AT THE MOQUI TOWNS.

47

losing many lives were defeated, and sued for peace, bringing gifts of food, cotton stuffs, leather. and a few turquoises. They, too, admitted the invaders to their towns, similar to those of Cibola but somewhat larger, and became for the time submissive vassals of the king of Spain. They had their tales to tell of marvellous things beyond, and mentioned a great river, several days' journey down the course of which lived a nation of very tall men. Thereupon Don Pedro returned and reported to the general.

Then Captain Cárdenas, who had succeeded Samaniego as maestro de campo, was sent, with twelve men, to seek the great river and the tall men. Being kindly received by the people of Tusayan, who furnished guides, Cárdenas marched for twenty days, or fifty leagues as one narrative has it, westward over a desert country, and at last reached the river. But so high were its banks, that though deemed as large as the river that flows past Seville in Spain, and said by the Indians to be over half a league wide, it looked like a mere rivulet flowing three or four leagues below; and so precipitous that in five or six days' journey the Spaniards could find no place where they could get to the water. At the most favorable spot, three men spent a day in the attempt, but only succeeded in descending about one third of the distance. Being advised by the guides that it would be impossible to penetrate farther for want of water, Cárdenas returned to Cíbola. This was the first visit of Europeans to the great cañon of the Colorado, a region but rarely penetrated even in modern times. It was clearly understood by the chroniclers of the expedition that this river, flowing from the north-east to south-south-west, was the Rio del Tizon, discovered by Melchor Diaz near its mouth. No further explorations were attempted in this direction, and the Moqui towns were not revisited by Europeans for more than forty years.5

25 Pedro de Sotomayor was the chronicler of this branch expedition, according to Castañeda; and the three men who tried to reach the bottom of the great

cañon were Capt. Melgosa, Juan Galeras, and an unnamed soldier. On the way back, at a cascade, they found crystals of salt. A westward course from Moqui would have led to the Colorado at the junction of the Colorado Chiquito, where the main river turns abruptly to N. of w. As no crossing of the branch is mentioned, and as the course of the river is given as N. E. to s. s. w., it would be much more convenient to suppose that Cárdenas went N. w. to the river, and followed it southward, but not much importance can be attached to this matter. Gomara, Hist. Ind., 272, and some other writers, speak of Cárdenas' trip as having extended to the sea, perhaps confounding it with that of Diaz to the gulf. This may partially account for the subsequent curious transfer of Coronado's discoveries from the N. E. interior to the N. w. coast on many early maps.

CHAPTER III.

CORONADO IN NEW MEXICO.

1540-1542.

AT CIBOLA, OR ZUNI-ALVARADO'S TOUR IN THE EAST-TALES OF THE TURK-BUFFALO PLAINS-ACUCO, TIGUEX, AND CICUYE-MAP-ARRIVAL OF ARELLANO AND THE ARMY-IN WINTER QUARTERS-SPANISH OUTRAGES-A WINTER OF SNOW AND WARFARE-EXPEDITION TO THE NORTH-EAST-CORONADO IN QUIVIRA-WIGWAM VILLAGES AND NO GOLD BACK AT TIGUEX-THE RIO GRANDE VALLEY-PUEBLO NAMES -SECOND WINTER IN NEW MEXICO-PLANS FOR A NEW CONQUEST-ORDERS TO RETURN-DISSENSIONS-FRAY JUAN DE PADILLA-MARCH TO SONORA A DEMORALIZED ARMY-REMARKS ON RESULTS-NORTHERN MYSTERY AND EARLY MAPS-IBARRA'S ENTRADAS, 1563-5-THE NAME OF NEW MEXICO.

THE discovery of New Mexico dates from the 7th to the 10th of July, 1540, when General Francisco Vasquez de Coronado arrived from the south-west at the province of Cíbola, or the Zuñi towns, as related in the last chapter. On the 14th the general visited peñol four leagues distant, where the natives were said to be fortifying their position, and returned the same day. During the absence of Cárdenas on his trip to the Moqui towns and Rio Colorado, there came to Cibola a party of natives from the eastern province of Cicuye, with gifts of various leathern articles and offers of tribal friendship and alliance. Their chief and spokesman was Bigotes, so named by the Spaniards for his long mustaches, and he had much to say of the 'cows,' that is, the buffaloes, of his country.

1 Coronado, Traslado de las Nuevas, 532. Nothing is said of results or of the direction. The fortified peñol suggests the well-known Inscription Rock east of Zuñi, though the distance as given is too small.

HIST. ARIZ. AND N. MEX. 4

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Accordingly, Captain Alvarado was ordered with twenty men to accompany the natives on their return, and to report within eighty days respecting their country and its wonderful animals.

In a journey of five days2 Alvarado came to a town named Acuco, supposed to be Niza's Acus, built like Granada of Cíbola on a rock, and accessible only by a narrow stairway, terminating in mere holes for the hands and feet. The inhabitants were hostile at first, but on threats of battle made peace and furnished food. Three days more brought the party, in a distance of twenty leagues toward the east, according to one of the narratives, to the province of Tiguex, with its twelve towns in a broad valley, on a large river flowing from north to south, said to be well settled for fifty leagues or more, and to have villages for fifteen or twenty leagues from the river on either side. This province became the centre of subsequent operations; and indeed, Alvarado at this time recognized its advantages, sending back a recommendation to the general to come on and establish here his winter quarters. Then he went on with Bigotes for five days to Cicuye, on the border of the plains. The natives in respect of friendliness fulfilled the promises that had been made by their ambassadors, and, besides their specialty of hides, their gifts included some cloth and

2 Thirty leagues acc. to Coronado, Rel. del Suceso. In the Florida Col. Doc., 65-6, is found the Relacion de lo que Hernando de Alvarado y Fray Juan de Padilla descubrieron en demanda de la mar del Sur (Norte?), of which the substance is as follows: Left Granada Aug. 29, 1540, toward Coco (Acuco); 2 1. to an old edifice like a fort; 11. to another, and a little farther to a third; then a pretty large city, all in ruins 6 stories high; 11. to another city in ruins. Here is the separation of two roads, one to Chia (to left or N.), and the other (to s. and right) to Coco (Acoma), which town is briefly described; thence to a 'very good laguna' (perhaps that where the pueblo of Laguna stands in modern times); and thence to a river called Nuestra Señora, from the day (Sept. 8th, the arrival being on the 7th, making the whole journey 9 d. instead of 8, as in Castañeda). Then follows a description of the 12 pueblos of this prov. (Tiguex, not named) in the broad valley. It is also stated that there are 7 pueblos abandoned and destroyed by the wild tribes of the plains, prob. referring to those in the direction of Pecos; also, that in the whole country are 80 towns. There is no record of the journey beyond the river. Some descriptive matter on a large town, 3 stories of tapia and 3 of wood, with 15,000 inhab., apparently Taos. As we shall see, Castañeda states later that Alvarado had visited Braba (Taos) on his journey to Cicuye.

TALES OF EL TURCO.

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even turquoises. But what particularly attracted the captain's attention here was the statements of an Indian, who claimed to be a native of Hurall, or Harale, some 300 leagues farther east toward Florida. From something in his appearance this man was named by the Spaniards El Turco, or the Turk. He spoke, 'tout autrement qu'il n'aurait dû le faire,' of great cities in his country, and of what was yet more enticing, gold and silver in large quantities; and his tales were sent back by special messengers to the general. After such news, buffaloes seemed of slight importance; yet Alvarado, in compliance with his instructions, made a trip out into the plains in search of them, with the Turk as a guide, and he found the animals in great numbers.

In this tour he followed a river for some 100 leagues south-eastward. Then he returned to Tiguex, where he found that Cárdenas had arrived from Cíbola to prepare winter quarters for the army, and where Alvarado now remained to await the general.

From the preceding narrative of Alvarado's expedition, the reader familiar with the country, or having a map before him, will naturally identify Acuco with the since famous and still existing pueblo of Acoma, the province and river of Tiguex with the valley of New Mexico's 'great river,' the Rio Grande del Norte, and Cicuye at the edge of the buffalo plains, from the vicinity of which a river flowed south-eastward, with the now ruined pueblo of Pecos. record of subsequent happenings will, I think, confirm these first conclusions beyond all doubt; and I append some descriptive and other matter from the different narratives which point irresistibly in the same direction. So far as Acuco is concerned, the identity has

The

Acuco 5 days E. of Cibola and 3 days w. of Tiguex, Castañeda, 69, 71; 30 1. and 20 1. substituted for the 5 and 3 days in Rel. del Suceso. On the march of the main army, Acuco was passed, but no distances are given by Castañeda, 82. Jaramillo, 309, places this village about midway-1 day more or less-of the 9 days' journey from Cibola to Tiguex; but this author, by an evident blunder, calls the village Tutahaco, which, as will be seen, was another place. Eaton, as cited by Schoolcraft, Simpson, and others, gives Hah-koo-kee-ah as the Zuñi name of Acoma. Bandelier, 14, gives the Queres name as Ágo.