar Juan de Padilla in Quivira, because 
 his teachings seemed to promise fruit there, 
 and Friar Luis at Cicuye. On this account, 
 as it was Lent at the time, the father made 
 this the subject of his sermon to the com 
 panies one Sunday, establishing his proposi 
 tion on the authority of the Holy Scriptures. 
 He declared his zeal for the conversion of 
 these peoples and his desire to draw them 
 to the faith, and stated that he had received 
 permission to do it, although this was not 
 necessary. The general sent a company to 
 escort them as far as Cicuye, where Friar 
 Luis stopped, while Friar Juan went on back 
 to Quivira with the guides who had con 
 ducted the general, taking with him the 
 Portuguese, as we related, and the half-blood, 
 and the Indians from New Spain. He was 
 martyred a short time after he arrived there, 
 as we related in the second part, chapter 8. 
 Thus we may be sure that he died a martyr, 
 because his zeal was holy and earnest. 
 
 Friar Luis remained at Cicuye. Nothing 
 more has been heard about him since, but 
 before the army left Tiguex some men who 
 went to take him a number of sheep that 
 were left for him to keep, met him as he was 
 on his way to visit some other villages, which 
 were 15 or 20 leagues from Cicuye, accom 
 panied by some followers. He felt very 
 hopeful that he was liked at the village and 
 that his teaching would bear fruit, although 
 he complained that the old men were falling 
 away from him. I, for my part, believe 
 126 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 that as he was a man of good and holy life, 
 Our Lord will protect him and give him 
 grace to convert many of those peoples, and 
 end his days in guiding them in the faith. 
 We do not need to believe otherwise, for 
 the people in those parts are pious and not 
 at all cruel. They are friends, or rather, 
 enemies of cruelty, and they remain faithful 
 and loyal friends. 1 
 
 1 Gen. W. W. H. Davis, in his Spanish Conquest 
 of New Mexico, p. 231, gives the following extract, 
 translated from an old Spanish MS. at Santa Fe : 
 " When Coronado returned to Mexico, he left behind 
 him, among the Indians of Cibola, the father fray 
 Francisco Juan de Padilla, the father fray Juan de 
 la Cruz, and a Portuguese named Andres del Cam- 
 po. Soon after the Spaniards departed, Padilla and 
 the Portuguese set off in search of the country of the 
 Grand Quivira, where the former understood there 
 were innumerable souls to be saved. After travel 
 ling several days, they reached a large settlement in 
 the Quivira country. The Indians came out to re 
 ceive them in battle array, when the friar, knowing 
 their intentions, told the Portuguese and his attend 
 ants to take to flight, while he would await their 
 coining, in order that they might vent their fury on 
 him as they ran. The former took to flight, and, 
 placing themselves on a height within view, saw 
 what happened to the friar. Padilla awaited their 
 coming upon his knees, and when they arrived 
 where he was they immediately put him to death. 
 The same happened to Juan de la Cruz, who was 
 left behind at Cibola, which people killed him. 
 The Portuguese and his attendants made their es 
 cape, and ultimately arrived safely in Mexico, where 
 he told what had occurred." In reply to a request 
 for further information regarding this manuscript, 
 General Davis stated that when he revisited Santa 
 Fe, a few years ago, he learned that one of his suc 
 cessors in the post of governor of the territory, hav 
 ing despaired of disposing of the immense mass of 
 old documents and records deposited in his office, 
 127 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 After the friars had gone, the general, fear 
 ing that they might be injured if people were 
 carried away from that country to New 
 Spain, ordered the soldiers to let any of the 
 natives who were held as servants go free to 
 their villages whenever they might wish. In 
 my opinion, though I am not sure, it would 
 have been better if they had been kept and 
 taught among Christians. 
 
 The general was very happy and contented 
 when the time arrived and everything needed 
 for the journey was ready, and the army 
 started from Tiguex on its way back to 
 Cibola. One thing of no small note hap 
 pened during this part of the trip. The 
 horses were in good condition for their work 
 when they started, fat and sleek, but more 
 than thirty died during the ten days which 
 it took to reach Cibola, and there was not a 
 day in which two or three or more did not 
 die. A large number of them also died 
 
 by the slow process of using them to kindle fires, 
 had sold the entire lot an invaluable collection of 
 material bearing on the history of the southwest and 
 its early European and native inhabitants as junk. 
 When the reports of these martyrdoms reached 
 New Spain, a number of Franciscans were fired with 
 the zeal of entering the country and carrying on the 
 work thus begun. Several received official permis 
 sion, and went to the pueblo country. One of them 
 was killed at Tiguex, where most of them settled. 
 A few went on to Cicuye or Pecos, where they 
 found a cross which Padilla had set up. Proceed 
 ing to Quivira, the natives there counselled them 
 not to proceed farther. The Indians gave them an 
 account of the death of Fray Padilla, and said that 
 if he had taken their advice he would not have been 
 killed. 
 
 128 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 afterward before reaching Culiacau, a thing 
 that did not happen during all the rest of 
 the journey. 
 
 After the army reached Cibola, it rested 
 before starting across the wilderness, because 
 this was the last of the settlements in that 
 country. The whole country was left well 
 disposed and at peace, and several of our In 
 dian allies remained there. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Of how the army left the settlements and marched 
 to Culiacan, and of what happened on the way. 
 
 LEAVING astern, as we might say, the set 
 tlements that had been discovered in the new 
 land, of which, as I have said, the seven vil 
 lages of Cibola were the first to be seen and 
 the last that were left, the army started off, 
 marching across the wilderness. The na 
 tives kept following the rear of the army for 
 two or three days, to pick up any baggage 
 or servants, for although they were still at 
 peace and had always been loyal friends, 
 when they saw that we were going to leave 
 the country entirely, they were glad to get 
 some of our people in their power, although 
 I do not think that they wanted to injure 
 them, from what I was told by some who 
 were not willing to go back with them when 
 they teased and asked them to. Altogether, 
 they carried off several people besides those 
 129 
 
THE JOURNEY OP CORONA DO 
 
 who had remained of their own accord, among 
 whom good interpreters could be found 
 today. 
 
 The wilderness was crossed without oppo 
 sition, and on the second da} 7 before reaching 
 Chichilticalli Juan Gallego met the arm} 7 , as 
 he was coming from New Spain with reen- 
 forcements of men and necessary supplies for 
 the army, expecting that he would find the 
 army in the country of the Indian called 
 Turk. When Juan Gallego saw that the 
 army was returning, the first thing he said 
 was not, "I am glad you are corning back," 
 and he did not like it any better after lie 
 had talked with the general. After he had 
 reached the army, or rather the quarters, 
 there was quite a little movement among 
 the gentlemen toward going back with the 
 new force which had made no slight exer 
 tions in coming thus far, having encounters 
 every day with the Indians of these regions 
 who had risen in revolt, as will be related. 
 There was talk of making a settlement some 
 where in that region until the viceroy could 
 receive an account of what had occurred. 
 Those soldiers who had come from the new 
 lands would not agree to anything except the 
 return to New Spain, so that nothing came 
 of the proposals made at the consultations, 
 and although there was some opposition, 
 they were finally quieted. Several of the 
 mutineers who had deserted the town of Co- 
 razones came with Juan Gallego, who had 
 given them his word as surety for their 
 130 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 safety, and even if the general had wanted 
 to punish them, his power was slight, for he 
 had been disobeyed already and was not 
 much respected. He began to be afraid 
 again after this, and made himself sick, and 
 kept a guard. 
 
 In several places yells were heard and 
 Indians seen, and some of the horses were 
 wounded and killed, before Batuco l was 
 reached, where the friendly Indians from 
 Corazones came to meet the army and see 
 the general. They were always friendly and 
 had treated all the Spaniards who passed 
 through their country well, furnishing them 
 with what food they needed, and men, if 
 they needed these. Our men had always 
 treated them well and repaid them for these 
 things. During this journey the juice of 
 the quince was proved to be a good protec 
 tion against the poison of the natives, be 
 cause at one place, several days before reach 
 ing Senora, the hostile Indians wounded a 
 Spaniard called Mesa, and he did not die, 
 although the wound of the fresh poison is 
 fatal, and there was a delay of over two 
 hours before curing him with the juice. 
 The poison, however, had left its mark upon 
 him. The skin rotted and fell off until it 
 left the bones and sinews bare, with a horri 
 ble smell. The wound was in the wrist, 
 
 1 There were two settlements in Sonora bearing 
 this name, one occupied by the Eudeve and the 
 other by the Tegui division of the Opata. The 
 former village is the one referred to by Castaneda. 
 131 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 and the poison had reached as far as the 
 shoulder when he was cured. The skin on 
 all this fell off. 
 
 The army proceeded without taking any 
 rest, because the provisions had begun to 
 fail by this time. These districts were in 
 rebellion, and so there were not any victuals 
 where the soldiers could get them until they 
 reached Petlatlan, although they made sev 
 eral forays into the cross country in search 
 of provisions. Petlatlan is in the province 
 of Culiacan, and on this account was at 
 peace, although they had several surprises 
 after this. The army rested here several 
 days to get provisions. After leaving here 
 they were able to travel more quickly than 
 before, for the 30 leagues of the valley of 
 Culiacan, where they were welcomed back 
 again as people who came with their gover 
 nor, who had suffered ill treatment. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Of how the general started from Culiacan to give 
 the viceroy an account of the army with which he 
 had been intrusted. 
 
 IT seemed, indeed, as if the arrival in the 
 valley of Culiacan had ended the labors of 
 this journey, partly because the general was 
 governor there and partly because it was in 
 habited by Christians. On this account 
 some began to disregard their superiors and 
 the authority which their captains had over 
 133 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 them, and some captains even forgot the 
 obedience due to their general. Each one 
 played his own game, so that while the 
 general was marching toward the town, which 
 was still 10 leagues away, many of the men, 
 or most of them, left him in order to rest in 
 the valley, and some even proposed not to 
 follow him. The general understood that 
 he was not strong enough to compel them, 
 although his position as governor gave him 
 fresh authority. He determined to accom 
 plish it by a better method, which was to 
 order all the captains to provide food and 
 meat from the stores of several villages that 
 were under his control as governor. He 
 pretended to be sick, keeping his bed, so 
 that those who had any business with him 
 could speak to him or he with them more 
 freely, without hindrance or observation, and 
 he kept sending for his particular friends in 
 order to ask them to be sure to speak to the 
 soldiers and encourage them to accompany 
 him back to New Spain, and to tell them 
 that he would request the viceroy, Don An 
 tonio de Mendoza, to show them especial 
 favor, and that he would do so himself for 
 those who might wish to remain in his gov 
 ernment. After this had been done, he 
 started with his army at a very bad time, 
 when the rains were beginning, for it was 
 about Saint John s day, at which season it 
 rains continuously. 
 
 In the uninhabited country which they 
 passed through as far as Compostela there 
 133 
 
THE JOURNEY OF COKONADO 
 
 are numerous very dangerous rivers, full of 
 large and fierce alligators. While the army 
 was halting at one of these rivers, a soldier 
 who was crossing from one side to the other 
 was seized, in sight of everybody, and car 
 ried off by an alligator without it being pos 
 sible to help him. The general proceeded, 
 leaving the men who did not want to follow 
 him all along the way, and reached Mexico 
 with less than 100 men. He made his re 
 port to the viceroy, Don Antonio de Men- 
 doza, who did not receive him very gra 
 ciously, although he gave him his discharge. 
 His reputation was gone from, this time on. 
 He kept the government of New Galicia, 
 which had been entrusted to him, for only a 
 short time, when the viceroy took it himself, 
 until the arrival of the court, or audiencia, 
 which still governs it. And this was the 
 end of those discoveries and of the expedi 
 tion which was made to these new lands. 
 
 It now remains for us to describe the way 
 in which to enter the country by a more 
 direct route, although there is never a short 
 cut without hard work. It is always best 
 to find out what those know who have pre 
 pared the way, who know what will be 
 needed. This can be found elsewhere, and 
 I will now tell where Quivira lies, what di 
 rection the army took, and the direction in 
 which Greater India lies, which was what 
 they pretended to be in search of, when the 
 army started thither. Today, since Villalo- 
 bos has discovered that this part of the coast 
 134 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 of the South sea trends toward the west, it 
 is clearly seen and acknowledged that, since 
 we were in the north, we ought to have 
 turned to the west instead of toward the 
 east, as we did. With this, we will leave 
 this subject and will proceed to finish this 
 treatise, since there are several noteworthy 
 things of which I must give an account, 
 which I have left to be treated more exten 
 sively in the two following chapters. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Of the adventures of Captain Juan Gallcgo while 
 he was bringing reenforcements through the revolted 
 country. 
 
 ONE might well have complained when 
 in the last chapter I passed in silence over 
 the exploits of Captain Juan Gallego with 
 his 20 companions. I will relate them in 
 the present chapter, so that in times to come 
 those who read about it or tell of it may 
 have a reliable authority on whom to rely. 
 I am not writing fables, like some of the 
 things which we read about nowadays in the 
 books of chivalry. If it were not that those 
 stories contained enchantments, there are 
 some things which our Spaniards have done 
 in our own day in these parts, in their con 
 quests and encounters with the Indians, 
 which, for deeds worthy of admiration, sur 
 pass not only the books already mentioned, 
 but also those which have been written 
 135 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 about the twelve peers of France, because, if 
 the deadly strength which the authors of 
 those times attributed to their heroes and 
 the brilliant and resplendent arms with 
 which they adorned them, are fully consid 
 ered, and compared with the small stature 
 of the men of our time and the few and poor 
 weapons which they have in these parts, 1 
 the remarkable things which our people have 
 undertaken and accomplished with such 
 weapons are more to be wondered at today 
 than those of which the ancients write, and 
 just because, too, they fought with barbar 
 ous naked people, as ours have with Indians, 
 among whom there are always men who are 
 brave and valiant and very sure bowmen, 
 for we have seen them pierce the wings while 
 flying, and hit hares while running after 
 them. I have said all this in order to show 
 that some things which we consider fables 
 may be true, because we see greater things 
 every day in our own times, just as in future 
 times people will greatly wonder at the deeds 
 of Don Fernando Cortez, who dared to go 
 into the midst of New Spain with 300 men 
 against the vast number of people in Mexico, 
 and who with 500 Spaniards succeeded in 
 subduing it, and made himself lord over it 
 in two years. 
 
 The deeds of Don Pedro de Alvarado in 
 
 1 The letters of Memloza during the early part of 
 his administration in Mexico repeatedly call atten 
 tion to the lack of arms and ammunition among the 
 Spaniards in the New World. 
 136 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 the conquest of Guatemala, and those of 
 Monte jo in Tabasco, the conquests of the 
 mainland and of Peru, were all such as to 
 make me remain silent concerning what I 
 now wish to relate ; but since I have prom 
 ised to give an account of what happened 
 on this journey, I want the things I am now 
 going to relate to be known as well as those 
 others of which I have spoken. 
 
 The captain Juan Gallego, then, reached 
 the town of Culiacan with a very small force. 
 There he collected as many as he could of 
 those who had escaped from the town of 
 Hearts, or, more correctly, from Suya, which 
 made in all 22 men, and with these he 
 marched through all of the settled country, 
 across which he traveled 200 leagues with 
 the country in a state of war and the people 
 in rebellion, although they had formerly been 
 friendly toward the Spaniards, having en 
 counters with the enemy almost every day. 
 He always marched with the advance guard, 
 leaving two-thirds of his force behind with 
 the baggage. With six or seven Spaniards, 
 and without any of the Indian allies whom 
 he had with him, he forced his way into 
 their villages, killing and destroying and 
 setting them on fire, coming upon the enemy 
 so suddenly and with such quickness and 
 boldness that they did not have a chance to 
 collect or even to do anything at all, until 
 they became so afraid of him that there was 
 not a town which dared wait for him, but 
 they fled before him as from a powerful 
 137 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 army; so much so, that for ten days, while 
 he was passing through the settlements, they 
 did not have an hour s rest. 
 
 He did all this with his seven compan 
 ions, so that when the rest of the force came 
 ap with the baggage there was nothing for 
 f hem to do except to pillage, since the others 
 had already killed and captured all the peo 
 ple they could lay their hands on and the 
 rest had fled. They did not pause any 
 where, so that although the villages ahead 
 of him received some warning, they were 
 upon them so quickly that they did not have 
 a chance to collect. Especially in the region 
 where the town of Hearts had been, he killed 
 and hung a large number of people to pun 
 ish them for their rebellion. He did not 
 lose a companion during all this, nor was 
 anyone wounded, except one soldier, who 
 was wounded in the eyelid by an Indian 
 who was almost dead, whom he was strip 
 ping. The weapon broke the skin and, as it 
 was poisoned, he would have had to die if he 
 had not been saved by the quince juice ; he 
 lost his eye as it was. 
 
 These deeds of theirs were such that I 
 know those people will remember them as 
 long as they live, and especially four or five 
 friendly Indians who went with them from 
 Corazones, who thought that they were so 
 wonderful that they held them to be some 
 thing divine rather than human. If he had 
 not fallen in with our army as he did, they 
 would have reached the country of the In- 
 
 138 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 dian called Turk, which they expected to 
 march to, and they would have arrived there 
 without danger on account of their good 
 order and the skill with which he was lead 
 ing them, and their knowledge and ample 
 practice in war. Several of these men are 
 still in this town of Culiacan, where I am 
 now writing this account and narrative, 
 where they, as well as I and the others who 
 have remained in this province, have never 
 lacked for labor in keeping this country 
 quiet, in capturing rebels, and increasing in 
 poverty and need, and more than ever at the 
 present hour, because the country is poorer 
 and more in debt than ever before. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Which describes some remarkable things that were 
 seen on the plains, with a description of the bulls. 
 
 MY silence was not without mystery and 
 dissimulation when, in chapter 7 of the 
 second part of this book, I spoke of the 
 plains and of the things of which I will give 
 a detailed account in this chapter, where all 
 these things may be found together; for 
 these things were remarkable and something 
 not seen in other parts. I dare to write of 
 them because I am writing at a time when 
 many men are still living who saw them 
 and who will vouch for my account. Who 
 could believe that 1,000 horses and 500 of 
 our cows and more than 5,000 rams and 
 139 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 ewes and more than 1,500 friendly Indians 
 and servants, in traveling over those plains, 
 would leave no more trace where they had 
 passed than if nothing had been there 
 nothing so that it was necessary to make 
 piles of bones and cow jlung now and then, 
 so that the rear guard could follow the army. 
 The grass never failed to become erect after 
 it had been trodden down, and, although it 
 was short, it was as fresh and straight as be 
 fore. 
 
 Another thing was a heap of cow bones, 
 a crossbow shot long, or a very little less, 
 almost twice a man s height in places, and 
 some 18 feet or more wide, which was found 
 on the edge of a salt lake in the southern 
 part, and this in a region where there are no 
 people who could have made it. The only 
 explanation of this which could be suggested 
 was that the waves which the north winds 
 must make in the lake had piled up the 
 bones of the cattle which had died in the 
 lake, when the old and weak ones who went 
 into the water were unable to get out. The 
 noticeable thing is the number of cattle that 
 would be necessary to make such a pile of 
 bones. 
 
 Now that I wish to describe the appear 
 ance of the bulls, it is to be noticed first that 
 there was not one of the horses that did not 
 take flight when he saw them first, for they 
 have a narrow, short -face, the brow two 
 palms across from eye to eye, the eyes stick 
 ing out at the side, so that, when they are 
 140 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 running, they can see who is following them. 
 They have very long beards, like goats, and 
 when they are running they throw their 
 heads back with the beard dragging on the 
 ground. There is a sort of girdle round the 
 middle of the body. The hair is very woolly, 
 like a sheep s, very fine, and in front of the 
 girdle the hair is very long and rough like a 
 lion s. They have a great hump, larger than 
 a camel s. The horns are short and thick, 
 so that they are not seen much above the 
 hair. In May they change the hair in the 
 middle of the body for a down, which makes 
 perfect lions of them. They rub against the 
 small trees in the little ravines to shed their 
 hair, and they continue this until only the 
 down is left, as a snake changes his skin. 
 They have a short tail, with a bunch of hair 
 at the end. When they run, they carry it 
 erect like a scorpion. It is worth noticing 
 that the little calves are red and just like 
 ours, but they change their color and appear 
 ance with time and age. 
 
 Another strange thing was that all the 
 bulls that were killed had their left ears slit, 
 although these were whole when young. 
 The reason for this was a puzzle that could 
 not be guessed. The wool ought to make 
 good cloth on account of its fineness, al 
 though the color is not good, because it is 
 the color of buriel. 1 
 
 1 The kersey, or coarse woollen cloth, out of which 
 the habits of the Franciscan friars were made. 
 Hence the name, grey friars. 
 141 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 Another thing worth noticing is that the 
 bulls traveled without cows in such large 
 numbers that nobody could have counted 
 them, and so far away from the cows that it 
 was more than 40 leagues from where we 
 began to see the bulls to the place where we 
 began to see the cows. The country they 
 traveled over was so level and smooth that 
 if one looked at them the sky could be seen 
 between their legs, so that if some of them 
 were at a distance they looked like smooth- 
 trunked pines whose tops joined, and if there 
 was only one bull it looked as if there were 
 four pines. When one was near them, it 
 was impossible to see the ground on the 
 other side of them. The reason for all this 
 was that the country seemed as round as if a 
 man should imagine himself in a three-pint 
 measure, and could see the sky at the edge 
 of it, about a crossbow shot from him, and 
 even if a man only lay down on his back he 
 lost sight of the ground. 1 
 
 I have not written about other things 
 which were seen nor made any mention of 
 them, because they were not of so much 
 importance, although it does not seem right 
 for me to remain silent concerning the fact 
 that they venerate the sign of the cross in 
 the region where the settlements have high 
 houses. For at a spring which was in the 
 plain near Acuco they had a cross two palms 
 
 1 The earliest description of the American buffalo 
 by a European is in Cabeza de Vaca s Naufragios, 
 fol. xxvii., verso (ed. 1555). 
 142 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 high and as thick as a finger, made of wood 
 with a square twig for its crosspiece, and 
 many little sticks decorated with feathers 
 around it, and numerous withered flowers, 
 which were the offerings. 1 In a graveyard 
 outside the village at Tutahaco there ap 
 peared to have been a recent burial. Near 
 the head there was another cross made of 
 two little sticks tied with cotton thread, and 
 dry withered flowers. It certainly seems to 
 me that in some way they must have re 
 ceived some light from the cross of Our 
 Redeemer, Christ, and it may have come by 
 way of India, from whence they proceeded. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Which treats of the direction which the army 
 took, and of how another more direct way might be 
 found, if anyone was to return to that country. 
 
 I VERY much wish that I possessed some 
 knowledge of cosmography or geography, so 
 as to render what I wish to say intelligible, 
 and so that I could reckon up or measure 
 the advantage those people who might go in 
 search of that country would have if they 
 went directly through the center of the 
 
 1 Scattered through the papers of Dr. J. Walter 
 Fewkes on the Zuiii and Tusayan Indians will be 
 found many descriptions of the pahos or prayer 
 sticks and other forms used as offerings at the 
 shrines, together with exact accounts of the manner 
 of making the offerings. 
 
 143 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 country, instead of following the road the 
 army took. However, with the help of 
 the favor of the Lord, I will state it as 
 well as I can, making it as plain as pos 
 sible. 
 
 It is, I think, already understood that the 
 Portuguese, Campo, was the soldier who 
 escaped when Friar Juan de Padilla was 
 killed at Quivira, and that he finally reached 
 New Spain from Panuco, 1 having traveled 
 across the plains country until he came to 
 cross the North Sea mountain chain, keep 
 ing the country that Don Hernando de Soto 
 discovered all the time on his left hand, 
 since he did not see the river of the Holy 
 Spirit (Espiritu Santo) at all. 2 After he had 
 crossed the North Sea mountains, he found 
 that he was in Panuco, so that if he had not 
 tried to go to the North sea, he would have 
 come out in the neighborhood of the border 
 
 1 The northeastern province of New Spain. 
 
 2 The conception of the great inland plain stretch 
 ing between the great lakes at the head of the (St. 
 Lawrence and the Gulf of Mexico came to cos- 
 mographers very slowly. Almost all of the early 
 maps show a disposition to carry the mountains 
 which follow the Atlantic coast along the gulf coast 
 as far as Texas, a result, doubtless, of the fact that 
 all the expeditious which started inland from Flori 
 da found mountains. Coroffado s journey to Qui- 
 vira added but little to the detailed geographical 
 knowledge of America. The name reached Europe, 
 audit is found on the maps, along the fortieth paral 
 lel, almost everywhere from the Pacific coast to the 
 neighborhood of a western tributary to the St. Law 
 rence system. See the maps reproduced herein. 
 Castaneda could have aided them considerably, but 
 the map makers did not know of his book. 
 
 144 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 land, or the country of the Sacatecas, 1 of 
 which we now have some knowledge. 
 
 This way would be somewhat better and 
 more direct for anyone going back there in 
 search of Quivira, since some of those who 
 came with the Portuguese are still in New 
 Spain to serve as guides. Nevertheless, I 
 think it would be best to go through the 
 country of the Guachichules, keeping near 
 the South Sea mountains all the time, for 
 there are more settlements and a food supply, 
 for it would be suicide to launch out on to 
 the plains country, because it is so vast and 
 is barren of anything to eat, although, it is 
 true, there would not be much need of this 
 after coming to the cows. 
 
 This is only when one goes in search of 
 Quivira, and of the villages which were 
 described by the Indian called Turk, for the 
 army of Francisco Vazquez Coronado went 
 the very farthest way round to get there, 
 since they started from Mexico and went 
 110 leagues to the west, and then 100 
 leagues to the northeast, and 250 to the 
 north, and all this brought them as far as 
 the ravines where the cows were, and after 
 traveling 850 leagues they were not more 
 
 1 Captain John Stevens Dictionary says that this 
 is " a northern province of North America, rich in sil 
 ver mines, but ill provided with water, grain, and 
 other substances ; yet by reason of the mines there 
 are seven or eight Spanish towns iu it." Zacatecas 
 is now one of the central states of the Mexican con 
 federation, being south of Coahuila and southeast 
 of Durango. 
 
 145 
 
THE JOURNEY OF COHONADO 
 
 than 400 leagues distant from Mexico by a 
 direct route. If one desires to go to the 
 country of Tiguex, so as to turn from there 
 toward the west in search of the country of 
 India, he ought to follow the road taken by 
 the army, for there is no other, even if one 
 wished to go by a different way, because the 
 arm of the sea which reaches into this coast 
 toward the north does not leave room for 
 any. But what might be done is to have 
 a fleet and cross this gulf and disem 
 bark in the neighborhood of the Island of 
 Negroes * and enter the country from there, 
 crossing the mountain chains in search of 
 the country from which the people at 
 Tiguex came, or other peoples of the same 
 sort. 
 
 As for entering from the country of Florida 
 and from the North sea, it has already been 
 observed that the many expeditions which 
 have been undertaken from that side have 
 been unfortunate and not very successful, 
 because that part of the country is full of 
 bogs and poisonous fruits, barren, and the 
 very worst country that is warmed by the 
 sun. But they might disembark after pass 
 ing the river of the Holy Spirit, as Don Her- 
 nando de Soto did. Nevertheless, despite 
 the fact that I underwent much labor, I still 
 think that the way I went to that country 
 
 1 Apparently the location of this island gradually 
 drifted westward with the increase of geographical 
 knowledge, until it was finally located in the Philip 
 pine group. 
 
 146 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 is the best. There ought to be river courses, 
 because the necessary supplies can be carried 
 on these more easily in large quantities. 
 Horses are the most necessary things in the 
 new countries, and they frighten the enemy 
 most. . . . Artillery is also much feared by 
 those who do not know how to use it. A 
 piece of heavy artillery would be very good 
 for settlements like those which Francisco 
 Vazquez Coronado discovered, in order to 
 knock them down, because he had nothing 
 but some small machines for slinging and 
 nobody skillful enough to make a catapult. or 
 some other machine which would frighten 
 them, which is very necessary. 
 
 I say, then, that with what we now know 
 about the trend of the coast of the South sea, 
 which has been followed by the ships which 
 explored the western part, and what is known 
 of the North sea toward Norway, the coast 
 of which extends up from Florida, those 
 who now go to discover the country which 
 Francisco Vazquez entered, and reach the 
 country of Cibola or of Tiguex, will know 
 the direction in which they ought to go in 
 order to discover the true direction of the 
 country which the Marquis of the Valley, 
 Don Hernando Cortes, tried to find, follow 
 ing the direction of the gulf of the Firebrand 
 (Tizon) river. This will suffice for the con 
 clusion of our narrative. Everything else 
 rests on the powerful Lord of all things, 
 God Omnipotent, who knows how and 
 when these lands will be discovered and 
 147 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 for whom He has guarded this good for 
 tune. 
 
 Laus Deo. 
 
 Finished copying, Saturday the 26th of 
 October, 1596, in Seville. 
 
 148 
 
TEANSLATION OF THE LETTER 
 FEOM MENDOZA TO THE KING, 
 APEIL 17, 1540. 1 
 
 S. C. C. M. : 
 
 I wrote to Your Majesty from Compostela 
 the last of February, giving you an account 
 of my arrival there and of the departure of 
 Francisco Vazquez with the force which I 
 sent to pacify and settle in the newly dis 
 covered country, and of how the warden, 
 Lope de Samaniego, was going as army mas 
 ter, both because he was a responsible person 
 and a very good Christian, and because he 
 has had experience in matters of this sort; 
 as Your Majesty had desired to know. And 
 the news which I have received since then 
 is to the effect that after they had passed the 
 uninhabited region of Culuacan and were 
 approaching Chiametla, the warden went off 
 with some horsemen to find provisions, and 
 one of the soldiers who was with him, who 
 had strayed from the force, called out that 
 they were killing him. The warden has 
 tened to his assistance, and they wounded 
 him in the eve with an arrow, from which 
 
 1 From the Spanish text in Pacheco y Cardenas, 
 Documentos de Indias, vol. ii., p. 356. The letter 
 mentioned in the opening sentence is not known to 
 exist. 
 
 149 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 he died. In regard to the fortress, 1 besides 
 the fact that it is badly built and going to 
 pieces, it seems to me that the cost of it is 
 excessive, and that Your Majesty could do 
 without the most of it, because there is one 
 man who takes charge of the munitions and 
 artillery, and an armorer to repair it, and a 
 gunner, and as this is the way it was under 
 the audiencia, before the fortresses were 
 made conformable to what I have written 
 to Your Majesty, we can get along without 
 the rest, because that fortress was built on 
 account of the brigantines, and not for any 
 other purpose. 2 And as the lagoon is so dry 
 that it can do no good in this way for the 
 present, I think that, for this reason, the cost 
 is superfluous. I believe that it will have 
 fallen in before a reply can come from Your 
 Majesty. 
 
 Some, days ago I wrote to Your Majesty 
 that I had ordered Melchior Diaz, who was 
 in the town of San Miguel de Culuacan, to 
 take some horsemen and see if the account 
 given by the father, Friar Marcos, agreed 
 with what he could discover. He set out 
 from Culuacan with fifteen horsemen, the 
 17th of November last. The 20th of this 
 present March I received a letter from him, 
 which he sent me by Juan de Zaldyvar and 
 
 1 Presumably the fortress of which Samaniego was 
 warden. 
 
 2 Buckingham Smith s Florida gives many docu 
 ments relating to the damage done by French brig 
 antines to the Spanish West Indies during 1540-41. 
 
 150 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 three other horsemen. In this he says that 
 after he left Culuacan and crossed the river 
 of Petatlan he was everywhere very well re 
 ceived by the Indians. The way he did was 
 to send a cross to the place where he was 
 going to stop, because this was a sign which 
 the Indians received with deep veneration, 
 making a house out of mats in which to place 
 it, and somewhat away from this they made 
 a lodging for the Spaniards, and drove stakes 
 where they could tie the horses, and supplied 
 fodder for them, and abundance of corn 
 wherever they had it. They say that they 
 suffered from hunger in many places, because 
 it had been a bad year. After going 100 
 leagues from Culuacan, he began to find the 
 country cold, with severe frosts, and the 
 farther he went on the colder it became, until 
 he reached a point where some Indians whom 
 he had with him were frozen, and two Span 
 iards were in great danger. Seeing this, he 
 decided not to go any farther until the win 
 ter was over, and to send back, by those whom 
 I mentioned, an account of what he had 
 learned concerning Cibola and the country 
 beyond, which is as follows, taken literally 
 from his letter : 
 
 "I have given Your Lordship an account 
 of what happened to me along the way ; and 
 seeing that it is impossible to cross the un 
 inhabited region which stretches from here 
 to Cibola, on account of the heavy snows 
 and the cold, I will give Your Lordship an 
 account of what I have learned about Cibola, 
 151 
 
THE JOURNEY OF COHONADO 
 
 which I have ascertained by asking many 
 persons who have been there fifteen and 
 twenty years; and I have secured this in 
 many different ways, taking some Indians 
 together and others separately, and on com 
 parison they all seem to agree in what they 
 say. After crossing this large wilderness, 
 there are seven places, being a short day s 
 march from one to another, all uf which are 
 together called Cibola. The houses are of 
 stone and mud, coarsely worked. They are 
 made in this way : One large wall, and at 
 each end of this wall some rooms are built, 
 partitioned off 20 feet square, according to 
 the description they give, which are planked 
 with square beams. Most of the houses are 
 reached from the flat roofs, using their lad 
 ders to go to the streets. The houses have 
 three and four stories. They declare that 
 there are few having two stories. The stories 
 are mostly half as high again as a man, ex 
 cept the first one, which is low, and only a 
 little more than a man s height. One lad 
 der is used to communicate with ten or twelve 
 houses together. They make use of the low 
 ones and live in the highest ones. In the 
 lowest ones of all they have some loopholes 
 made sideways, as in the fortresses of Spain. 
 The Indians say that when these people are 
 attacked, they station themselves in their 
 houses and fight from there ; and that when 
 they go to make war, they carry shields and 
 wear leather jackets, which are made of 
 cows hide, colored, and that they fight with 
 152 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONA DO 
 
 arrows and with a sort of stone maul and 
 with some other weapons made of sticks, 
 which I have not been able to make out. 
 They eat human flesh, and they keep those 
 whom they capture in war as slaves. There 
 are many fowls in the country, tame. They 
 have much corn and beans and melons 
 [squashes]. In their houses they keep some 
 hairy animals, like the large Spanish hounds, 
 which they shear, and they make long col 
 ored wigs from the hair, like this one which 
 I send to Your Lordship, which they wear, 
 and they also put this same stuff in the cloth 
 which they make. 1 The men are of small 
 stature [plate LXII] ; the women are light 
 colored and of good appearance, and they 
 wear shirts or chemises which reach down 
 to their feet. They wear their hair on each 
 side done up in a sort of twist [plate LXIII], 
 which leaves the ears outside, in which they 
 hang many turquoises, as well as on their 
 necks and on the wrists of their arms. The 
 clothing of the men is a cloak, and over this 
 the skin of a cow, like the one which Cabeza 
 de Vaca and Dorantes brought, which Your 
 Lordship saw; they wear caps 2 on their 
 heads ; in summer they wear shoes made of 
 
 1 In his paper on the Human Bones of the Hemen- 
 way Collection (Memoirs of the National Academy 
 of Sciences, vi., p. 156 etseq.), Dr. Washington Mat 
 thews discusses the possible former existence of a 
 variety of the llama in certain parts of the south 
 west. 
 
 2 The headbands are doubtless here referred to. 
 
 153 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 painted or colored skin, and high buskins in 
 winter. 
 
 "They were also unable to tell me of any 
 metal, nor did they say that they had it. 
 They have turquoises in quantity, although 
 not so many as the father provincial said. 
 They have some little stone crystals, like 
 this which I send to Your Lordship, of which 
 Your Lordship has seen many here in New 
 Spain. They cultivate the ground in the 
 same way as in New Spain. They carry 
 things on their heads, as in Mexico. The 
 men weave cloth and spin cotton. They 
 have salt from a marshy lake, which is two 
 days from the province of Cibola. 1 The 
 Indians have their dances and songs, with 
 some flutes which have holes on which to 
 put the fingers. They make much noise. 
 They sing in unison with those who play, 
 and those who sing clap their hands in our 
 fashion. One of the Indians that accom 
 panied the negro Esteban, who had been a 
 captive there, saw the playing as they prac 
 ticed it, and others singing as I have said, 
 although not very vigorously. They say 
 that five or six play together, and that some 
 of the flutes are better than others. 2 They 
 say the country is good for corn and beans, 
 and that they do not have any fruit trees, 
 
 1 The same salt lake from which the Zunis obtain 
 their salt supply to-day. 
 
 2 Compare with this hearsay description of some 
 thing almost unknown to the Spaniards, the thor 
 oughly scientific descriptions of the Hopi dances and 
 ceremonials recorded by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes. 
 
 154 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 nor do they know what such a thing is. 1 
 They have very good mountains. The 
 country lacks water. They do not raise cot 
 ton, but bring it from Totonteac. 2 They eat 
 out of flat bowls, like the Mexicans. They 
 raise considerable corn and beans and other 
 similar things. They do not know what sea 
 fish is, nor have they ever heard of it. I 
 have not obtained any information about the 
 cows, except that these are found beyond the 
 province of Cibola. There is a great abun 
 dance of wild goats, of the color of bay horses ; 
 there are many of these here where I am, 
 and although I have asked the Indians if 
 those are like these, they tell me no. Of 
 the seven settlements, they describe three of 
 them as very large ; four not so big. They 
 describe them, as I understand, to be about 
 three crossbow shots square for each place, 
 and from what the Indians say, and their 
 descriptions of the houses and their size, and 
 
 1 The peaches, watermelons, cantaloupes, and 
 grapes, now so extensively cultivated by the Pue 
 blos, were introduced early in the seventeenth cen 
 tury by the Spanish missionaries. 
 
 2 At first glance it seems somewhat strange that 
 although Zuni is considerably more than 100 miles 
 south of Totonteac, or Tusayan, the people of the 
 former villages did not cultivate cotton, but in this 
 I am reminded by Mr. Hodge that part of the Tu 
 sayan people are undoubtedly of southern origin 
 and that in all probability they introduced cotton 
 into that group of villages. The Pimas raised 
 cotton as late as 1850. None of the Pueblos now 
 cultivate the plant, the introduction of cheap fab 
 rics by traders having doubtless brought the indus 
 try to an end. 
 
 155 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 as these are close together, and considering 
 that there are people in each house, it ought 
 to make a large multitude. Totonteac is 
 declared to be seven short days from the 
 province of Cibola, and of the same sort of 
 houses and people, and they say that cotton 
 grows there. I doubt this, because they 
 tell me that it is a cold country. They say 
 that there are twelve villages, every one of 
 which is larger than the largest at Cibola. 
 They also tell me that there is a village which 
 is one day from Cibola, and that the two are 
 at war. 1 They have the same sort of houses 
 and people and customs. They declare this 
 to be greater than any of those described ; I 
 take it that there is a great multitude of 
 people there. They are very well known, 
 on account of having these houses and abun 
 dance of food and turquoises. I have not 
 been able to learn more than what I have 
 related, although, as I have said, I have had 
 with me Indians who have lived there fifteen 
 and twenty years. 
 
 "The death of Esteban the negro took 
 place in the way the father, Friar Marcos, 
 described it to your lordship, and so I do 
 not make a report of it here, except that the 
 people at Cibola sent word to those of this 
 village and in its neighborhood that if any 
 
 1 Doubtless the pueblo of Marata (Makyata) men 
 tioned by Marcos de Niza. This village was situ 
 ated near the salt lake and had been destroyed by 
 the Zunis some years before Niza visited New Mexi 
 co. 
 
 156 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 Christians should come, they ought not to 
 consider them as anything peculiar, and 
 ought to kill them, because they were mortal 
 saying that they had learned this because 
 they kept the bones of the one who had 
 come there ; and that, if they did not dare to 
 do this, they should send word so that those 
 (at Cibola) could come and do it. I can 
 very easily believe that all this has taken 
 place, and that there has been some commu 
 nication between these places, because of the 
 coolness with which they received us and 
 the sour faces they have shown us." 
 
 Melchior Diaz says that the people whom 
 he found along the way do not have any set 
 tlements at all, except in one valley which 
 is 150 leagues from Culuacan, which is well 
 settled and has houses with lofts, and that 
 there are many people along the way, but 
 that they are not good for anything except 
 to make them Christians, as if this was of 
 small account. May Your Majesty remem 
 ber to provide for the service of God, and 
 keep in mind the deaths and the loss of life 
 and of provinces which has taken place in 
 these Indies. And, moreover, up to this 
 present day none of the thin gs Your Majesty 
 has commanded, which have been very holy 
 and good, have been attended to, nor priests 
 provided, either for that country or for this. 
 For I assure Your Majesty that there is no 
 trace of Christianity where they have not 
 yet arrived, neither little nor much, and 
 that the poor people are ready to receive the 
 157 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 priests and come to them even when they 
 flee from us like deer in the mountains. 
 And I state this because I am an eyewitness, 
 and I have seen it clearly during this trip. 
 1 have importuned Your Majesty for friars, 
 and yet again I can not cease doing it murli 
 more, because unless this be done I can not 
 accomplish that which I am bound to do. 
 
 After I reach Mexico, 1 will give Your 
 Majesty an account of everything concern 
 ing these provinces, for while I should like 
 to do it today, I can not, because I am very 
 weak from a slow fever which 1 caught in 
 Colima, which attacked me very severely, 
 although it did not last more than six days. 
 It has pleased Our Lord to make me well 
 already, and I have traveled here to Jacona, 
 where I am. 
 
 May Our Lord protect the Holy Catholic 
 Csesarian person of Your Majesty and ag 
 grandize it with increase of better kingdoms 
 and lordships, as we your servants desire. 
 
 From Jacoua, April 17, 1540. 
 
 S. C. C. M. 
 
 Your Holy Majesty s humble servant, who 
 salutes your royal feet and hands, 
 
 D. ANTONIO DE MENDOZA. 
 
 158 
 
TRANSLATION OF THE LETTER 
 FROM CORONADO TO MEKDOZA, 
 AUGUST 3, 1540 
 
 THE ACCOUNT GIVEN BY FRANCISCO VAZQUEZ 
 DE CORONADO, CAPTAIN-GENERAL OF THE 
 FORCE WHICH WAS SENT IN THE NAME 
 OF His MAJESTY TO THE NEWLY DIS 
 COVERED COUNTRY, OF WHAT HAPPENED 
 TO THE EXPEDITION AFTER APRIL 22 OF 
 THE YEAR MDXL, WHEN HE STARTED 
 FORWARD FROM CULIACAN, AND OF WHAT 
 HE FOUND IN THE COUNTRY THROUGH 
 WHICH HE PASSED. 
 
 I 
 
 Francisco Vazquez starts from Culiacan with his 
 army, and after suffering various inconveniences on 
 account of the badness of the way, reaches the Val 
 ley of Hearts, where he failed to find any corn, to 
 procure which he sends to the valley called Senora. 
 He receives an account of the important Valley of 
 Hearts and of the people there, and of some lands 
 lying along that coast. 
 
 ON the 22d of the month of April last, I 
 set out from the province of Culiacan with 
 a part of the army, having made the arrange - 
 
 1 Translated from the Italian version, in Ramusio s 
 Viaggi, vol. iii., fol. 359 (ed. 1556). There is another 
 English translation in Hakluyt s Voyages, vol. iii., 
 p. 373 (ed. 1600). Hakluyt s translation is reprinted 
 in Old South Leaflet, general series, No. 20. The 
 proper names, excepting such as are properly trans 
 lated, are spelled as in the Italian text. 
 159 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 ments of which I wrote to Your Lordship. 
 Judging by the outcome, I feel sure that 
 it was fortunate that I did not start the 
 whole of the army on this undertaking, be 
 cause the labors have been so very great and 
 the lack of food such that I do not believe 
 this undertaking could have been completed 
 before the end of this year, and that there 
 would be a great loss of life if it should be 
 accomplished. For, as I wrote to Your 
 Lordship, I spent eighty days in traveling to 
 Culiacan, 1 during which time I and the gen 
 tlemen of my company, who were horsemen, 
 carried on our backs and on our horses a lit 
 tle food, in such wise that after leaving this 
 place none of us carried any necessary effects 
 weighing more than a pound. For all this, 
 and although we took all possible care and 
 forethought of the small supply of provisions 
 which we carried, it gave out. And this is 
 not to be wondered at, because the road is 
 rough and long, and what with our harque 
 buses, which had to be carried up the moun 
 tains and hills and in the passage of the 
 rivers, the greater part of the corn was lost. 
 And since I send Your Lordship a drawing 
 of this route, I will say no more about it 
 here. 
 
 1 This statement is probably not correct. It may 
 be due to a blunder by Ramusio in translating from 
 the original text. Eighty days would be nearly the 
 time which Coronado probably spent on the journey 
 from Culiacan to Cibola, and this interpretation 
 would render the rest of the sentence much more in 
 telligible. 
 
 160 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 Thirty leagues before reaching the place 
 which the father provincial spoke so well of 
 in his report, 1 I sent Melchior Diaz forward 
 with fifteen horsemen, ordering him to make 
 but one day s journey out of two, so that 
 he could examine everything there before I 
 arrived. He traveled through some very 
 rough mountains for four days, and did not 
 find anything to live on, nor people, nor in 
 formation about anything, except that he 
 found two or three poor villages, with twenty 
 or thirty huts apiece. From the people 
 here he learned that there was nothing to be 
 found in the country beyond except the 
 mountains, which continued very rough, en 
 tirely uninhabited by people. And, because 
 this was labor lost, I did not want to send 
 Your Lordship an account of it. The whole 
 company felt disturbed at this, that a thing 
 so much praised, and about which the father 
 had said so many things, should be found 
 so very different; and they began to think 
 that all the rest would be of the same sort. 
 
 When I noticed this, I tried to encourage 
 them as well as I could, telling them that 
 Your Lordship had always thought that this 
 part of the trip would be a waste of effort, 
 and that we ought to devote our attention to 
 those Seven Cities and the other provinces 
 about which we had information that these 
 should be the end of our enterprise. With 
 this resolution and purpose, we all marched 
 
 1 The valley into which Friar Marcos did not dare 
 to enter 
 
 161 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 cheerfully along a very bad way, where it 
 was impossible to pass without making a 
 new road or repairing the one that was there, 
 which troubled the soldiers not a little, con 
 sidering that everything which the friar had 
 said was found to be quite the reverse ; be 
 cause, among other things which the father 
 had said and declared, he said that the way 
 would be plain and good, and that there 
 would be only one small hill of about half a 
 league. And the truth is, that there are 
 mountains where, however well the path 
 might be fixed, they could not be crossed 
 without there being great danger of the 
 horses falling over them. And it was so 
 bad that a large number of the animals 
 which Your Lordship sent as provision for 
 the army were lost along this part of the 
 way, on account of the roughness of the 
 rocks. The lambs and wethers lost their 
 hoofs along the way, and I left the greater 
 part of those which I brought from Culiacan 
 at the river of Lachirni, 1 because they were 
 unable to travel, and so that they might pro 
 ceed more slowly. 
 
 Four horsemen remained with them, who 
 have just arrived. They have not brought 
 more than 24 lambs and 4 wethers; the rest 
 died from the toil, although they did not 
 travel more than two leagues daily. I 
 reached the Valley of Hearts at last, on the 
 26th day of the month of May, and rested 
 
 1 Doubtless the Yaquimi or Yaqui river. 
 162 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 there a number of days. Between Culiacan 
 and this place I could sustain myself only 
 by means of a large supply of corn bread, 
 because I had to leave all the corn, as it was 
 not yet ripe. In this Valley of Hearts we 
 found more people than in any part of the 
 country which we had left behind, and a 
 large extent of tilled ground. There was no 
 corn for food among them, but as I heard 
 that there was some in another valley called 
 Senora, which I did not wish to disturb by 
 force. I sent Melchior Diaz with goods to 
 exchange for it, so as to give this to the 
 friendly Indians whom we brought with us, 
 and to some who had lost their animals 
 along the way and had not been able to 
 carry the food which they had taken from 
 Culiacan. By the favor of Our Lord, some 
 little corn was obtained by this trading, 
 which relieved the friendly Indians and 
 some Spaniards. Ten or twelve of the 
 horses had died of overwork by the time that 
 we reached this Valley of Hearts, because 
 they were unable to stand the strain of carry 
 ing heavy burdens and eating little. Some 
 of our negroes and some of the Indians also 
 died here, which was not a slight loss for 
 the rest of the expedition. They told me 
 that the Valley of Hearts is a long five-days 
 journey from the western sea. I sent to 
 summon Indians from the coast in order to 
 learn about their condition, and while I was 
 waiting for these the horses rested. I stayed 
 there four days, during which the Indians 
 163 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 came from the sea, who told me that there 
 were seven or eight islands two days journey 
 from that seacoast, directly opposite, well 
 populated with people, but poorly supplied 
 with food, and the people were savages. 1 
 They told me they had seen a ship pass 
 not very far from the land. I do not know 
 whether to think that it was the one which 
 was sent to discover the country, or perhaps 
 some Portuguese. 2 
 
 II 
 
 They come to Chicliilticale; after having taken 
 two days rest, they enter a country containing very 
 little food and hard to travel for 30 leagues, beyond 
 which the country becomes pleasant, and there is a 
 river called the River of the Flax (del Lino); they 
 fight against the Indians, being attacked by these; 
 and having by their victory secured the city, they 
 relieve themselves of the pangs of their hunger. 
 
 I SET out from the Hearts and kept near 
 the seacoast as well as I could judge, but in 
 fact I found myself continually farther off, 
 so that when I reached Chicliilticale I found 
 that I was fifteen days journey distant from 
 the sea, although the father provincial had 
 
 1 These were doubtless the Scri, of Yuman stock, 
 who occupied a strip of the Gulf coast between lati 
 tude 28 and 29 and the islands Angel de la Guardia 
 and Tiburon. The latter island, as well as the 
 coast of the adjacent mainland, is still inhabited by 
 this tribe. 
 
 2 As Indian news goes, there is no reason why this 
 may not have been on e of Ulloa s ships, which sailed 
 along this coast during the previous summer. It 
 can hardly have been a ship of Alarcon s fleet. 
 
 164 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 said that it was only 5 leagues distant and 
 that he had seen it. We all became very 
 distrustful, and felt great anxiety and dis 
 may to see that everything was the reverse 
 of what he had told Your Lordship. The 
 Indians of Chichilticale say that when they 
 go to the sea for fish, or for anything else 
 that they need, they go across the country, 
 and that it takes them ten days ; and this 
 information which I have received from the 
 Indians appears to me to be true. The sea 
 turns toward the west directly opposite the 
 Hearts for 10 or 12 leagues, where I learned 
 that the ships of Your Lordship had been 
 seen, which had gone- in search of the port 
 of Chichilticale, which the father said was 
 on the thirty-fifth degree. 
 
 God knows what I have suffered, because 
 I fear that they may have met with some 
 mishap. If they follow the coast, as they 
 said they would, as long as the food lasts 
 which they took with them, of which I left 
 them a supply in Culiacan, and if they have 
 not been overtaken by some misfortune, I 
 maintain my trust in God that they have 
 already discovered something good, for which 
 the delay which they have made may be 
 pardoned. I rested for two days at Chichil 
 ticale, and there was good reason for staying 
 longer, because we found that the horses 
 were becoming so tired; but there was no 
 chance to rest longer, because the food was 
 giving out. I entered the borders of the 
 wilderness region on Saint John s eve, and, 
 165 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 for a change from our past labors, we found 
 no grass during the first days, but a worse 
 way through mountains and more dangerous 
 passages than we had experienced previously. 
 The horses were so tired that they were not 
 equal to it, so that in this last desert we lost 
 more horses than before; and some Indian 
 allies and a Spaniard called Spinosa, besides 
 two negroes, died from eating some herbs 
 because the food had given out. 
 
 I sent the army-master, Don Garcia Lopez 
 de Cardenas, with 15 horsemen, a day s 
 march ahead of me, in order to explore the 
 country and prepare the way, which he ac 
 complished like the man that he is, and 
 agreeably to the confidence which Your Lord 
 ship has had in him. I am the more certain 
 that he did so, because, as I have said, the 
 way is very bad for at least 30 leagues and 
 more, through impassable mountains. But 
 when we had passed these 30 leagues, we 
 found fresh rivers and grass like that of Cas 
 tile, and especially one sort like what we 
 call Scaramoio ; many nut and mulberry 
 trees, but the leaves of the nut trees are dif 
 ferent from those of Spain. There was a 
 considerable amount of flax near the banks 
 of one river, which was called on this ac 
 count El Eio del Lino. No Indians were 
 seen during the first day s march, after which 
 four Indians came out with signs of peace, 
 saying that they had been sent to that 
 desert place to say that we were welcome, 
 and that on the next day the tribe would 
 166 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 provide the whole force with food. The 
 army -master gave them a cross, telling them 
 to say to the people in their city that they 
 need not fear, and that they should have 
 their people stay in their own houses, be 
 cause I was coming in the name of His Maj 
 esty to defend and help them. 
 
 After this was done, Ferrando Alvarado 
 came back to tell me that some Indians had 
 met him peaceably, and that two of them 
 were with the army-master waiting for me. 
 I went to them forthwith and gave them 
 some paternosters and some little cloaks, 
 telling them to return to their city and say 
 to the people there that they could stay 
 quietly in their houses and that they need 
 not fear. After this I ordered the army- 
 master to go and see if there were any bad 
 passages which the Indians might be able to 
 defend, and to seize and hold any such until 
 the next day, when I would come up. He 
 went, and found a very bad place in our 
 way where we might have received much 
 harm. He immediately established himself 
 there with the force which he was conduct 
 ing. The Indians came that very night to 
 occupy that place so as to defend it, and 
 finding it taken, they assaulted our men. 
 According to what I have been told, they 
 attacked like valiant men, although in the 
 end they had to retreat in flight, because the 
 army -master was on the watch and kept his 
 men in good order. The Indians sounded 
 a little trumpet as a sign of retreat, and did 
 107 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 not do any injury to the Spaniards. The 
 army-master sent me notice of this the same 
 night, so that on the next day I started with 
 as good order as I could, for we were in such 
 great need of food that I thought we should 
 all die of hunger if we continued to be with 
 out provisions for another day, especially the 
 Indians, since altogether we did not have 
 two bushels of corn, and so I was obliged to 
 hasten forward without delay. The Indians 
 lighted their fires from point to point, and 
 these were answered from a distance with as 
 good understanding as we could have shown. 
 Thus notice was given concerning how we 
 went and where we had arrived. 
 
 As soon as I came within sight of this 
 city, I sent the army-master, Don Garcia 
 Lopez, Friar Daniel and Friar Luis, and Fer- 
 rando Vermizzo, with some horsemen, a little 
 way ahead, so that they might find the In 
 dians and tell them that we were not coming 
 to do them any harm, but to defend them 
 in the name of our lord the Emperor. The 
 summons, in the form which His Majesty 
 commanded in his instructions, was made 
 intelligible to the people of the country by 
 an interpreter. But they, being a proud 
 people, were little affected, because it seemed 
 to them that we were few in number, and 
 that they would not have any difficulty in 
 conquering us. They pierced the gown of 
 Friar Luis with an arrow, which, blessed be 
 God, did him no harm. Meanwhile I ar 
 rived with all the rest of the horse and the 
 168 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 footmen, and found a large body of the In 
 dians on the plain, who began to shoot with 
 their arrows. In obedience to the orders of 
 Your Lordship and of the marquis, 1 I did 
 not wish my company, who were begging 
 me for permission, to attack them, telling 
 them that they ought not to offend them, 
 and that what the enemy was doing was 
 nothing, and that so few people ought not 
 to be insulted. On the other hand, when 
 the Indians saw that we did not move, they 
 took greater courage, and grew so bold that 
 they came up almost to the heels of our 
 horses to shoot their arrows. On this ac 
 count I saw that it was no longer time to 
 hesitate, and as the priests approved the ac 
 tion, I charged them. There was little to 
 do, because they suddenly took to flight, 
 part running toward the city, which was 
 near and well fortified, and others toward 
 the plain, wherever chance led them. Some 
 Indians were killed, and others might have 
 been slain if I could have allowed them to 
 be pursued. But I saw that there would be 
 little advantage in this, because the Indians 
 who were outside were few, and those who 
 had retired to the city were numerous, be 
 sides many who had remained there in the 
 first place. 
 
 As that was where the food was, of which 
 
 1 It is possible that this is a blunder, in Ramusio s 
 text, for "His Majesty." The Marquis, in New 
 Spain, is always Cortes, for whom neither Mendoza 
 nor Coronado had any especial regard, 
 169 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 we stood in such great need, I assembled 
 my whole force and divided them as seemed 
 to me best for the attack on the city, and 
 surrounded it. The hunger which we suffered 
 would not permit of any delay, and so I dis 
 mounted with some of these gentlemen and 
 soldiers. I ordered the musketeers and 
 crossbowmen to begin the attack and drive 
 back the enemy from the defenses, so that 
 they could not do us any injury. I as 
 saulted the wall on one side, where I was 
 told that there was a scaling ladder and that 
 there was also a gate. But the crossbow- 
 men broke all the strings of their crossbows 
 and the musketeers could do nothing, lie- 
 cause they had arrived so weak and feeble 
 that they could scarcely stand on their feet. 
 On this account the people who were on 
 top were not prevented at all from defending 
 themselves and doing us whatever injury 
 they were able. Thus, for myself, they 
 knocked me down to the ground twice with 
 countless great stones which they threw 
 down from above, and if I had not been pro 
 tected by the very good headpiece which I 
 wore, I think that the outcome would have 
 been bad for me. They picked me up from 
 the ground, however, with two small wounds 
 in my face and an arrow in my foot, and 
 with many bruises on my arms and legs, and 
 in this condition I retired from the battle, 
 very weak. I think that if Don Garcia 
 Lopez de Cardenas had not come to my help, 
 like a good cavalier, the second time that 
 
 170 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 they knocked me to the ground, by placing 
 his own body above mine, I should have 
 been in much greater danger than I was. 
 But, by the pleasure of God, these Indians 
 surrendered, and their city was taken with 
 the help of Our Lord, and a sufficient supply 
 of corn was found there to relieve our 
 necessities. 
 
 The army-master and Don Pedro de Tovar 
 and Ferrando de Alvarado and Paulo de 
 Melgosa, the infantry captain, sustained 
 some bruises, although none of them were 
 wounded. Agoniez Quarez was hit in the 
 arm by an arrow, and one Torres, who lived 
 in Panuco, in the face by another, and two 
 other footmen received slight arrow wounds. 
 They all directed their attack against me 
 because my armor was gilded and glittered, 
 and on this account I was hurt more than 
 the rest, and not because I had done more or 
 was farther in advance than the others ; for 
 all these gentlemen and soldiers bore them 
 selves well, as was expected of them. I 
 praise God that I am now well, although 
 somewhat sore from the stones. Two or 
 three other soldiers were hurt in the battle 
 which we had on the plain, and three horses 
 were killed one that of Don Lopez and 
 another that of Vigliega and the third that 
 of Don Alfonso Manrich and seven or eight 
 other horses were wounded ; but the men, as 
 well as the horses, have now recovered and 
 are well. 
 
 171 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 III 
 
 Of the situation and condition of the Seven Cities 
 called the kingdom of Cevola, and the sort of people 
 and their customs, and of the animals which are 
 found there. 
 
 IT now remains for me to tell about this 
 city and kingdom and province, of which 
 the Father Provincial gave Your Lordship 
 an account. In brief, I can assure you that 
 in reality he has not told the truth in a sin 
 gle thing that he said, but everything is the 
 reverse of what he said, except the name of 
 the city and the large stone houses. For, 
 although they are not decorated with tur 
 quoises, nor made of lime nor of good bricks, 
 nevertheless they are very good houses, with 
 three and four and five stories, where there 
 are very good apartments and good rooms 
 with corridors, 1 and some very good rooms 
 under ground and paved, which are made 
 for winter, and are something like a sort of 
 hot baths. 2 The ladders which they have 
 for their houses are all movable and portable, 
 which are taken up and placed wherever 
 they please. They are made of two pieces 
 of wood, with rounds like ours. 
 
 The Seven Cities are seven little villages, 
 
 1 Hakluyt : . . . " very excellent good houses of 
 three or foure or flue lofts high, wherein are good 
 lodgings and faire chambers with lathers in stead of 
 staires." 
 
 2 The kivas or ceremonial chambers. 
 
 172 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 all having the kind of houses I have de 
 scribed. They are all within a radius of 5 
 leagues. They are all called the kingdom 
 of Cevola, and each has its own name and 
 no single one is called Cevola, but all to 
 gether are called Cevola. This one which I 
 have called a city I have named Granada, 
 partly because it has some similarity to it, 
 as well as out of regard for Your Lordship. 
 In this place where I am now lodged there 
 are perhaps 200 houses, all surrounded by a 
 wall, and it seems to me that with the other 
 houses, which are not so surrounded, there 
 might be altogether 500 families. There is 
 another town near by, which is one of the 
 seven, but somewhat larger than this, and 
 another of the same size as this, and the 
 other four are somewhat smaller. I send 
 them all to Your Lordship, painted with 
 the route. The skin on which the painting 
 is made was found here with other skins. 
 
 The people of the towns seem to me to be 
 of ordinary size and intelligent, although I 
 do not think that they have the judgment 
 and intelligence which they ought to have 
 to build these houses in the way in which 
 they have, for most of them are entirely 
 naked except the covering of their privy 
 parts, and they have painted mantles like 
 the one which I send to Your Lordship. 
 They do not raise cotton, because the coun 
 try is very cold, but they wear mantles, as 
 may be seen by the exhibit which I send. 
 It is also true that some cotton thread was 
 173 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 found in their houses. They wear the hair 
 on their heads like the Mexicans. They all 
 have good figures, and are well bred. I 
 think that they have a quantity of turquoises, 
 which they had removed with the rest of 
 their goods, except the corn, when I arrived, 
 because I did not find any women here nor 
 any men under 15 years or over 60, except 
 two or three old men who remained in com 
 mand of all the other men and the warriors. 
 Two points of emerald and some little broken 
 stones which approach the color of rather 
 poor garnets l were found in a paper, besides 
 other stone crystals, which I gave to one of 
 my servants to keep until they could be 
 sent to Your Lordship. He has lost them, 
 as they tell me. We found fowls, but only 
 a few, and yet there are some. The Indians 
 tell me that they do not eat these in any of 
 the seven villages, but that they keep them 
 merely for the sake of procuring the feathers. 
 I do not believe this, because they are 
 very good, and better than those of Mexico. 
 The climate of this country and the tem 
 perature of the air is almost like that of 
 Mexico, because it is sometimes hot and 
 sometimes it rains. I have not yet seen it 
 rain, however, except once when there fell a 
 little shower with wind, such as often falls 
 
 1 Many garnets are found on the ant-hills through 
 out the region, especially in the Navajo country. 
 
 2 The natives doubtless told the truth. Eagle and 
 turkey feathers are still highly prized by them for 
 use in their ceremonies. 
 
 174 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 iu Spain. The snow and the cold are usu 
 ally very great, according to what the natives 
 of the country all say. This may very 
 probably be so, both because of the nature of 
 the country and the sort of houses they build 
 and the skins and other things which these 
 people have to protect them from the cold. 
 There are no kinds of fruit or fruit trees. 
 The country is all level, and is nowhere shut 
 in by high mountains, although there are 
 some hills and rough passages. 1 There are 
 not many birds, probably because of the 
 cold, and because there are no mountains 
 near. There are no trees fit for firewood 
 here, because they can bring enough for 
 their needs from a clump of very small 
 cedars 4 leagues distant. 2 Very good grass 
 is found a quarter of a league away, where 
 there is pasturage for our horses as well as 
 mowing for hay, of which we had great 
 need, because our horses were so weak and 
 feeble when they arrived. 
 
 The food which they eat in this country 
 is corn, of which they have a great abun 
 dance, and beans and venison, which they 
 probably eat (although they say that they do 
 not), because we found many skins of deer 
 and hares and rabbits. They make the best 
 
 1 It should be noted that Coronado clearly distin 
 guishes between hills or mesas and mountains. Zuni 
 valley is hemmed in by heights varying from 500 to 
 1,000 feet. 
 
 2 This accords perfectly with the condition of the 
 vegetation in Zuni valley at the present time. 
 
 175 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 corn cakes I have ever seen anywhere, and 
 this is what everybody ordinarily eats. They 
 have the very best arrangement and machin 
 ery for grinding that was ever seen [plate 
 LXiv]. One of these Indian women here 
 will grind as much as four of the Mexicans. 
 They have very good salt in crystals, which 
 they bring from a lake a day s journey dis 
 tant from here. No information can be ob 
 tained among them about the North sea or 
 that on the west, nor do I know how to tell 
 Your Lordship which we are nearest to. 1 
 should judge that it is nearer to the western, 
 and 150 leagues is the nearest that it seems 
 to me it can be thither. The North sea 
 ought to be much farther away. Your Lord 
 ship may thus see how very wide the coun 
 try is. They have many animals bears, 
 tigers, lions, porcupines, and some sheep as 
 big as a horse, with very large horns and 
 little tails. I have seen some of their horns 
 the size of which was something to marvel 
 at. There are also wild goats, whose heads 
 I have seen, and the paws of the bears and 
 the skins of the wild boars. For game they 
 have deer, leopards, and very large deer, 1 
 and every one thinks that some of them are 
 larger than that animal which Your Lordship 
 favored me with, which belonged to Juan 
 Melaz. They inhabit some plains eight 
 days journey toward the north. They have 
 some of their skins here very well dressed, 
 
 1 Doubtless a slip of Ramusio s pen for cows, i. e., 
 buffalos. 
 
 176 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 and they prepare and paint them where they 
 kill the cows, according to what they tell 
 me. 
 
 IV 
 
 Of the nature and situation of the kingdoms of 
 Totonteac, Marata, and Acus, wholly different from 
 the account of Friar Marcos. The conference which 
 they had with the Indians of the city of Granada, 
 which they had captured, who had been forewarned 
 of the coining of Christians into their country fifty 
 years before. The account which was obtained 
 from them concerning seven other cities, of which 
 Tucano is the chief, and how he sent to discover 
 them. A present sent to Mendoza of various things 
 found in this country by Vazquez Coronado. 
 
 THESE Indians say that the kingdom of 
 Totonteac, which the father provincial praised 
 so much, saying that it was something mar 
 velous, and of such a very great size, and that 
 cloth was made there, is a hot lake, on the 
 edge of which there are five or six houses. 1 
 There used to be some others, but these 
 have been destroyed by war. The kingdom 
 of Marata can not be found, nor do these 
 Indians know any thing a bout it. The king 
 dom of Acus is a single small city, where 
 they raise cotton, and this is called Acucu. 2 
 I say that this is the country, because Acus, 
 with or without the aspiration, is not a word 
 
 1 Coronado doubtless misinterpreted what the na 
 tives intended to communicate. The "hot lake" 
 was in all probability the salt lake alluded to on 
 page 154, near which Marata was situated. Toton 
 teac was of course Tusayan, or "Tucano." 
 
 2 This is a form of the Zuni name for Acoma 
 Hakukia. 
 
 177 
 
THE JOURNEY OF COKONADO 
 
 in this region ; and because it seems to me 
 that Acucu may be derived from Acus, I say 
 that it is this town which has been converted 
 into the kingdom of Acus. They tell me 
 that there are some other small ones not far 
 from this settlement, which are situated on 
 a river which I have seen and of which the 
 Indians have told me. God knows that I 
 wish I had better news to write to Your 
 Lordship, but I must give you the truth, 
 and, as I wrote you from Culiacan, I must 
 advise you of the good as well as of the bad. 
 But you may be assured that if there had 
 been all the riches and treasures of the 
 world, I could not have done more in His 
 Majesty s service and in that of Your Lord 
 ship than I have done, in coming here where 
 you commanded me to go, carrying, both my 
 companions and myself, our food on our 
 backs for 300 leagues, and traveling on foot 
 many days, making our way over hills and 
 rough mountains, besides other labors which 
 I refrain from mentioning. Nor do I think 
 of stopping until my death, if it serves His 
 Majesty or Your Lordship to have it so. 
 
 Three days after I captured this city, some 
 of the Indians who lived here came to offer 
 to make peace. They brought me some tur 
 quoises and poor mantles, and I received 
 them in His Majesty s name with as good a 
 speech as I could, making them understand 
 the purpose of my coming to this country, 
 which is, in the name of His Majesty and 
 by the commands of Your Lordship, that 
 178 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 they and all others in this province should 
 become Christians and should know the true 
 God for their Lord, and His Majesty for 
 their king and earthly lord. After this they 
 returned to their houses and suddenly, the 
 next day, they packed up their goods and 
 property, their women and children, and 
 fled to the hills, leaving their towns deserted, 
 with only some few remaining in them. 
 Seeing this, I went to the town which I said 
 was larger than this, eight or ten days later, 
 when I had recovered from my wounds. I 
 found a few of them there, whom I told that 
 they ought not to feel any fear, and I asked 
 them to summon their lord to me. By 
 what I can find out or observe, however, 
 none of these towns have any, since I have 
 not seen any principal house by which any 
 superiority over others could be shown. 1 
 Afterward, an old man, who said he was 
 their lord, came with a mantle made of many 
 pieces, with whom I argued as long as he 
 stayed with me. He said that he would 
 corne to see me with the rest of the chiefs of 
 the country, three days later, in order to 
 arrange the relations which should exist be 
 tween us. He did so, and they brought me 
 some little ragged mantles and some tur- 
 
 1 As clear a description of the form of tribal gov 
 ernment among the Pueblo Indians as is anywhere 
 to be found is in Bandelier s story, The Delight 
 Makers. Mr. Bandolier has been most successful in 
 his effort to picture the actions and spirit of Indian 
 life. 
 
 179 
 
THE JOURNEY OP CORONADO 
 
 quoises. I said that they ought to come 
 down from their strongholds and return to 
 their houses with their wives and children, 
 and that they should become Christians, and 
 recognize His Majesty as their king and 
 lord. But they still remain in their strong 
 holds, with their wives and all their property. 
 I commanded them to have a cloth painted 
 for me, with all the animals that they know 
 in that country, and although they are poor 
 painters, they quickly painted two for me, 
 one of the animals and the other of the birds 
 and fishes. They say that they will bring 
 their children so that our priests may in 
 struct them, and that they desire to know 
 our law. They declare that it was foretold 
 among them more than fifty years ago that 
 a people such as we are should come, and 
 the direction they should come from, and 
 that the whole country would be conquered. 
 So far as I can find out, the water is what 
 these Indians worship, because they say that 
 it makes the corn grow and sustains their 
 life, and that the only other reason they 
 know is because their ancestors did so. 1 I 
 have tried in every way to find out from the 
 natives of these settlements whether they 
 know of any other peoples or provinces or 
 
 1 Dr. J. Walter Fewkes has conclusively shown 
 that the snake dance, probably the most dramatic of 
 Indian ceremonials, is essentially a prayer for rain. 
 Coming as it does just as the natural rainy season 
 approaches, the prayer is almost invariably an 
 swered. 
 
 180 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 cities. They tell me about seven cities 
 which are at a considerable distance, which 
 are like these, except that the houses there 
 are not like these, but are made of earth 
 [adobe] , and small, and that they raise much 
 cotton there. The first of these four places 
 about which they know is called, they say, 
 Tucano. They could not tell me much 
 about the others. I do not believe that they 
 tell me the truth, because they think that I 
 shall soon have to depart from them and re 
 turn home. But they will quickly find that 
 they are deceived in this. I sent Don Pedro 
 de Tobar there, with his company and some 
 other horsemen, to see it. I would not have 
 dispatched this packet to Your Lordship 
 until I had learned what he found there, if 
 I thought that I should have any news 
 from him. within twelve or fifteen days. 
 However, as he will remain away at least 
 thirty, and, considering that this information 
 is of little importance and that the cold and 
 the rains are approaching, it seemed to me 
 that I ought to do as Your Lordship com 
 manded me in your instructions, which is, 
 that as soon as I arrived here, I should ad 
 vise you thereof, and this I do, by sending 
 you the plain narrative of what I have seen, 
 which is bad enough, as you may perceive. 
 I have determined to send throughout all the 
 surrounding regions, in order to find out 
 whether there is anything, and to suffer 
 every extremity before I give up this enter 
 prise, and to serve His Majesty, if I can find 
 181 
 
TUP: JOURNEY OF COKONADO 
 
 any way in which to do it, and not to lack 
 in diligence until Your Lordship directs me 
 as to what I ought to do. 
 
 We have great need of pasture, and you 
 should know, also, that among all those who 
 are here there is not one pound of raisins, 
 nor sugar, nor oil, nor wine, except barely 
 half a quart, which is saved to say mass, 
 since everything is consumed, and part was 
 lost on the way. Now, you can provide us 
 with what appears best ; but if you are think 
 ing of sending us cattle, you should know 
 that it will be necessary for them to spend 
 at least a year on the road, because they can 
 not come in any other way, nor any quicker. 
 I would have liked to send to Your Lord 
 ship, with this dispatch, many samples of 
 the things which they have in this country, 
 but the trip is so long and rough that it is 
 difficult for me to do so. However, I send 
 you twelve small mantles, such as the people 
 of this country ordinarily wear, and a gar 
 ment which seems to me to be very well 
 made. I kept it because it seemed to me to 
 be of very good workmanship, and because I 
 do not think that anyone has ever seen in 
 these Indies any work done with a needle, 
 unless it were done since the Spaniards set 
 tled here. And I also send two cloths 
 painted with the animals which they have 
 in this country, although, as I said, the 
 painting is very poorly done, because the 
 artist did not spend more than one day in 
 painting it. I have seen other paintings on 
 182 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 the walls of these houses which have much 
 better proportion and are done much better. 
 I send you a cow skin, some turquoises, 
 and two earrings of the same, and fifteen of 
 the Indian combs, 1 and some plates decorat 
 ed with these turquoises, and two baskets 
 made of wicker, of which the Indians have 
 a large supply. I also send two rolls, such 
 as the women usually wear on their heads 
 when they bring water from the spring, the 
 same way that they do in Spain. One of 
 these Indian women, with one of these rolls 
 on her head, will carry a jar of water up a 
 ladder without touching it with her hands. 
 And, lastly, I send you samples of the weap 
 ons with which the natives of this country 
 tight, a shield, a hammer, and a bow with 
 some arrows, among which there are two 
 with bone points, the like of which have 
 never been seen, according to what these 
 conquerors say. As far as I can judge, it 
 does not appear to me that there is any hope 
 of getting gold or silver, but I trust in God 
 that, if there is any, we shall get our share 
 of it, and it shall not escape us through any 
 lack of diligence in the search. 2 I am una 
 ble to give Your Lordship any certain in 
 formation about the dress of the women, 
 because the Indians keep them guarded so 
 
 1 Possibly those used in weaving. 
 
 2 The conquerors, in the literature of New Spain, 
 are almost always those who shared with Cortes in 
 the labors and the glory of the Spanish conquest of 
 Mexico. 
 
 183 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 carefully that I have not seen any, except 
 two old women. These had on two long 
 skirts reaching down to their feet and open in 
 front, and a girdle, and they are tied together 
 with some cotton strings. I asked the In 
 dians to give me one of those which they 
 wore, to send to you, since they were not 
 willing to show me the women. They 
 brought me two mantles, which are these 
 that I send, almost painted over. They 
 have two tassels, like the women of Spain, 
 which hang somewhat over their shoulders. 
 The death of the negro is perfectly certain, 
 because many of the things which he wore 
 have been found, and the Indians say that 
 they killed him here because the Indians of 
 Chichilticale said that he was a bad man, 
 and not like the Christians, because the 
 Christians never kill women, and he killed 
 them, and because he assaulted their women, 
 whom the Indians love better than them 
 selves. Therefore they determined to kill 
 him, but they did not do it in the way that 
 was reported, because they did not kill any 
 of the others who came with him, nor did 
 they kill the lad from the province of Petat- 
 lan, who was with him, but they took him 
 and kept him in safe custody until now. 
 When I tried to secure him, they made ex 
 cuses for not giving him to me, for two or 
 three days, saying that he was dead, and at 
 other times that the Indians of Acucu had 
 taken him away. But when I finally told 
 them that I should be very angry if they 
 184 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 did not give him to me, they gave him to 
 me. He is au interpreter; for although he 
 can not talk much, he understands very 
 well. 
 
 Some gold and silver has been found in 
 this place, which those who know about min 
 erals say is not bad. I have not yet been 
 able to learn from these people where they 
 got it. I perceive that they refuse to tell 
 me the truth in everything, because they 
 think that I shall have to depart from here 
 in a short time, as I have said. But I trust 
 in God that they will not be able to avoid 
 answering much longer. I beg Your Lord 
 ship to make a report of the success of this 
 expedition to His Majesty, because there is 
 nothing more than what I have already said. 
 I shall not do so until it shall please God to 
 grant that we find what we desire. Our 
 
 Lord God protect and keep your most illus 
 trious Lordship. From the province of 
 Cevola, and this city of Granada, the 3d of 
 August, 1540. Francisco Vazquez de Coro- 
 nado kisses the hand of your most illustrious 
 Lordship. 
 
 185 
 
TRANSLATION OF THE TRASLADO 
 DE LAS NUEVAS 1 
 
 COPY OF THE REPORTS AND DESCRIPTIONS 
 THAT HAVE BEEN RECEIVED REGARDING 
 THE DISCOVERY or A CITY WHICH is 
 CALLED ClBOLA, SITUATED IN THE NEW 
 COUNTRY. 
 
 His grace left the larger part of his army 
 in the valley of Culiacau, and with only 75 
 companions on horseback and 30 footmen, 
 he set out for here Thursday, April 22. The 
 army which remained there was to start 
 about the end of the month of May, because 
 they could not find any sort of sustenance 
 for the whole of the way that they had to 
 go, as far as this province of Cibola, which 
 is 350 long leagues, and on this account he 
 did not dare to put the whole army on the 
 road. As for the men he took with him, he 
 ordered them to make provision for eighty 
 days, which was carried on horses, each hav 
 ing one for himself and his followers. With 
 very great danger of suffering hunger, and 
 
 1 Translated from Pacheco y Cardenas, Documen- 
 tos de Indias, vol. xix., p. E29. This document is 
 anonymous, but it is evidently a copy of a letter 
 from some trusted companion, written from Granada- 
 Hawikuh, about the time of Coronado s letter of 
 August 3, 1540. In the title to the document as 
 printed, the date is given as 1531, but there can be 
 no doubt that it is an account of Coronado s journey. 
 186 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 not less labor, since they had to open the 
 way, and every day discovered waterways 
 and rivers with bad crossings, they stood it- 
 after a fashion, and on the whole journey 
 as far as this province there was not a peck 
 of corn. 
 
 He reached this province on Wednesday, 
 the 7th of July last, with all the men whom 
 he led from the valley very well, praise be 
 to Our Lord, except one Spaniard who died 
 of hunger four days from here and some 
 negroes and Indians who also died of hunger 
 and thirst. The Spaniard was one of those 
 on foot, and was named Espinosa. In this 
 way his grace spent seventy-seven clays on 
 the road before reaching here, during which 
 God knows in what sort of a way we lived, 
 and whether we could have eaten much 
 more than we ate the day that his grace 
 reached this city of Granada, for so it has 
 been named out of regard for the viceroy, 
 and because they say it resembles the Albai- 
 cin. 1 The force he led was not received the 
 way it should have been, because they all 
 arrived very tired from the great labor of the 
 journey. This, and the loading and unload 
 ing like so many muleteers, and not eating 
 as much as they should have, left them more 
 in need of resting several days than of fight 
 ing, although there was not a man in the 
 
 1 A part of Granada, near the Alhambra. There 
 is a curious similarity in the names Albaicin and 
 Hawikuh, the latter being the native name of Coro- 
 nado s Granada. 
 
 187 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 army who would not have done his best in 
 everything if the horses, who suffered the 
 same as their masters, could have helped 
 them. 
 
 The city was deserted by men over sixty 
 years and under twenty, and by women and 
 children. All who were there were the 
 fighting men who remained to defend the 
 city, and many of them came out, about a 
 crossbow shot, uttering loud threats. The 
 general himself went forward with two priests 
 and the army-master, to urge them to sur 
 render, as is the custom in new countries. 
 The reply that he received was from many 
 arrows which they let fly, and they wounded 
 Hernando Bermejo s horse and pierced the 
 loose flap of the frock of father Friar Luis, 
 the former companion of the Lord Bishop of 
 Mexico. When this was seen, taking as 
 their advocate the Holy Saint James, 1 he 
 rushed upon them with all his force, which 
 he had kept in very good order, and although 
 the Indians turned their backs and tried to 
 reach the city, they were overtaken and 
 many of them killed before they could reach 
 it. They killed three horses and wounded 
 seven or eight. 
 
 When my lord the general reached the city, 
 he saw that it was surrounded by stone 
 walls, and the houses very high, four and 
 five and even six stories apiece, with their 
 flat roofs and balconies. As the Indians 
 
 1 Uttering the war cry of Santiago. 
 
 188 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 had made themselves secure within it, and 
 would not let anyone come near without 
 shooting arrows at him, and as we could not 
 obtain anything to eat unless we captured 
 it, Ms grace decided to enter the city on foot 
 and to surround it by men on horseback, so 
 that the Indians who were inside could not 
 get away. As he was distinguished among 
 them all by his gilt arms and a plume on 
 his headpiece, all the Indians aimed at him, 
 because he was noticeable among all, and 
 they knocked him down to the ground twice 
 by chance stones thrown from the flat roofs, 
 and stunned him in spite of his headpiece, 
 and if this had not been so good, I doubt if 
 he would have come out alive from that en 
 terprise, and besides all this praised be Our 
 Lord that he came out on his own feet 
 they hit him many times with stones on his 
 head and shoulders and legs, and he received 
 two small wounds on his face and an arrow 
 wound in the right foot; but despite all this 
 his grace is as sound and well as the day he 
 left that city. And you 1 may assure my 
 lord of all this, and also that on the 19th of 
 July last he went 4 leagues from this city to 
 see a rock where they told him that the 
 Indians of this province had fortified them 
 selves, 2 and he returned the same day, so that 
 he went 8 leagues in going and returning. 
 I think I have given you an account of 
 
 1 The printed manuscript is V. M., which signifies 
 Your Majesty. 
 
 a Doubtless Thunder mountain. 
 189 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 everything, for it is right that I should be 
 the authority for you and his lordship, to 
 assure you that everything is going well with 
 the general my lord, and without any hesita 
 tion I can assure you that he is as well and 
 sound as the day he left the city. He is 
 located within the city, for when the Indians 
 saw that his grace was determined to enter 
 the city, then they abandoned it, since they 
 let them go with their lives. We found in 
 it what we needed more than gold and sil 
 ver, and that was much corn and beans and 
 fowls, better than those of New Spain, and 
 salt, the best and whitest that I have seen 
 in all my life. 
 
 THIS is THE LATEST ACCOUNT OF CIBOLA, 
 
 AND OF MOKE THAN FOUR HUNDRED 
 
 LEAGUES BEYOND/ 
 
 IT is more than 300 leagues from Culia- 
 can to Cibola, uninhabited most of the way. 
 There are very few people there ; the coun 
 try is sterile ; the roads are very bad. The 
 people go around entirely naked, except the 
 women, who wear white tanned deer skins 
 from the waist down, something like little 
 skirts, reaching to the feet. Their houses 
 
 1 From a manuscript, in the possession of the fam 
 ily of the late Sr. D. Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta, of 
 the City of Mexico. This appears to be a transcript 
 from letters written, probably at Tiguex, on the Rio 
 Grande, during the late summer or early fall of 
 1541. 
 
 190 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO. 
 
 are of mats made of reeds; the houses are 
 round and small, so that there is hardly room 
 inside for a man on his feet. The country 
 is sandy where they live near together and 
 where they plant. They raise corn, but not 
 very much, and beans and melons, and they 
 also live on game rabbits, hares, and deer. 
 They do not have sacrifices. This is between 
 Culiacan and Cibola. 
 
 Cibola is a village of about 200 houses. 
 They have two and three and four and five 
 stories. The walls are about a handbreadth 
 thick; the sticks of timber are as large as 
 the wrist, and round; for boards, they have 
 very small bushes, with their leaves on, 
 covered with a sort of greenish-colored mud ; 
 the walls are of dirt and mud, the doors of 
 the houses are like the hatchways of ships. 
 The houses are close together, each joined 
 to the others. Outside of the houses they 
 have some hot-houses (or estufas) of dirt 
 mud, where they take refuge from the cold 
 in the winter because this is very great, 
 since it snows six months in the year. 
 
 Some of these people wear cloaks of cotton 
 and of the maguey (or Mexican aloe) and of 
 tanned deer skin, and they wear shoes made 
 of these skins, reaching up to the knees. 
 They also make cloaks of the skins of hares 
 and rabbits, with which they cover them 
 selves. The women wear cloaks of the 
 maguey, reaching down to the feet, with 
 girdles ; they wear their hair gathered about 
 the ears like little wheels. They raise corn 
 191 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO. 
 
 and beans and melons, which is all they 
 need to live on, because it is a small tribe. 
 The land where they plant is entirely sandy ; 
 the water is brackish ; the country is very 
 dry. They have some fowls, although not 
 many. They do not know what sort of a 
 thing fish is. There are seven villages in 
 this province of Cibola within a space of 5 
 leagues; the largest may have about 200 
 houses and two others about 200, and the 
 others somewhere between 60 or 50 and 30 
 houses. 
 
 It is 60 leagues from Cibola to the river 
 and province of Tibex [Tiguex]. The first 
 village is 40 leagues from Cibola, and is 
 called Acuco. This village is on top of a 
 very strong rock; it has about 200 houses, 
 built in the same way as at Cibola, where 
 they speak another language. It is 20 
 leagues from here to the river of Tiguex. 
 The river is almost as wide as that of 
 Seville, although not so deep; it flows 
 through a level country ; the water is good ; 
 it contains some fish; it rises in the north. 
 He who relates this, saw twelve villages 
 within a certain distance of the river ; others 
 saw more, they say, up the river. Below, 
 all the villages are small, except two that 
 have about 200 houses. The walls of these 
 houses are something like mud walls of dirt 
 and sand, very rough; they are as thick as 
 the breadth of a hand. The houses have 
 two and three stories; the construction is 
 like those at Cibola. The country is very 
 192 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 cold. They have hot-houses, as in Cibola, 
 and the river freezes so thick that loaded 
 animals cross it, and it would be possible for 
 carts to do so. They raise as much corn as 
 they need, and beans and melons. They 
 have some fowls, which they keep so as to 
 make cloaks of their feathers. They raise 
 cotton, although not much ; they wear cloaks 
 made of this, and shoes of hide, as at Cibola. 
 These people defend themselves very well, 
 and from within their houses, since they do 
 not care to come out. The country is all 
 sandy. 
 
 Four days journey from the province and 
 river of Tiguex four villages are found. The 
 first has 30 houses; the second is a large 
 village destroyed in their wars, and has about 
 35 houses occupied ; the third about 
 These three are like those at the river in 
 every way. The fourth is a large village 
 which is among some mountains. It is 
 called Cicuic, and has about 50 houses, with 
 as many stories as those at Cibola. The 
 walls are of dirt and mud like those at 
 Cibola. It has plenty of corn, beans and 
 melons, and some fowls. Four days from 
 this village they came to a country as level 
 as the sea, and in these plains there was 
 such a multitude of cows that they are num 
 berless. These cows are like those of Castile, 
 and somewhat larger, as they have a little 
 hump on the withers, and they are more 
 reddish, approaching black ; their hair, more 
 than a span long, hangs down around their 
 193 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 horus and ears and chin, and along the neck 
 and shoulders like inanes, and down from 
 the knees; all the rest is a very fine wool, 
 like merino; they have very good, tender 
 meat, and much fat. 
 
 Having proceeded many days through 
 these plains, they came to a settlement of 
 about 200 inhabited houses. The houses 
 were made of the skins of the cows, tanned 
 white, like pavilions or army tents. The 
 maintenance or sustenance of these Indians 
 comes entirely from the cows, because they 
 neither sow nor reap corn. With the skins 
 they make their houses, with the skins they 
 clothe and shoe themselves, of the skins they 
 make rope, and also of the wool ; from the 
 sinews they make thread, with which they 
 sew their clothes and also their houses ; from 
 the bones they make awls ; the dung serves 
 them for wood, because there is nothing else 
 in that country; the stomachs serve them 
 for pitchers and vessels from which they 
 drink; they live on the flesh; they some 
 times eat it half roasted and warmed over the 
 dung, at other times raw; seizing it with 
 their fingers, they pull it out with one hand 
 and with a flint knife in the other they cut 
 off mouthfuls, and thus swallow it half 
 chewed ; they eat the fat raw, without warm 
 ing it ; they drink the blood just as it leaves 
 the cows, and at other times after it has run 
 out, cold and raw ; they have no other means 
 of livelihood. 
 
 These people have dogs like those in this 
 194 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 country, except that they are somewhat 
 larger, and they load these clogs like beasts 
 of burden, and make saddles for them like 
 our pack saddles, and they fasten them with 
 their leather thongs, and these make their 
 backs sore on the withers like pack animals. 
 When they go hunting, they load these with 
 their necessities, and when they move for 
 these Indians are not settled in one place, 
 since they travel wherever the cows move, 
 to support themselves these dogs carry 
 their houses, and they have the sticks of 
 their houses dragging along tied on to the 
 pack-saddles, besides the load which they 
 carry on top, and the load may be, according 
 to the dog, from 35 to 50 pounds. It is 30 
 leagues, or even more, from Cibola to these 
 plains where they went. The plains stretch 
 away beyond, nobody knows how far. The 
 captain, Francisco Vazquez, went farther 
 across the plains, with 30 horsemen, and 
 Friar Juan de Padilla with him ; all the rest 
 of the force returned to the settlement at the 
 river to wait for Francisco Vazquez, because 
 this was his command. It is not known 
 whether he has returned. 
 
 The country is so level that men became 
 lost when they went off half a league. One 
 horseman was lost, who never reappeared, 
 and two horses, all saddled and bridled, 
 which they never saw again. No track was 
 left of where they went, and on this account 
 it was necessary to mark the road by which 
 they went with cow dung, so as to return, 
 195 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 since there were no stones or anything 
 else. 
 
 Marco Polo, the Venetian, in his treatise, 
 in chapter 15, relates and says that (he saw) 
 the same cows, with the same sort of hump ; 
 and in the same chapter he says that there 
 are sheep as big as horses. 
 
 Nicholas, the Venetian, gave an account 
 to Micer Pogio, the Florentine, in his second 
 book, toward the end, which says that in 
 Ethiopia there are oxen with a hump, like 
 camels, and they have horns 3 cubits long, 
 and they carry their horns up over their 
 backs, and one of these horns makes a wine 
 pitcher. 
 
 Marco Polo, in chapter 134, says that in 
 the country of the Tartars, toward the north, 
 they have dogs as large or little smaller than 
 asses. They harness these into a sort of 
 cart and with these enter a very miry coun 
 try, all a quagmire, where other animals can 
 not enter and come out without getting 
 submerged, and on this account they take 
 dogs. 
 
 196 
 
TEANSLATION OF THE KELACION 
 
 DEL SUCESO 1 
 
 ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED ON THE 
 JOURNEY WHICH FRANCISCO VAZQUEZ 
 MADE TO DISCOVER CIBOLA. 
 
 WHEN the army reached the valley of 
 Culiacan, Francisco Vazquez divided the 
 army on account of the bad news which was 
 received regarding Cibola, and because the 
 food supply along the way was small, accord 
 ing to the report of Melchor Diaz, who had 
 just come back from seeing it. He himself 
 took 80 horsemen and 25 foot soldiers, and 
 a small part of the artillery, and set out 
 from Culiacan, leaving Don Tristan de 
 Arellano with the rest of the force, with 
 orders to set out twenty days later, and 
 when he reached the Valley of Hearts (Cora- 
 zones) to wait there for a letter from him, 
 which would be sent after he had reached 
 
 1 The Spanish text of this document is printed in 
 Buckingham Smith s Florida, p. 147, from a copy 
 made by Munoz, and also in Pacheco y Cardenas, 
 Documentos de Indias, vol. xiv., p. 318, from a copy 
 found in the Archives of the Indies at Seville. No 
 date is given in the document, but there can be no 
 doubt that it refers to Coronado s expedition. In 
 the heading to the document in the Pacheco y Car 
 denas Coleccion, the date is given as 1531, and it is 
 placed under that year in the chronologic index of 
 the Coleccion. 
 
 197 
 
THE JOURNEY OP CORONADO 
 
 Cibola, and had seen what was there; and 
 this was done. The Valley of Hearts is 150 
 leagues from the valley of Culiacan, and the 
 same distance from Cibola. 
 
 This whole distance, up to about 50 
 leagues before reaching Cibola, is inhabited, 
 although it is away from the road in some 
 places. The population is all of the same 
 sort of people, since the houses are all of 
 palm mats, and some of them have low lofts. 
 They all have corn, although not much, and 
 in some places very little. They have melons 
 and beans. The best settlement of all is a 
 valley called Senora, which is 10 leagues be 
 yond the Hearts, where a town was afterward 
 settled. There is some cotton among these, 
 but deer skins are what most of them use 
 for clothes. 
 
 Francisco Vazquez passed by all these on 
 account of the small crops. There was no 
 corn the whole way, except at this valley of 
 Senora, where they collected a little, and 
 besides this he had what he took from Culia 
 can, where he provided himself for eighty 
 days. In seventy-three days we reached 
 Cibola, although after hard labor and the 
 loss of many horses and the death of several 
 Indians, and after we saw it these were all 
 doubled, although we did find corn enough. 
 We found the natives peaceful for the whole 
 way. 
 
 The day we reached the first village part 
 of them came out to fight us, and the rest 
 stayed in the village and fortified themselves. 
 198 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 It was not possible to make peace with 
 these, although we tried hard enough, so it 
 was necessary to attack them and kill some 
 of them. The rest then drew back to the 
 village, which was then surrounded and at 
 tacked. We had to withdraw, on account 
 of the great damage they did us from the 
 flat roofs, and we began to assault them from 
 a distance with the artillery and muskets, 
 and that afternoon they surrendered. Fran 
 cisco Vazquez came out of it badly hurt by 
 some stones, and I am certain, indeed, that 
 he would have been there yet if it had not 
 been for the army-master, D. Garcia Lopez 
 de Cardenas, who rescued him. When the 
 Indians surrendered, they abandoned the 
 village and went to the other villages, and 
 as they left the houses we made ourselves at 
 home in them. 
 
 Father Friar Marcos understood, or gave 
 to understand, that the region and neighbor 
 hood in which there are seven villages was 
 a single village which he called Cibola, but 
 the whole of this settled region is called 
 Cibola. The villages have from 150 to 200 
 and 300 houses; some have the houses of 
 the village all together, although in some 
 villages they are divided into two or three 
 sections, but for the most part they are all 
 together, and their courtyards are within, 
 and in these are their hot rooms for winter, 
 and they have their summer ones outside the 
 villages. The houses have two or three 
 stories, the walls of stone and mud, and some 
 199 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 have mud walls. The villages have for the 
 most part the walls of the houses ; the houses 
 are too good for Indians, especially for these, 
 since they are brutish and have no decency 
 in anything except in their houses. 
 
 For food they have much corn and beans 
 and melons, and some fowls, like those of 
 Mexico, and they keep these more for their 
 feathers than to eat, because they make long 
 robes of them, since they do not have any 
 cotton ; and they wear cloaks of heniquen (a 
 fibrous plant), and of the skins of deer, and 
 sometimes of -cows. 
 
 Their rites and sacrifices are somewhat 
 idolatrous, but water is what they worship 
 most, to which they offer small painted sticks 
 and feathers and yellow powder made of 
 flowers, and usually this offering is made to 
 springs. Sometimes, also, they offer such 
 turquoises as they have, although poor ones. 
 
 From the valley of Culiacan to Cibola it 
 is 240 leagues in two directions. It is north 
 to about the thirty-fourth-and-a-half degree, 
 and from there to Cibola, which is nearly 
 the thirty-seventh degree, toward the north 
 east. 
 
 Having talked with the natives of Cibola 
 about what was beyond, they said that there 
 were settlements toward the west. Fran 
 cisco Vazquez then sent Don Pedro de Tobar 
 to investigate, who found seven other vil 
 lages, which were called the province of 
 Tuzan ; this is 35 leagues to the west. The 
 villages are somewhat larger than those of 
 200 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 Cibola, and in other respects, in food and 
 everything, they are of the same sort, except 
 that these raise cotton. While Don Pedro 
 de Tobar had gone to see these, Francisco 
 Vazquez dispatched messengers to the vice 
 roy, with an account of what had happened 
 up to this point. 1 He also prepared instruc 
 tions for these to take to Don Tristan, who 
 as I have said, was at Hearts, for him to 
 proceed to Cibola, and to leave a town estab 
 lished in the valley of Senora, which he did, 
 and in it he left 80 horsemen of the men 
 who had but one horse and the weakest men, 
 and Melchor Diaz with them as captain and 
 leader, because Francisco Vazquez had so 
 arranged for it. He ordered him to go from 
 there with half the force to explore toward 
 the west; and he did so, and traveled 150 
 leagues, to the river which Hernando de 
 Alarcon entered from the sea, which he 
 called the Buenaguia. The settlements and 
 people that are in this direction are mostly 
 like those at the Hearts, except at the river 
 and around it, where the people have much 
 better figures and have more corn, although 
 the houses in which they live are hovels, 
 like pig pens, almost under ground, with a 
 covering of straw, and made without any 
 skill whatever. This river is reported to be 
 large. They reached it 30 leagues from the 
 coast, where, and as far again above, Alarcon 
 had come up with his boats two months be- 
 
 1 See the letter of August 3, 1540. 
 201 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 fore they reached it. This river runs north 
 and south there. Melchor Diaz passed on 
 toward the west five or six days, from which 
 he returned for the reason that he did not 
 find any water or vegetation, but only many 
 stretches of sand ; and he had some fighting 
 on his return to the river and its vicinity, 
 because they wanted to take advantage of 
 him while crossing the river. While return 
 ing Melchor Diaz died from an accident, by 
 which he killed himself, throwing a lance at 
 a dog. 
 
 After Don Pedro de Tobar returned and 
 had given an account of those villages, he 
 then dispatched Don Garcia Lopez de Car 
 denas, the army-master, by the same road 
 Don Pedro had followed, to go beyond that 
 province of Tuzan to the west, and he allowed 
 him eighty days in which to go and return, 
 for the journey and to make the discoveries. 
 He was conducted beyond Tuzan by native 
 guides, who said there were settlements be 
 yond, although at a distance. Having gone 
 50 leagues west of Tuzan, and 80 from 
 Cibola, he found the edge of a river down 
 which it was impossible to find a path for a 
 horse in any direction, or even for a man on 
 foot, except in one very difficult place, where 
 there was a descent for almost 2 leagues. 
 The sides were such a steep rocky precipice 
 that it was scarcely possible to see the river, 
 which looks like a brook from above, although 
 it is half as large again as that of Seville, ac 
 cording to what they say, so that although 
 202 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 they sought for a passage with great dili 
 gence, none was found for a long distance, 
 during which they were for several days in 
 great need of water, which could not be 
 found, and they could not approach that of 
 the river, although they could see it, and on 
 this account Don Garcia Lopez was forced to 
 return. This river comes from the north 
 east and turns toward the south-southwest 
 at the place where they found it, so that it 
 is without any doubt the one that Melchor 
 Diaz reached. 
 
 Four days after Francisco Vazquez had 
 dispatched Don Garcia Lopez to make this 
 discovery, he dispatched Hernando de Al- 
 varado to explore the route toward the east. 
 He started off, and 30 leagues from Cibola 
 found a rock with a village on top, the 
 strongest position that ever was seen in the 
 world, which was called Acuco l in their lan 
 guage, and father Friar Marcos called it the 
 kingdom of Hacus. They came out to meet 
 us peacefully, although it would have been 
 easy to decline to do this and to have stayed 
 on their rock, where we would not have 
 been able to trouble them. They gave us 
 cloaks of cotton, skins of deer and of cows, 
 and turquoises, and fowls and other food 
 
 1 The Acoma people call their pueblo Ako, while 
 the name for themselves is Akome", signifying " peo 
 ple of the white rock." The Zuni name of Acoma, 
 as previously stated, is Hakukia; of the Acoma 
 people, Haku-kwe. Hacus was applied by Niza to 
 Hawikuh, not to Acoma Hodge. 
 203 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 which they had, which is the same as in 
 Cibola. 
 
 Twenty leagues to the east of this rock we 
 found a river which runs north and south, 1 
 well settled; there are in all, small and 
 large, 70 villages near it, a few more or less, 
 the same sort as those at Cibola, except that 
 they are almost all of well-made mud walls. 
 The food is neither more nor less. They 
 raise cotton I mean those who live near the 
 river the others not. There is much corn 
 here. These people do not have markets. 
 They are settled for 50 leagues along this 
 river, north and south, and some villages are 
 15 or 20 leagues distant, in one direction 
 and the other. This river rises where these 
 settlements end at the north, on the slope of 
 the mountains there, where there is a larger 
 village different from the others, called Yu- 
 raba. 2 It is settled in this fashion : It has 
 18 divisions; each one has a situation as if 
 for two ground plots; the houses are very 
 close together, and have five or six stories, 
 three of them with mud walls and two or 
 three with thin wooden walls, which become 
 smaller as they go up, and each one has its 
 little balcony outside of the mud walls, one 
 above the other, all around, of wood. In 
 this village, as it is in the mountains, they 
 do not raise cotton nor breed fowls; they 
 
 1 The Rio Grande. 
 
 2 Evidently Taos, the native name of which is 
 Tuata, the Picuris name being Tuopa, according to 
 Hodge. 
 
 204 
 
THE JOURNEY. OF CORONADO 
 
 wear the skins of deer and cows entirely. 
 It is the most populous village of all that 
 country; we estimated there were 15,000 
 souls in it. There is one of the other kind 
 of villages larger than all the rest, and very 
 strong, which is called Cicuique. 1 It has 
 four and live stories, has eight large court 
 yards, each one with its balcony, and there 
 are fine houses in it. 
 
 They do not raise cotton nor keep fowls, 
 because it is 15 leagues away from the river 
 to the east, toward the plains where the 
 cows are. After Alvarado had sent an ac 
 count of this river to Francisco Vazquez, he 
 proceeded forward to these plains, and at the 
 borders of these he found a little river which 
 flows to the southwest, and after four days 
 inarch he found the cows, which are the 
 most monstrous thing in the way of animals 
 which has ever been seen or read about. 
 lie followed this river for 100 leagues, find 
 ing more cows every day. We provided 
 ourselves with some of these, although at 
 first, until we had had experience, at the 
 risk of the horses. There is such a quantity 
 of them that I do not know what to compare 
 them with, except with the fish in the sea, 
 because on this journey, as also on that 
 which the whole army afterward made when 
 it was going to Quivira, there were so many 
 that many times when we started to pass 
 through the midst of them and wanted to go 
 
 1 Identical with Castaneda s Cicuyc or Cicuye 
 the pueblo of Pecos. 
 
 205 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 through to the other side of them, we were 
 not able to, because the country was covered 
 with them. The flesh of these is as good as 
 that of Castile, and some said it was even 
 better. 
 
 The bulls are large and brave, although 
 they do not attack very much; but they 
 have wicked horns, and in a fight use them 
 well, attacking fiercely ; they killed several 
 of our horses and wounded many. We 
 found the pike to be the best weapon to use 
 against them, and the musket for use when 
 this misses. 
 
 When Hernando de Alvarado returned 
 from these plains to the river which was 
 called Tiguex, he found the army -master 
 Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas getting ready 
 for the whole army, which was coming there. 
 When it arrived, although all these people 
 had met Hernaudo de Alvarado peacefully, 
 part of them rebelled when all the force came. 
 There were 12 villages near together, and 
 one night they killed 40 of our horses and 
 mules which were loose in the camp. They 
 fortified themselves in their villages, and 
 war was then declared against them. Don 
 Garcia Lopez went to the first and took it 
 and executed justice on many of them. 
 W r hen the rest saw this, they abandoned all 
 except two of the villages, one of these the 
 strongest one of all, around which the army 
 was kept for two months. And although 
 after we invested it, we entered it one day 
 and occupied a part of the flat roof, we were 
 206 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 forced to abandon this on account of the 
 many wounds that were received and because 
 it was so dangerous to maintain ourselves 
 there, and although we again entered it soon 
 afterward, in the end it was not possible to 
 get it all, and so it was surrounded all this 
 time. We finally captured it because of 
 their thirst, and they held out so long be 
 cause it snowed twice when they were just 
 about to give themselves up. In the end 
 we captured it, and many of them were 
 killed because they tried to get away at 
 night. 
 
 Francisco Vazquez obtained an account 
 from some Indians who were found in this 
 village of Cicuique, which, if it had been 
 true, was of the richest thing that has been 
 found in the Indies. The Indian who gave 
 the news and the account came from a vil 
 lage called Harale, 300 leagues east of this 
 river. He gave such a clear account of what 
 he told, as if it was true and he had seen it, 
 that it seemed plain afterward that it was 
 the devil who was speaking in him. Fran 
 cisco Vazquez and all of us placed much 
 confidence in him, although he was advised 
 by several gentlemen not to move the whole 
 army, but rather to send a captain to find 
 out what was there. He did not wish to do 
 this, but wanted to take every one, and even 
 to send Don Pedro de Tobar to the Hearts 
 for half the men who were in that village. 
 So he started with the whole army, and pro 
 ceeded 150 leagues, 100 to the east and 50 
 207 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 to the south, 1 and the Indian failing to 
 make good what he had said about there 
 being a settlement there, and corn, with 
 which to proceed farther, the other two 
 guides were asked how that was, and one 
 confessed that what the Indian said was a 
 lie, except that there was a province which 
 was called Quivira, and that there was com 
 and houses of straw there, but that they were 
 very far off, because we had been led astray 
 a distance from the road. Considering this, 
 and the small supply of food that was left, 
 Francisco Vazquez, after consulting with the 
 captains, determined to proceed with 30 of 
 the best men who were well equipped, and 
 that the army should return to the river; 
 and this was done at once. Two days before 
 this, Don Garcia Lopez horse had happened 
 to fall with him, and he threw his arm out 
 of joint, from which he suffered much, and 
 so Don Tristan de Arellano returned to the 
 river with the army. On this journey they 
 had a very hard time, because almost all of 
 them had nothing to eat except meat, and 
 many suffered on this account. They killed 
 a world of bulls and cows, for there were 
 days when they brought 60 and 70 head 
 into camp, and it was necessary to go hunt 
 ing every day, and on this account, and from 
 not eating any corn during all this time, the 
 horses suffered much. 
 
 Francisco Vazquez set out across these 
 
 1 Southeast, in Buckingham Smith s Munoz copy. 
 208 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 plains in search of Quivira, more on account 
 of the story which had been told us at the 
 river than from the confidence which was 
 placed in the guide here, and after proceed 
 ing many days by the needle (i. e., to the 
 north) it pleased God that after thirty days 
 march we found the river Quivira, which is 
 30 leagues below the settlement. While 
 going up the valley, we found people who 
 were going hunting, who were natives of 
 Quivira. 
 
 All that there is at Quivira is a very 
 brutish people, without any decency what 
 ever in their houses nor in any thing. These 
 are of straw, like the Tarascan settlements; 
 in some villages there are as many as 200 
 houses; they have corn and beans and 
 melons ; they do not have cotton nor fowls, 
 nor do they make bread which is cooked, 
 except under the ashes. Francisco Vazquez 
 went 25 leagues through these settlements, 
 to where he obtained an account of what was 
 beyond, and they said that the plains come 
 to an end, and that down the river there are 
 people who do not plant, but live wholly by 
 hunting. 
 
 They also gave an account of two other 
 large villages, one of which was called 
 Tareque and the other Arae, with straw 
 houses at Tareque, and at Arae some of 
 straw and some of skins. Copper was found 
 here, and they said it came from a distance. 
 
 1 Tuxeque, in the Mufioz copy. 
 209 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 From what the Indian had said, it is possi 
 ble that this village of Arae contains more, 1 
 from the clear description of it which he 
 gave. We did not find any trace or news of 
 it here. Francisco Vazquez returned from 
 here to the river of Tiguex, where he found 
 the army. We went back by a more direct 
 route, because in going by the way we went 
 we traveled 330 leagues, and it is not more 
 than 200 by that by which we returned. 
 Quivira is in the fortieth degree and the river 
 in the thirty-sixth. It was so dangerous to 
 travel or to go away from the camp in these 
 plains, that it is as if one was traveling on 
 the sea, since the only roads are those of the 
 cows, and they are so level and have no 
 mountain or prominent landmark, that if 
 one went out of sight of it, he was lost, and 
 in this way we lost one man, and others who 
 went hunting wandered around two or three 
 days, lost. 
 
 Two kinds of people travel around these 
 plains with the cows; one is called Quere- 
 chos and the others Teyas; they are very 
 well built, and painted, and are enemies of 
 each other. They have no other settlement 
 or location than comes from traveling around 
 witli the cows. They kill all of these they 
 wish, and tan the hides, with which they 
 clothe themselves and make their tents, and 
 they eat the flesh, sometimes even raw, and 
 they also even drink the blood when thirsty. 
 The tents they make are like field tents, and 
 1 Or mines, as Munoz guesses. 
 210 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 they set them up over some poles they have 
 made for this purpose, which come together 
 and are tied at the top, and when they go 
 from one place to another they carry them 
 on some dogs they have, of which they have 
 many, and they load them with the tents 
 and poles and other things, for the country 
 is so level, as I said, that they can make use 
 of these, because they carry the poles drag 
 ging along on the ground. The sun is what 
 they worship most. The skin for the tents 
 is cured on both sides, without the hair, and 
 they have the skins of deer and cows left 
 over. 1 They exchange some cloaks with the 
 natives of the river for corn. 
 
 After Francisco Vazquez reached the river, 
 where he found the army, Don Pedro de 
 Tobar came with half the people from the 
 Hearts, and Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas 
 started off for Mexico, who, besides the fact 
 that his arm was very bad, had permission 
 from the viceroy on account of the death of 
 his brother. Ten or twelve who were sick 
 went with him, and not a man among them 
 all who could fight. He reached the town 
 of the Spaniards and found it burned and 
 two Spaniards and many Indians and horses 
 dead, and he returned to the river on this 
 account, escaping from them by good fortune 
 and great exertions. The cause of this mis 
 fortune was that after Don Pedro started and 
 left 40 men there, half of these raised a mu- 
 
 1 And jerked beef dried in the sun, in the Munoz 
 copy only. 
 
 211 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 tiny and fled, and the Indians, who remem 
 bered the bad treatment they had received } 
 attacked them one night and overpowered 
 them because of their carelessness and weak 
 ness, and they fled to Culiacan. Francisco 
 Vazquez fell while running a horse about 
 this time and was sick a long time, and after 
 the winter was over he determined to come 
 back, and although they may say something 
 different, he did so, because he wanted to do 
 this more than anything, arid so we all came 
 together as far as Culiacan, and each one 
 went where he pleased from there, and Fran 
 cisco- Vazquez came here to Mexico to make 
 his report to the viceroy, who was not at all 
 pleased with his coming, although he pre 
 tended so at first. He was pleased that 
 Father Friar Juan de Padilla had stayed 
 there, who went to Quivira, and a Spaniard 
 and a negro with him, and Friar Luis, a 
 very holy ky brother, stayed in Cicuique. 
 We spent two very cold winters at this river, 
 with much snow and thick ice. The river 
 froze one night and remained so for more 
 than a month, so that loaded horses crossed 
 on the ice. The reason these villages are 
 settled in this fashion is supposed to be the 
 great cold, although it is also partly the wars 
 which they have with one another. And 
 this is all that was seen and found out about 
 all that country, which is very barren of 
 fruits and groves. Quivira is a better coun 
 try, having many huts and not being so cold, 
 although it is more to the. north. 
 212 
 
TRANSLATION OF A LETTER FROM 
 CORONADO TO THE KING, OCTO 
 BER 20, 1541 1 
 
 LETTERS FROM FRANCISCO VAZQUEZ CORO 
 NADO TO His MAJESTY, IN WHICH HE 
 GIVES AN ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY 
 OF THE PROVINCE OF TIGUEX. 
 
 HOLY CATHOLIC C.ESARIAN MAJESTY : On 
 April 20 of this year I wrote to Your Maj 
 esty from this province of Tiguex, in reply 
 to a letter from Your Majesty dated in Ma 
 drid, June 11 a year ago. I gave a detailed 
 account of this expedition, which the vice 
 roy of New Spain ordered me to undertake 
 in Your Majesty s name to this country 
 which was discovered by Friar Marcos of 
 Nice, the provincial of the order of Holy 
 Saint Francis. I described it all, and the 
 sort of force I have, as Your Majesty had 
 ordered me to relate in my letters; and 
 stated that/ while I was engaged in the con 
 quest and pacification of the natives of this 
 province, some Indians who were natives of 
 other provinces beyond these had told me 
 that in their country there were much larger 
 
 1 The text of this letter is printed in Pacheco y 
 Cardenas, Documentos de Indias, vol. iii, p. 363, 
 from a copy made by Munoz, and also in the same 
 collection, vol. xiii, p. 261, from a copy in the 
 Archives of th Indies at Seville. 
 213 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 villages and better houses than those of the 
 natives of this country, and that they had 
 lords who ruled them, who were served with 
 dishes of gold, and other very magnificent 
 things; and although, as I wrote Your Maj 
 esty, I did not believe it before I had set 
 eyes on it, because it was the report of In 
 dians and given for the most part by means 
 of signs, yet as the report appeared to me to 
 be very fine and that it was important that 
 it should be investigated for Your Majesty s 
 service, I determined to go and see it with 
 the men I have here. I started from this 
 province on the 23d of last April, for the 
 place where the Indians wanted to guide me. 
 After nine days march I reached some 
 plains, so vast that I did not find their limit 
 anywhere that I went, although I traveled 
 over them for more than 300 leagues. And 
 I found such a quantity of cows in these, of 
 the kind that I wrote Your Majesty about, 
 which they have in this country, that it is 
 impossible to number them, for while I was 
 journeying through these plains, until I re 
 turned to where I first found them, there was 
 not a day that I lost sight of them. And 
 after seventeen days march I came to a set 
 tlement of Indians who are called Querechos, 
 who travel around with these cows, who do 
 not plant, and who eat the raw flesh and 
 drink the blood of the cows they kill, and 
 they tan the skins of the cows, with which 
 all the people of this country dress them 
 selves here. They have little field tents 
 214 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 made of the hides of the cows, tanned and 
 greased, very well made, in which they live 
 while they travel around near the cows, 
 moving with these. They have dogs which 
 they load, which carry their tents and poles 
 and belongings. These people have the best 
 figures of any that I have seen in the Indies. 
 They could not give me any account of the 
 country where the guides were taking me. 
 I traveled five days more as the guides 
 wished to lead me, until I reached some 
 plains, with no more landmarks than as if 
 we had been swallowed up in the sea, where 
 they strayed about, because there was not a 
 stone, nor a bit of rising ground, nor a tree, 
 nor a shrub, nor anything to go by. There 
 is much very fine pasture land, with good 
 grass. And while we were lost in these 
 plains, some horsemen who went oft to hunt 
 cows fell in with some Indians who also 
 were out hunting, who are enemies of those 
 that I had seen in the last settlement, and 
 of another sort of people who are called 
 Teyas; they have their bodies and faces 
 all painted, are a large people like the others, 
 of a very good build ; they eat the raw flesh 
 just like the Querechos, and live and travel 
 round with the cows in the same way as 
 these. I obtained from these an account of 
 the country where the guides were taking 
 me, which was not like what they had told 
 me, because these made out that the houses 
 there were not built of stones, with stories, 
 as my guides had described it, but of straw 
 215 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 and skins, and a small supply of corn 
 there. 
 
 This news troubled me greatly, to find 
 myself on these limitless plains, where I 
 was in great need of water, and often had to 
 drink it so poor that it was more mud than 
 water. Here the guides confessed to me 
 that they had not told the truth in regard to 
 the size of the houses, because these were of 
 straw, but that they had done so regarding 
 the large number of inhabitants and the 
 other things about their habits. The Teyas 
 disagreed with this, and on account of this 
 division between some of the Indians and 
 the others, and also because many of the 
 men I had with me had not eaten anything 
 except meat for some days, because we had 
 reached the end of the com which we carried 
 from this province, and because they made 
 it out more than forty days journey from 
 where I fell in with the Teyas to the coun 
 try where the guides were taking me, al 
 though I appreciated the trouble and danger 
 there would be in the journey owing to the 
 lack of water and corn, it seemed to me best, 
 in order to see if there was anything there 
 of service to Your Majesty, to go forward 
 with only 30 horsemen until I should be 
 able to see the country, so as to give Your 
 Majesty a true account of what was to be 
 found in it. I sent all the rest of the force 
 I had with me to this province, with Don 
 Tristan de Arellano in command, because it 
 would have been impossible to prevent the 
 216 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 loss of many men, if all had gone on, owing 
 to the lack of water and because they also 
 had to kill bulls and cows on which to sus 
 tain themselves. And with only the 30 
 horsemen whom I took for my escort, I trav 
 eled forty-two days after I left the force, 
 living all this while solely on the flesh of 
 the bulls and cows which we killed, at the 
 cost of several of our horses which they 
 killed, because, as I wrote Your Majesty, 
 they are very brave and fierce animals; and 
 going many days without water, and cook 
 ing the food with cow dung, because there is 
 not any kind of wood in all these plains, 
 away from the gullies and rivers, which are 
 very few. 
 
 It was the Lord s pleasure that, after hav 
 ing journeyed across these deserts seventy - 
 seven days, I arrived at the province they 
 call Quivira, to which the guides were con 
 ducting me, and where they had described to 
 me houses of stone, with many stories; and 
 not only are they not of stone, but of straw, 
 but the people in them are as barbarous as 
 all those whom I have seen and passed be 
 fore this ; they do not have cloaks, nor cot 
 ton of which to make these, but use the 
 skins of the cattle they kill, which they tan, 
 because they are settled among these on a 
 very large river. They eat the raw flesh like 
 the Querechos and Teyas; they are enemies 
 of one another, but are all of the same sort 
 of people, and these at Quivira have the ad 
 vantage in the houses they build and in 
 217 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 planting corn. In this province of which 
 the guides who brought me are natives, they 
 received me peaceably, and although they 
 told me when I set out for it that I could 
 not succeed in seeing it all in two months, 
 there are not more than 25 villages of straw 
 houses there and in all the rest of the coun 
 try that I saw and learned about, which gave 
 their obedience to Your Majesty and placed 
 themselves under your royal overlordship. 
 
 The people here are large. I had several 
 Indians measured, and found that they were 
 10 palms in height; the women are well 
 proportioned and their features are more like 
 Moorish women than Indians. The natives 
 here gave me a piece of copper which a chief 
 Indian wore hung around his neck ; I sent it 
 to the viceroy of New Spain, because I have 
 not seen any other metal in these parts ex 
 cept this and some little copper bells which 
 I sent him, and a bit of metal which looks 
 like gold. I do not know where this came 
 from, although I believe that the Indians 
 who gave it to me obtained it from those 
 whom I brought here in my service, because 
 I can not find any other origin for it nor 
 where it came from. The diversity of lan 
 guages which exists in this country and my 
 not having anyone who understood them, 
 because they speak their own language in 
 each village, has hindered me, because I 
 have been forced to send captains and men 
 in many directions to find out whether there 
 was anything in this country which could 
 218 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 be of service to Your Majesty. And although 
 I have searched with all diligence I have not 
 found or heard of anything, unless it be these 
 provinces, which are a very small affair. 
 
 The province of Quivira is 950 leagues 
 from Mexico. Where I reached it, it is in 
 the fortieth degree. The country itself is 
 the best I have ever seen for producing 
 all the products of Spain, for besides the 
 land itself being very fat and black and being 
 very well watered by the rivulets and springs 
 and rivers, I found prunes like those of Spain 
 [or I found everything they have in Spam] 
 and nuts and very good sweet grapes and 
 mulberries. I have treated the natives of 
 this province, and all the others whom I 
 found wherever I went, as well as was pos 
 sible, agreeably to what Your Majesty had 
 commanded, and they have received no harm 
 in any way from me or from those who went 
 in my company. 1 I remained twenty-five 
 days in this province of Quivira, so as to see 
 and explore the country and also to find out 
 whether there was anything beyond which 
 could be of service to Your Majesty, because 
 the guides who had brought me had given 
 me an account of other provinces beyond this. 
 And what I am sure of is that there is not 
 any gold nor any other metal in all that 
 country, and the other things of which they 
 had told me are nothing but little villages, 
 and in many of these they do not plant any- 
 
 1 Coronado bad apparently forgotten the atrocities 
 committed by the Spaniards at Tiguex. 
 219 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 thing and do not have any houses except of 
 skins and sticks, and they wander around 
 with the cows; so that the account they 
 gave me was false, because they wanted to 
 persuade ine to go there with the whole 
 force, believing that as the way was through 
 such uninhabited deserts, and from the lack 
 of water, they would get us where we and 
 our horses would die of hunger. And the 
 guides confessed this, and said they had 
 done it by the advice and orders of the na 
 tives of these provinces. At this, after hav 
 ing heard the account of what was beyond, 
 which I have given above, I returned to 
 these provinces to provide for the force I had 
 sent back here and to give Your Majesty an 
 account of what this country amounts to, 
 because I wrote Your Majesty that I would 
 do so when I went there. 
 
 I have done all that I possibly could to 
 serve Your Majesty and to discover a coun 
 try where God Our Lord might be served 
 and the royal patrimony of Your Majesty 
 increased, as your loyal servant and vassal. 
 For since I reached the province of Cibola, 
 to which the viceroy of New Spain sent me 
 in the name of Your Majesty, seeing that 
 there were none of the things there of which 
 Friar Marcos had told, I have managed to 
 explore this country for 200 leagues and 
 more around Cibola, and the best place I 
 have found is this river of Tiguex where I 
 am now, and the settlements here. It would 
 not be possible to establish a settlement 
 220 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 here, for besides being 400 leagues from the 
 North sea and more than 200 from the 
 South sea, with which it is impossible to 
 have any sort of communication, the coun 
 try is so cold, as I have written to Your 
 Majesty, that apparently the winter could 
 not possibly be spent here, because there is 
 no wood, nor cloth with which to protect the 
 men, except the skins which the natives 
 wear and some small amount of cotton cloaks. 
 T send the viceroy of New Spain an account 
 of everything I have seen in the countries 
 where I have been, and as Don Garcia Lopez 
 de Cardenas is going to kiss Your Majesty s 
 hands, who has done much and has served 
 Your Majesty very well on this expedition, 
 and he will give Your Majesty an account 
 of everything here, as one who has seen it 
 himself, I give way to him. And may Our 
 Lord protect the Holy Imperial Catholic 
 person of Your Majesty, with increase of 
 greater kingdoms and powers, as your loyal 
 servants and vassals desire. From this 
 
 province of Tiguex, October 20, in the year 
 1541. Your Majesty s humble servant and 
 vassal, who would kiss the royal feet and 
 hands : 
 
 FRANCISCO VAZQUEZ CORONADO. 
 
 221 
 
TRANSLATION OF THE NARRATIVE 
 OF JARAMILLO 
 
 ACCOUNT GIVEN BY CAPTAIN JUAN JARA 
 MILLO OF THE JOURNEY WHICH HE MADE 
 TO THE NEW COUNTRY, ON WHICH 
 FRANCISCO VAZQUEZ CORONADO WAS THE 
 
 GENERAL. 1 
 
 WE started from Mexico, going directly 
 to Compostela, the whole way populated aud 
 at peace, the direction being west, and the 
 distance 112 leagues. From there we went 
 to Culiacan, perhaps about 80 leagues; the 
 road is well known and much used, because 
 there is a town inhabited by Spaniards in 
 the said valley of Culiacan, under the gov 
 ernment of Compostela. The 70 horsemen 
 who went with the general went in a north - 
 westerly direction from this town. He left 
 his army here, because information had been 
 obtained that the way was uninhabited and 
 almost the whole of it without food. He 
 went with the said horsemen to explore the 
 route and prepare the way for those who 
 were to follow. He pursued this direction, 
 though with some twisting, until we crossed 
 
 1 The text of this narrative is found in Bucking 
 ham Smith s Florida, p. 154, from a copy made by 
 Munoz, and in Pacheco y Cardenas, Documentos de 
 Indias, vol. xiv, p. 304, from the copy in the 
 Archives of the Indies. 
 
 222 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 a mountain chain, where they knew about 
 New Spain, more than 300 leagues distant. 
 To this pass we gave the name of Chichilte 
 Calli, because we learned that this was what 
 it was called, from some Indians whom we 
 left behind. 
 
 Leaving the said valley of Culiacan, he 
 crossed a river called Pateatlan (or Peteat- 
 lan), which was about four days distant. 
 We found these Indians peaceful, and they 
 gave us some few things to eat. From here 
 we went to another river called Cinaloa, 
 which was about three days from the other. 
 From here the general ordered ten of us 
 horsemen to make double marches, lightly 
 equipped, until we reached the stream of the 
 Cedars (arroyo de los Cedros) , and from there 
 we were to enter a break in the mountains 
 on the right of the road and see what there 
 was in and about this. If more time should 
 be needed for this than we gained on him, 
 he would wait for us at the said Cedros 
 stream. This was done, and all that we 
 saw there was a few poor Indians in some 
 settled valleys like farms or estates, with 
 sterile soil. It was about five more days 
 from the river to this stream. From there 
 we went to the river called Yaquemi, which 
 took about three days. We proceeded along 
 a dry stream, and after three days more of 
 marching, although the dry stream lasted 
 only for a league, we reached another stream 
 where there were some settled Indians, who 
 had straw huts and storehouses of corn and 
 223 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 beans and melons. Leaving here, we went 
 to the stream and village which is called 
 Hearts (Corazones), the name which was 
 given it by Dorantes and Cabeza cle Vaca 
 and Castillo and the negro Estebanillo, be 
 cause they gave them a present of the hearts 
 of animals and birds to eat. 
 
 About two days were spent in this village 
 of the Hearts. There is an irrigation stream, 
 and the country is warm. Their dwellings 
 are huts made of a frame of poles, almost 
 like an oven, only very much better, which 
 they cover with mats. They have corn and 
 beans and melons for food, which I believe 
 never fail them. They dress in deerskins. 
 This appeared to be a good place, and so 
 orders were given the Spaniards who were 
 behind to establish a village here, where they 
 lived until almost the failure of the expedi 
 tion. There was a poison here, the effect of 
 which is, according to what was seen of it, 
 the worst that could possibly be found ; and 
 from what we learned about it, it is the 
 sap of a small tree like the rnastick tree, or 
 lentisk, and it grows in gravelly and sterile 
 land. We went on from here, passing through 
 a sort of gateway, to another valley very 
 near this stream, which opens off from this 
 same stream, which is called Senora. It is 
 also irrigated, and the Indians are like the 
 others and have the same sort of settlements 
 and food. This valley continues for 6 or 7 
 leagues, a little more or less. 
 
 At first these Indians were peaceful ; and 
 224 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 afterward not, but instead they and those 
 whom they were able to summon thither 
 were our worst enemies. They have a poi 
 son with which they killed several Chris 
 tians. There are mountains on both sides 
 of them, which are not very fertile. From 
 here we went along near this said stream, 
 crossing it where it makes a bend, to another 
 Indian settlement called Ispa. ] It takes one 
 day from the last of these others to this 
 place. It is of the same sort as those we 
 had passed. From here we went through 
 deserted country for about four days to an 
 other river, which we heard called Nexpa, 
 where some poor Indians came out to see 
 the general, with presents of little value, 
 with some stalks of roasted maguey and 
 pitahayas. We went down this stream two 
 days, and then left the stream, going toward 
 the right to the foot of the mountain chain 
 in two days journey, where we heard news 
 of what is called Chichiltic Calli. Crossing 
 the mountains, we came to a deep and reedy 
 river, where we found water and forage for 
 the horses. From this river back at Nexpa, 
 as I have said, it seems to me that the direc 
 tion was nearly northeast. From here, I 
 believe that we went in the same direction 
 for three days to a river which we called Saint 
 
 1 See Bandelier s Gilded Man, p. 175. This is 
 Castaneda s " Guagarispa " as mistakenly interpreted 
 by Ternaux-Compans, the present Arispe, or, in the 
 Indian dialect, Huc-aritz-pa. The words "Ispa, 
 que " are not in the Pacheco y Cardenas copy. 
 225 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 John (San Juan), because we reached it on 
 his day. Leaving here, we went to another 
 river, through a somewhat rough country, 
 more toward the north, to a river which we 
 called the Kafts (de las Balsas), because we 
 had to cross on these, as it was rising. It 
 seems to me that we spent two days between 
 one river and the other, and I say this be 
 cause it is so long since we went there that 
 I may be wrong in some days, though not in 
 the rest. From here we went to another 
 river, which we called the Slough (de la 
 Barranca). It is two short days from one 
 to the other, and the direction almost north 
 east. From here we went to another river, 
 which we called the Cold river (el rio Frio), 
 on account of its water being so, in one 
 day s journey, and from here we went by a 
 pine mountain, where we found, almost at 
 the top of it, a cool spring and streamlet, 
 which was another clay s march. In the 
 neighborhood of this stream a Spaniard, who 
 was called Espinosa, died, besides two other 
 persons, on account of poisonous plants 
 which they ate, owing to the great need in 
 which they were. 
 
 From here we went to another river, which 
 we called the Eed river (Bermejo), two days 
 journey in the same direction, but less to 
 ward the northeast. Here we saw an Indian 
 or two, who afterward appeared to belong to 
 the first settlement of Cibola. From here 
 we came in two days journey to the said 
 village, the first of Cibola. The houses have 
 226 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 flat roofs and walls of stone and mud, and 
 this was where they killed Steve (Esteba- 
 nillo), the negro who had come with Dorantes 
 from Florida and returned with Friar Mar 
 cos de Niza. In this province of Cibola 
 there are five little villages besides this, all 
 with flat roofs and of stone and mud, as I 
 said. The country is cold, as is shown by 
 their houses and hothouses (estufas). They 
 have food enough for themselves, of corn and 
 beans and melons. These villages are about 
 a league or more apart from each other, 
 within a circuit of perhaps 6 leagues. The 
 country is somewhat sandy and not very 
 salty (or barren of vegetation l ), and on the 
 mountains the trees are for the most part 
 evergreen. The clothing of the Indians is 
 of deerskins, very carefully tanned, and they 
 also prepare some tanned cowhides, with 
 which they cover themselves, which are like 
 shawls, and a great protection. They have 
 square cloaks of cotton, some larger than 
 others, about a yard and a half long. The 
 Indians wear them thrown over the shoulder 
 like a gipsy, and fastened with one end over 
 the other, with a girdle, also of cotton. 
 From this first village of Cibola, looking to 
 ward the northeast and a little less, on the 
 left hand, there is a province called Tucayan, 
 about five days off, which has seven flat- 
 roof villages, with a food supply as good as 
 or better than these, and an even larger 
 
 1 Doubtless the reference is to the alkali soil and 
 vegetation. 
 
 227 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 population ; and they also have the skins of 
 cows and of deer, and cloaks of cotton, as I 
 described. 
 
 All the waterways we found as far as this 
 one at Cibola and I do not know but what 
 for a day or two beyond the rivers and 
 streams run into the South sea, and those 
 from here on into the North sea. 
 
 From this first village of Cibola, as I have 
 said, we went to another in the same prov 
 ince, which was about a short day s journey 
 off, on the way to Tihuex. It is nine days, 
 of such marches as we made, from this set 
 tlement of Cibola to the river of Tihuex. 
 Halfway between, I do not know but it may 
 be a day more or less, there is a village of 
 earth and dressed stone, in a very strong 
 position, which is called Tutahaco. 1 All 
 these Indians, except the first in the first 
 village of Cibola, received us well. At the 
 river of Tihuex there are 15 villages within 
 a distance of about 20 leagues, all with flat- 
 roof houses of earth, instead of stone, after 
 the fashion of mud walls. There are other 
 villages besides these on other streams which 
 flow into this, and three of these are, for In 
 dians, well worth seeing, especially one that 
 is called Chia, 2 and another Uraba, 3 and 
 another Cicuique. 4 Uraba and Cicuique 
 
 1 Acoma. 2 Sia. 
 
 3 Identical with Taos the Braba of Castaneda and 
 the Yuraba of the Relaciou del Suceso. 
 
 4 Pecos. In Pacheco y Cardenas this is spelled 
 Tieuique. 
 
 228 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 have many houses two stories high. All 
 the rest, and these also, have corn and beans 
 and melons, skins, and some long robes of 
 feathers which they braid, joining the feathers 
 with a sort of thread ; and they also make 
 them of a sort of plain weaving with which 
 they make the cloaks with which they pro 
 tect themselves. They all have hot rooms 
 underground, which, although not very clean, 
 are very warm. 1 They raise and have a very 
 little cotton, of which they make the cloaks 
 which I have spoken of above. This river 
 comes from the northwest and flows about 
 southeast, which shows that it certainly 
 flows into the North sea. 
 
 Leaving this settlement a and the said 
 river, we passed two other villages whose 
 names I do not know, 3 and in four days 
 came to Cicuique, which I have already men 
 tioned. The direction of this is toward the 
 northeast. From there we came to another 
 river, which the Spaniards named after 
 Cicuique, in three days; if I remember 
 rightly, it seems to me that we went rather 
 toward the northeast to reach this river 
 where we crossed it, and after crossing this, 
 we turned more to the left hand, which 
 would be more to the northeast, and began 
 
 1 All references to hot rooms or estufas are of 
 course to be construed to mean the kivas or cere 
 monial chambers. 
 
 2 Tiguex is here doubtless referred to. 
 
 3 One of the villages whose names Jaramillo did 
 not know was probably the Ximena (Galisteo) of 
 Castaneda. 
 
 229 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 to enter the plains where the cows are, al 
 though we did not find them for some four 
 or five days, after which we began to come 
 across bulls, of which there are great num 
 bers, and after going on in the same direc 
 tion and meeting the bulls for two or three 
 days, we began to find ourselves in the midst 
 of very great numbers of cows, yearlings and 
 bulls all in together. We found Indians 
 among these first cows, who were, on this 
 account, called Querechos by those in the 
 flat-roof houses. They do not live in houses, 
 but have some sets of poles which they carry 
 with them to make some huts at the places 
 where they stop, which serve them for houses. 
 They tie these poles together at the top and 
 stick the bottoms into the ground, covering 
 them with some cowskins which they carry 
 around, and which, as I have said, serve 
 them for houses. From what was learned 
 of these Indians, all their human needs are 
 supplied by these cows, for they are fed and 
 clothed and shod from these. They are a 
 people who wander around here and there, 
 wherever seems to them best. We went on 
 for eight or ten days in the same direction, 
 along those streams which are among the 
 cows. 
 
 The Indian who guided us from here was 
 the one that had given us the news about 
 Quevira and Arache (or Arahei) and about 
 its being a very rich country with much 
 gold and other things, and he and the other 
 one were from that country I mentioned, to 
 230 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 which we were going, and we found these 
 two Indians in the flat-roof villages. It 
 seems that, as the said Indian wanted to go 
 to his own country, he proceeded to tell us 
 what we found was not true, and I do not 
 know whether it was on this account or be 
 cause he was counseled to take us into other 
 regions by confusing us on the road, although 
 there are none in all this region except those 
 of the cows. We understood, however, that 
 he was leading us away from the route we 
 ought to follow and that he wanted to lead 
 us on to those plains where he had led us, 
 so that we would eat up the food, and both 
 ourselves and our horses would become weak 
 from the lack of this, because if we should 
 go either backward or forward in this condi 
 tion we could not make any resistance to 
 whatever they might wish to do to us. From 
 the time when, as I said, we entered the 
 plains and from this settlement of Quere- 
 chos, he led us off more to the east, until we 
 came to be in extreme need from the lack of 
 food, and as the other Indian, who was his 
 companion and also from his country, saw 
 that he was not taking us where we ought 
 to go, since we had always followed the 
 guidance of the Turk, for so he was called, 
 instead of his, he threw himself down in the 
 way, making a sign that although we cut off 
 his head he ought not to go that way, nor 
 was that our direction. 
 
 I believe we had been traveling twenty 
 days or more in this direction, at the end of 
 231 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 which we found another settlement of In 
 dians of the same sort and way of living as 
 those behind, among whom there was an old 
 blind man with a beard, who gave us to 
 understand, by signs which he made, that 
 he had seen four others like us many days 
 before, whom he had seen near there and 
 rather more toward New Spain, and we so 
 understood him, and presumed that it was 
 Dorantes and Cabeza de Vaca and those 
 whom I have mentioned. 
 
 At this settlement the general, seeing our 
 difficulties, ordered the captains, and the 
 persons whose advice he was accustomed 
 to take, to assemble, so that we might dis 
 cuss with him what was best for all. It 
 seemed to us that all the force should go 
 back to the region we had come from, in 
 search of food, so that they could regain 
 their strength, and that 30 picked horsemen 
 should go in search of what the Indian had 
 told about ; and we decided to do this. We 
 all went forward one day to a stream which 
 was down in a ravine in the midst of good 
 meadows, to agree on who should go ahead 
 and how the rest should return. Here the 
 Indian Isopete, as we had called the com 
 panion of the said Turk, was asked to tell us 
 the truth, and to lead us to that country 
 which we had come in search of. He said 
 he would do it, and that it was not as the 
 Turk had said, because those were certainly 
 fine things which he had said and had given 
 us to understand at Tihuex, about gold and 
 232 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 how it was obtained, and the buildings, and 
 the style of them, and their trade, and many 
 other things told for the sake of prolixity, 
 which had led us to go in search of them, 
 with the advice of all who gave it and of 
 the priests. He asked us to leave him after 
 ward in that country, because it was his na 
 tive country, as a reward for guiding us, and 
 also, that the Turk might not go along with 
 him, because he would quarrel and try to 
 restrain him in everything that he wanted 
 to do for our advantage; and the general 
 promised him this, and said he would be 
 with one of the thirty, and he went in this 
 way. And when everything was ready for 
 us to set out and for the others to remain, 
 we pursued our way, the direction all the 
 time after this being toward the north, for 
 more than thirty days march, although not 
 long marches, not having to go without 
 water on any one of them, and among cows 
 all the time, some days in larger numbers 
 than others, according to the water which 
 we came across, so that on Saint Peter and 
 Paul s day we reached a river which we 
 found to be there below Quibira. 
 
 When he reached the said river, the In 
 dian recognized it and said that was it, and 
 that it was below the settlements. We 
 crossed it there and went up the other side 
 on the north, the direction turning toward 
 the northeast, and after marching three days 
 we found some Indians who were going 
 hunting, killing the cows to take the meat 
 283 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 to their village, which was about three or 
 four days still farther away from us. Here 
 where we found the Indians and they saw 
 us, they began to utter yells and appeared 
 to fly, and some even had their wives there 
 with them. The Indian Isopete began to 
 call them in his language, and so they came 
 to us without any signs of fear. When we 
 and these Indians had halted here, the gen 
 eral made an example of the Indian Turk, 
 whom we had brought along, keeping him 
 all the time out of sight among the rear 
 guard, and having arrived where the place 
 was prepared, it was done in such a way 
 that the other Indian, who was called Iso 
 pete, should not see it, so as to give him the 
 satisfaction he had asked. Some satisfac 
 tion was experienced here on seeing the good 
 appearance of the earth, and it is certainly 
 such among the cows, and from there on. 
 The general wrote a letter here to the gov 
 ernor of Harahey and Quibira, having under 
 stood that he was a Christian from the lost 
 army of Florida, because what the Indian 
 had said of their manner of government and 
 their general character had made us believe 
 this. So the Indians went to their houses, 
 which were at the distance mentioned, and 
 we also proceeded at our rate of marching 
 until we reached the settlements, which we 
 found along good river bottoms, although 
 without much water, and good streams which 
 flow into another, larger than the one I have 
 mentioned. There were, if I recall correctly, 
 234 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 six or seven settlements, at quite a distance 
 from one another, among which we traveled 
 for four or five clays, since it was understood 
 to be uninhabited between one stream and 
 the other. 
 
 We reached what they said was the end 
 of Quibira, to which they took us, saying 
 that the things there were of great impor 
 tance. 1 Here there was a river, with more 
 water and more inhabitants than the others. 
 Being asked if there was anything beyond, 
 they said that there was nothing more of 
 Quibira, but that there was Harahey, and 
 that it was the same sort of a place, with 
 settlements like these, and of about the same 
 size. The general sent to summon the lord 
 of those parts and the other Indians who 
 they said resided in Harahey, and he came 
 with about 200 men all naked with 
 bows, and some sort of things on their heads, 
 and their privy parts slightly covered. He 
 was a big Indian, with a large body and 
 limbs, and well proportioned. After he had 
 heard the opinion of one and another about 
 it, the general asked them what we ought to 
 do, reminding us of how the army had been 
 left and that the rest of us were there, so 
 that it seemed to all of us that as it was 
 already almost the opening of winter, for, if 
 I remember rightly, it was after the middle 
 of August, and because there was little to 
 
 1 In Buckingham Smith s copy occurs the phrase, 
 "que decian ellos para significarnoslo Teucarea." 
 This is not in Pacheco y Cardenas. 
 235 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 winter there for, aud we were but very little 
 prepared for it, and the uncertainty as to 
 the success of the army that had been left, 
 and because the winter might close the roads 
 with snow and rivers which we could not 
 cross, and also in order to see what had hap 
 pened to the rest of the force left behind, it 
 seemed to us all that his grace ought to go 
 back in search of them, and when lie had 
 found out for certain how they were, to win 
 ter there and return to that country at the 
 opening of spring, to conquer and cultivate it. 
 
 Since, as I said, this was the last point 
 which we reached, here the Turk saw that 
 he had lied to us, and one night he called 
 on all these people to attack us and kill us. 
 We learned of it, and put him under guard 
 and strangled him that night so that he 
 never waked up. With the plan mentioned, 
 we turned back it may have been two or 
 three days, where we provided ourselves 
 with picked fruit and dried corn for our re 
 turn. The general raised a cross at this 
 place, at the foot of which he made some 
 letters with a chisel, which said that Fran 
 cisco Vazquez de Coronado, general of that 
 army, had arrived here. 
 
 This country presents a very fine appear 
 ance, than which I have not seen a better in 
 all our Spain nor Italy nor a part of France, 
 nor, indeed, in the other countries where I 
 have traveled in His Majesty s service, for 
 it is not a very rough country, but is made 
 up of hillocks and plains, and very fine ap- 
 230 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 pearing rivers and streams, which certainly 
 satisfied me and made me sure that it will 
 be very fruitful in all sorts of products. In 
 deed, there is profit in the cattle ready to the 
 hand, from the quantity of them, which is 
 as great as one could imagine. We found a 
 variety of Castilian prunes which are not all 
 red, but some of them black and green ; the 
 tree and fruit is certainly like that of Cas 
 tile, with a very excellent flavor. Among 
 the cows we found flax, which springs up 
 from the earth in clumps apart from one 
 another, which are noticeable, as the cattle 
 do not eat it, with their tops and blue 
 flowers, and very perfect although small, 
 resembling that of our own Spain (or and 
 sumach like ours in Spain). There are 
 grapes along some streams, of a fair flavor, 
 not to be improved upon. 
 
 The houses which these Indians have 
 were of straw, and most of them round, and 
 the straw reached down to the ground like a 
 wall, so that they did not have the sym 
 metry or the style of these here ; they have 
 something like a chapel or sentry box out 
 side and around these, with an entry, where 
 the Indians appear seated or reclining. The 
 Indian Isopete was left here where the cross 
 was erected, and we took five or six of the 
 Indians from these villages to lead and guide 
 us to the flat-roof houses. 1 Thus they 
 brought us back by the same road as far as 
 
 The pueblos of the Rio Grande. 
 237 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 where I said before that we came to a river 
 called Saint Peter and Paul s, and here we 
 left that by which we had come, and, taking 
 the right hand, they led us along by water 
 ing places and among cows and by a good 
 road, although there are none either one way 
 or the other except those of the cows, as I 
 have said. At last we came to where we 
 recognized the country, where I said we 
 found the first settlement, where the Turk 
 led us astray from the route we should have 
 followed. Thus, leaving the rest aside, we 
 reached Tiguex, where we found the rest of 
 the army, and here the general fell while 
 running his horse, by which he received a 
 wound on his head which gave symptoms of 
 turning out badly, and he conceived the idea 
 of returning, which ten or twelve of us were 
 unable to prevent by dissuading him from it. 
 When this return had been ordered, the 
 Franciscan friars who were with us one of 
 them a regular and the other a lay brother 
 who were called, the regular one Friar Juan 
 de Padilla and the lay one Friar Luis de 
 Escalona, were told to get ready, although 
 they had permission from their provincial 
 so that they could remain. Friar Luis wished 
 to remain in these flat-roof houses, saying 
 that he would raise crosses for those vil 
 lagers with a chisel and adze they left him, 
 and would baptize several poor creatures who 
 could be led, on the point of death, so as to 
 send them to heaven, for which he did not 
 desire any other company than a little slave 
 238 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 of mine who was called Christopher, to be 
 his consolation, and who he said would learn 
 the language there quickly so as to help 
 him ; and he brought up so many things in 
 favor of this that he could not be denied, 
 and so nothing more has been heard from 
 him. The knowledge that this friar would 
 remain there was the reason that many In 
 dians from hereabouts stayed there, and also 
 two negroes, one of them mine, who was 
 called Sebastian, and the other one of Mel- 
 chor Perez, the son of the licentiate La Torre. 
 This negro was married and had his wife 
 and children. I also recall that several In 
 dians remained behind in the Quivira region, 
 besides a Tarascan belonging to my com 
 pany, who was named Andrew. Friar Juan 
 de Padilla preferred to return to Quivira, 
 and persuaded them to give him those In 
 dians whom I said we had brought as guides. 
 They gave him these, and he also took a 
 Portuguese and a free Spanish-speaking In 
 dian, who was the interpreter, and who 
 passed as a Franciscan friar, and a half-blood 
 and two Indians from Capottan (or Capotean) 
 or thereabouts, I believe. He had brought 
 these up and took them in the habits of 
 friars, and he took some sheep and mules 
 and a horse and ornaments and other trifles. 
 I do not know whether it was for the sake 
 of these or for what reason, but it seems 
 that they killed him, and those who did it 
 were the lay servants, or these same Indians 
 whom he took back from Tiguex, in return 
 239 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 for the good deeds which he had done. 
 When he was dead, the Portuguese whom I 
 mentioned fled, and also one of the Indians 
 that I said he took in the habits of friars, 
 or both of them, I believe. I mention this 
 because they came back to this country of 
 New Spain by another way and a shorter 
 route than the one of which I have told, and 
 they came out in the valley of Panico. 1 I 
 have given Gonzalo Solis de Meras and Isi- 
 doro de Solis an account of this, because it 
 seemed to me important, according to what 
 I say I have understood, that His Majesty 
 ordered Your Lordship to find or discover a 
 way so as to unite that land to this. It is 
 perhaps also very likely that this Indian Se 
 bastian, during the time he was in Quivira, 
 learned about its territory and the country 
 round about it, and also of the sea, and the 
 road by which he came, and what there is 
 to it, and how many days journey before 
 arriving there. So that I am sure that if 
 Your Lordship acquires this Quivira on this 
 account, I am certain that he can confidently 
 bring many people from Spain to settle it 
 according to the appearance and the charac 
 ter of the land. 
 
 1 This is the spelling of Panuco in both texts. 
 
 240 
 
TRANSLATION OF THE REPOET OF 
 HERNANDO DE ALVARADO 
 
 ACCOUNT OF WHAT HERNANDO DE ALVA 
 RADO AND FRIAR JUAN DE PAD ILL A 
 DISCOVERED GOING IN SEARCH OF THE 
 SOUTH SEA. 1 
 
 WE set out from Granada on Sunday, the 
 clay of the beheading of Saint John the Bap 
 tist, the 29th of August, in the year 1540, 
 on the way to Coco. 2 After we had gone 2 
 leagues, we came to an ancient building 
 like a fortress, and a league beyond this we 
 found another, and yet another a little farther 
 on, and beyond these we found an ancient 
 city, very large, entirely destroyed, although 
 a large part of the wall was standing, which 
 was six times as tall as a man, the wall well 
 made of good worked stone, with gates and 
 gutters like a city in Castile. Half a league 
 or more beyond this, we found another rained 
 city, the walls of which must have been very 
 fine, built of very large granite blocks, as 
 high as a man and from there up of very 
 
 1 The text of this report is printed in Buckingham 
 Smith s Florida, p. 65, from the Munoz copy, and 
 in Pacheco y Cardenas, Documentos de Indias, vol. 
 iii, p. 511. 
 
 2 Acuco or Acoma. The route taken by Alvarado 
 was not the same as that followed by Coronado, who 
 went by way of Matsaki. Alvarado s course was 
 the old Acoma trail which led directly eastward 
 from Hawikuh or Ojo Caliente. 
 
 241 
 
THE JOURNEY OF COROXADO 
 
 good quarried stone. Here two roads sepa 
 rate, one to Chia and the other to Coco ; we 
 took this latter, and reached that place, 
 which is one of the strongest places that we 
 have seen, because the city is on a very high 
 rock, with such a rough ascent that we re 
 pented having gone up to the place. The 
 houses have three or four stories ; the people 
 are the same sort as those of the province of 
 Cibola; they have plenty of food, of corn 
 and beans and fowls like those of New 
 Spain. From here we went to a very good 
 lake or marsh, where there are trees like 
 those of Castile, and from there we went to 
 a river, which we named Our Lady (Nuestra 
 Senora), because we reached it the evening 
 before her day in the month of September. 1 
 We sent the cross by a guide to the villages 
 in advance, and the next day people came 
 from twelve villages, the chief men and the 
 people in order, those of one village behind 
 those of another, and they approached the 
 tent to the sound of a pipe, and with an old 
 man for spokesman. In this fashion they 
 came into the tent and gave me the food 
 and clothes and skins they had brought, and 
 I gave them some trinkets, and with this 
 they went off. 
 
 This river of Our Lady flows through a 
 very wide open plain sowed with corn 
 plants; there are several groves, and there 
 
 1 Day of the nativity of the Blessed Virgin, Sep 
 tember 8. This was the Tiguex or present Rio 
 Grande. 
 
 242 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 are twelve villages. The houses are of 
 earth, two stories high ; the people have a 
 good appearance, more like laborers than a 
 warlike race ; they have a large food supply 
 of corn, beans, melons, and fowl in great 
 plenty ; they clothe themselves with cotton 
 and the skins of cows and dresses of the 
 feathers of the fowls ; they wear their hair 
 short. Those who have the most authority 
 among them are the old men ; we regarded 
 them as witches, because they say that they 
 go up into the sky and other things of the 
 same sort. In this province there are seven 
 other villages, depopulated and destroyed by 
 those Indians who paint their eyes, of whom 
 the guides will tell Your Grace; they say 
 that these live in the same region as the 
 cows, and that they have com and houses of 
 straw. 
 
 Here the people from the outlying prov 
 inces came to make peace with me, and as 
 Your Grace may see in this memorandum, 
 there are 80 villages there of the same sort 
 as I have described, and among them one 
 which is located on some streams; it is 
 divided into twenty divisions, which is 
 something remarkable ; the houses have three 
 stories of mud walls and three others made 
 of small wooden boards, and on the outside 
 of the three stories with the mud wall they 
 have three balconies; it seemed to us that 
 there were nearly 15,000 persons in this vil 
 lage. The country is very cold; they do 
 not raise fowls nor cotton ; they worship the 
 243 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 sun and water. We found mounds of dirt 
 outside of the place, where they are buried. 
 
 In the places where crosses were raised, 
 we saw them worship these. They made 
 offerings to these of their powder and feathers, 
 and some left the blankets they had on. 
 They showed so much zeal that some climbed 
 up on the others to grasp the arms of the 
 cross, to place feathers and flowers there; 
 and others bringing ladders, while some held 
 them, went up to tie strings, so as to fasten 
 the flowers and the feathers. 
 
 244 
 
TESTIMONY CONCEKNING THOSE 
 WHO WENT ON THE EXPEDITION 
 WITH FKANCISCO VAZQUEZ CO- 
 IIONADO l 
 
 AT Compos tela, on February 21, 1540, 
 Coronado presented a petition to the viceroy 
 Mendoza, declaring that he had observed that 
 certain persons who were not well disposed 
 toward the expedition which was about to 
 start for the newly discovered country had 
 said that many of the inhabitants of the 
 City of Mexico and of the other cities and 
 towns of New Spain, and also of Compostela 
 and other places in this province of New 
 Galicia were going on the expedition at his 
 request or because of inducements offered by 
 him, as a result of which the City of Mexico 
 and New Spain were left deserted, or almost 
 so. Therefore, he asked the viceroy to order 
 that information be obtained, in order that 
 the truth might be known about the citizens 
 of New Spain and of this province who were 
 going to accompany him. He declared that 
 there were very few of these, and that they 
 were not going on account of any attraction 
 
 1 Translated freely and abridged from the deposi 
 tions as printed in Paclieco y Cardenas, Documentos 
 de Indias, vol. xiv, p. 373. See note on page 377. 
 The statements of the preceding witnesses are usu 
 ally repeated, in effect, in the testimony of those 
 who follow. 
 
 245 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 or inducement offered by him, but of their 
 own free will, and as there were few of 
 them, there would not be any lack of people 
 in New Spain. And as Gonzalo de Salazar, 
 the factor or royal agent, and Pero Alinidez 
 Cherino, the veedor or royal inspector of His 
 Majesty for New Spain, and other citizens 
 of Mexico who knew all the facts and had 
 the necessary information, were present 
 there, Coronado asked His Grace to provide 
 and order that which would best serve His 
 Majesty s interests and the welfare and se 
 curity of New Spain. 
 
 The viceroy instructed the licenciate Mal- 
 donado, oidor of the royal audiencia, 1 to 
 procure this information. To facilitate the 
 hearing he provided that the said factor and 
 veedor and the regidores, and others who 
 were there, should attend the review of the 
 army, which was to be held on the follow 
 ing day. Nine of the desired witnesses were 
 also commanded by Maldonado to attend 
 the review and observe those whom they 
 knew in the army. 
 
 On February 26 2 the licentiate Maldo 
 nado took the oaths of the witnesses in 
 proper form, and they testified to the follow 
 ing effect : 
 
 Heruand Perez de Bocanegra, a citizen of 
 Mexico, stated that he had been present on 
 the preceding Sunday, at the review of the 
 
 1 Judge of the highest court of the province. 
 
 2 Thursday. 
 
 246 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 force which the viceroy was sending for the 
 pacification of the country recently discov 
 ered by the father provincial, Fray Marcos 
 de Niza, and that he had taken note of the 
 force as the men passed before him; and at 
 his request he had also been allowed to see 
 the list of names of those who were enrolled 
 in the army ; and he declared that in all the 
 said force he did not recognize any other 
 citizens of Mexico who were going except 
 Domingo Martin, a married man, whom he 
 had sometimes seen living in Mexico, and 
 provided him with messengers; and one 
 Alonso Sanchez, who was going with his 
 wife and a son, and who was formerly a 
 shoemaker; and a young man, son of the 
 bachillcr Aloiiso Perez, who had come only 
 a few days before from Salamanca, and who 
 had been sent to the war by his father on 
 account of his restlessness ; and two or three 
 other workmen or tradespeople whom he had 
 seen at work in Mexico, although he did not 
 know whether they were citizens there ; and 
 on his oath lie did not see in the whole 
 army anyone else who was a citizen of Mex 
 ico, although for about fourteen years he had 
 been a citizen and inhabitant of that city, 
 unless it was the captain-general, Francisco 
 Vazquez de Coronado, and Lopez de Sa- 
 maniego the army-master; and, moreover, 
 he declared that he felt certain that those 
 above mentioned were going of their own 
 free will, like all the rest. 
 
 Antonio Serrano de Cardona, one of the 
 247 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 magistrates of Mexico, who was present 
 from beginning to end of the review of the 
 preceding Sunday, testified in similar form. 
 He said that Alonso Sanchez had formerly 
 been a citizen of Mexico, but that for a long 
 time his house had been empty and he had 
 traveled as a trader, and that he was going 
 in search of something to live on; and one 
 Domingo Martin was also going, who 
 formerly lived in Mexico, and whose resi 
 dence he had not known likewise for a long 
 time, nor did he think that he had one, be 
 cause he had not seen him living in Mexico. 
 He did not think it would have been possi 
 ble for any citizens of Mexico to have been 
 there whom he did not know, because he 
 had lived in Mexico during the twenty years 
 since he came to Mexico, and ever since the 
 city was established by Christians, and be 
 sides, he had been a magistrate for fifteen 
 years. And besides, all those whom he did 
 see who were going, were the most contented 
 of any men he had ever seen in this country 
 starting off for conquests. After the force 
 left the City of Mexico, he had been there, 
 and had noticed that it was full of people 
 and that there did not seem to be any scarc 
 ity on account of those who had started on 
 this expedition. 
 
 Gonzalo de Salazar, His Majesty s factor 
 for New Spain, and also a magistrate of the 
 City of Mexico, declared that the only per 
 son on the expedition who possessed a 
 repartimiento or estate in New Spain was 
 248 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONA DO 
 
 the captain-general, Vazquez de Coronado, 
 and that he had noticed one other citizen 
 who did not have a repartimiento. He had 
 not seen any other citizen of Mexico, nor of 
 New Spain, although one of the greatest 
 benefits that could have been done New 
 Spain would have been to draw off the young 
 and vicious people who were in that city 
 and all over New Spain. 
 
 Pedro Almidez Cherino, His Majesty s 
 veedor in New Spain, had, among other 
 things, noted the horses and arms of those 
 who were going, during the review. He 
 had noticed Coronado and Samaniego, and 
 Alonso Sanchez and his wife, whom he did 
 not know to be a citizen, and Domingo 
 Martin, who was away from Mexico during 
 most of the year. All the rest of the force 
 were people without settled residences, who 
 had recently come to the country in search 
 of a living. It seemed to him that it was a 
 very fortunate thing for Mexico that the 
 people who were going were about to do so 
 because they had been injuring the citizens 
 there. They had been for the most part vi 
 cious young gentlemen, who did not have 
 anything to do in the city nor in the coun 
 try. They were all going of their own free 
 will, and were very ready to help pacify 
 the new country, and it seemed to him that 
 if the said country had not been discovered, 
 almost all of these people would have gone 
 back to Castile, or would have gone to Peru 
 or other places in search of a living. 
 249 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 Servan Bejarano, who had been in business 
 among the inhabitants of Mexico ever since 
 he came to that city, added the information 
 that he knew Alonso Sanchez to be a pro 
 vision dealer, buying at wholesale and sell 
 ing at retail, and that he was in very great 
 need, having nothing on -which to live, and 
 that he was going to that country in search 
 of a living. He was also very sure that it 
 was a great advantage to Mexico and to its 
 citizens to have many of the unmarried men 
 go away, because they had no occupation 
 there and were bad characters, and were for 
 the most part gentlemen and persons who 
 did not hold any property, nor any reparti- 
 mientos of Indians, without any income, and 
 lazy, and who would have been obliged to 
 go to Peru or some other region. 
 
 Cristobal de Onate had been in the coun 
 try about sixteen years, a trifle more or less, 
 and was now His Majesty s veedor for New 
 Galicia. He knew the citizens of Mexico, 
 and also declared that not a citizen of Com- 
 postela was going on the expedition. Two 
 citizens of Guadalajara were going, one of 
 whom was married to an Indian, and the 
 other was single. As for the many young 
 gentlemen and the others who were going, 
 who lived in Mexico and in other parts of 
 New Spain, it seemed to him that their de 
 parture was a benefit rather than a disad 
 vantage, because they were leading vicious 
 lives and had nothing with which to support 
 themselves. 
 
 250 
 
THE JOURNEY OF CORONADO 
 
 When these statements and depositions 
 had all been duly received, signed, and at 
 tested, and had been shown to his most 
 illustrious lordship, the viceroy, he ordered 
 an authorized copy to be taken, which was 
 made by Joan de Leon, clerk of Their Maj 
 esties court and of the royal audiencia of 
 New Spain, the 27th of February, 1540, wit 
 nessed by the secretary, Antonio de Alma- 
 guer, and sent to His Majesty, to be laid 
 before the lords of the council, that they 
 might provide and order that which should 
 be most serviceable to their interests. 
 
 251 
 
o a A H o 
 
THE ROUTE? CHP 
 
 CORONADO 
 
 <; NavidadP 
 Mn JanUlo 
 

 
MAY 1 8 2004 
 
 */-jr 
 
 .fp 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 33 > 
 
 t_/ 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 lo 
 
 VwH 
 
 
 c 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 CD 7\ 
 
 CD 
 
 
 j> 
 
 O C/) 
 
 
 
 0) 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 5 
 
 0) 
 
 ^>m 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 > 
 
 ^c 
 
 -, 
 
 ^ 
 
 o 
 m 
 
 op 
 ^> * 
 
 :, 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 CD 
 
 Fo 
 
 ^H 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 ^_ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 O 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 < 
 
 1 m 
 
 f 
 
 : 
 
 
 co o 
 
 <=> 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 Sp 
 
 d> 
 
 
 
 
 
 CD 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 cr> 
 
 rx 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 U.C.BERKELEYUBRARIES 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 / s 
 
 ^ 
 
 %