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 I MAX DKl'OSIl 
 
THE SPANIARD 
 
 NEW MEXICO 
 
 READ BEFORE THE AMERICAN HISTORI- 
 CAL ASSOCIATION, AT BOSTON, 
 MAY 24th, 1887, 
 
 W. W. H. DAVIS, A. M. '"^''^^ 
 
 \ fir '-^^.v 
 
 DOYLESTOWN, PA. 
 
THE 
 
 Spaniard in Ngav Mexico. 
 
 Spain took a leading part in the discovery, ex- 
 ploration and settlement of the New World. Al- 
 though Columbus, the discoverer, was not a native, 
 he was in the service, of Spain when he looked, for 
 the first time, upon the tropical beauties of the 
 Western Hemisphere from the quarterdeck of the 
 Pinta. 
 
 Spaniards were the first to make a lodgment on 
 the main land ; and the world will never tire of read- 
 ing the almost fabulous conquests b}' Cortez and 
 Pizarro, as drawn by the pen of Prescott. Another 
 Spaniard, Balboa, born neighbor to Cortez, in Estre- 
 madura, was the first to look down, from the moun- 
 tains of Darien, upon the tranquil Pacific sea, whose 
 waves, as they laved the beach at his feet, sang a 
 welcome to the commerce shortly to whiten its 
 bosom. 
 
 In their early explorations, the Spaniards did not 
 
4 THE SPANIARD IN NEW MEXICO. 
 
 confine themselves to the middle and southern sec- 
 tions of the continent. They early seized territory now 
 a part of our own country ; and, at one time, there was 
 danger of Spain becoming the ruling power in North 
 America, if not such already. Ponce de Leon landed 
 in Florida, in 15 12, and startled the world by an- 
 nouncing the discovery of the " Fountain of Youth." 
 Vasquez de Ayllon, who discovered South Carolina, 
 in 1520, was appointed governor of that region 
 ninety years before the Cavaliers settled Virginia, 
 and a full century prior to the landing of the English 
 Puritans on the rock-bound coast of New England. 
 
 Several subsequent attempts were made by Spain 
 to explore, and colonize, portions of what is now 
 the United States — Narvaez, in 1528; De Soto, in 
 1537, the first to reach and cross the Mississippi, 
 and in whose turbulent waters his remains were 
 buried; Francisco Vasquez Coronado, in 1541, and 
 Pedro Melendez, in 1565. 
 
 Pamfilo de Narvaez, a Spanish cavalier of rank 
 and fortune, whom Charles V appointed governor 
 of Florida, in 1527, landed at Tampa bay, April 12th, 
 1528, with four hundred men and eighty horses. 
 Among the ofificers was Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de 
 Vaca, grandson of Pedro de Vaca, who made the 
 conquest of the Canaries at his own expense ; and 
 who is described as having the most beautiful and 
 noble figure of all the conquerors of the New World ; 
 
THE Sl'AMARl) IN NEW MEXICO. 5 
 
 and, in the best lIrvs of Spanisli chivalry, his valoi" 
 on the field of battle, his resolution in dant^er, and 
 his constancy and resignation in hardship, won for 
 him the appellation, " Illustrious Warrior." 
 
 It is not my purpose to accompany Narvaez ; it is 
 enough to say he left the coast, the first of May, for 
 the interior. After marching a distance estimated 
 at 280 leagues, fighting several battles and sustaining 
 severe losses, he returned to the Gulf at a point he 
 called the " Bay of Horses," one of the coves of Apa- 
 lache bay, a location confirmed by Aiiasco and 
 Herrera. 
 
 Their situation was now critical, for the fleet had 
 sailed away, leaving them to their fate. There was 
 but one way of escape, if that were even practicable: 
 to build boats and coast the Gulf to the settled parts 
 of New Spain. After great labor, and converting 
 the metal of their equipments into tools, nails, etc., 
 the tails and manes of their horses into cordage, and\ 
 the shirts of ofificers and men into sails, five boats 
 were completed and equipped, and, on the 22d of 
 September, the 240 survivors embarked upon an un- 
 known sea. They sailed to the west, encountering 
 storms and suffering from the want of water. The 
 last day of October, they discovered and passed the 
 moutHs of the Mississippi, two years before De Soto 
 reached that river, and five years prior to the sur- 
 vivors of his expedition sailing down it. On the 
 
6 THE SPANIARD IN NEW MEXICO. 
 
 4th of November, Vaca's boat, the only one not 
 already wrecked, was cast upon a desert island on 
 the coast of Louisiana, and himself and companions 
 made prisoners by the Indians. They finally reached 
 the main land, where they encountered many vicissi- 
 tudes, and were subjected to the most barbarous 
 treatment. For the next ten years, Vaca and three 
 companions, the only survivors of the expedition, 
 wandered up and down the central region of the 
 continent, finally reaching the settled parts of New 
 Spain. 
 
 While we can only approximate the route of these 
 early explorers, there can be no question they crossed 
 New Mexico, and Arizona, until recently a part of 
 it, and were the first Europeans to tread the soil of 
 that country. Starting inland on a general north- 
 west course, they probabh' struck the Red river ; 
 ascended it some distance ; then turned to the west, 
 and traversed the plains to the Canadian fork of the 
 Arkansas, near the Great canon ; continuing, they 
 reached the Pecos river, the next stream, of any 
 magnitude east of the Rio (irande. They en- 
 countered many tribes; calling one the "Cow 
 Nation," from the great number of cattle (buffalo), 
 on the banks of the principal river. When Espejo 
 was on the Pecos, in 1583, half a century later, he 
 named that stream the " River of Oxen," for the 
 same reason ; and I believe these two ri\'ers to be 
 
THE SPANIARD IN NEW MEXICO. / 
 
 identical. Our wanderers crossed the Rio Grande 
 at some undetermined point south of Santa ¥c. 
 
 Circumstances point their general whereabouts. 
 They saw the mesquit tree, of whose berries the 
 Indians made flour and baked it into bread, and they 
 ate of the pifion, a small and palatable nut, both com- 
 mon to New Mexico. They met people wearing 
 emeralds and turc]uoises, still worn as ornaments by 
 the Indians of that countr\'. Some of the tribes prac- 
 ticed the present sport of the Pueblo Indians, that of 
 killing rabbits with clubs, and others washed their 
 garments with the soapjs fibrous root of a species of 
 palm now called amole, and not found out of New 
 Mexico. The people of fixed habitations, among 
 whom they traveled for 300 leagues, were none other 
 than Pueblo Indians, for they alone, of all the in- 
 habitants of that region, had permanent dwellings. 
 
 The earliest information the Spaniards of Southern 
 Mexico had of New Mexico, then known as "The 
 Country of the Seven Cities," or Cibola, a word 
 accepted as the Spanish for buffalo, was about 1530. 
 An Indian in the employ of Nuno de Guzman, the 
 President of New Spain, and said to be a native of 
 Tejos, represented that he had traversed the country, 
 and had visited the Seven Cities, extensive and beau- 
 tiful, where entire streets were occupied by workers 
 in the precious metals. What a charming delusion 
 to the Spaniard ! 
 
8 THE SPANIARD IK KE\V MEXICO. 
 
 When Hernando Cortez said to an Indian gov- 
 ernor, soon after landing in Mexico, " the Spaniards 
 are troubled with a disease of the heart, for which 
 gold is a specific remedy," he epitomized the moving 
 cause of all Spanish exploration in America. The 
 relation of the Tejos Indian aggravated this disease 
 in New Spain, and an attempt was made to explore 
 the country, but without success. About this time 
 Cabeza de Vaca arrived at Culiacan, and confirmed 
 what had been heard. He said he had been told of 
 great cities with houses four stories high ; the coun- 
 try was populous, and abounded in cattle that roamed 
 in great herds ; the people were cultivated, and lived 
 on maize, pumpkins and other vegetables ; and he 
 had seen many towns of fixed habitations, whose in- 
 habitants dressed in cotton and tanned deer skins. 
 
 The viceroy immediately sent Friar Marcos de 
 Niza to explore the country, accompanied by a small 
 escort, and one of Vaca's companions. They set out 
 the 9th of March, 1539, and made a long journey to 
 the northwest. On the friar's return he gave the 
 most exaggerated account of what he had seen, and 
 been told by the Indians, more than confirming pre- 
 vious reports. He said he had found the country of 
 the Seven Cities that Guzman had searched for in 
 vain, and had discovered islands in the South sea filled 
 with untold wealth. What could be more seductive 
 to the adventurous, and gold-loving Spaniards? Even 
 
THE SPANIARD IX NEW MEXICO. 9 
 
 the viceroy lent a willing ear to the friar's stories, 
 and shortly every pulpit resounded with his re- 
 markable discoveries. It was new fuel to the flames 
 already consuming them. They could not resist the 
 allurements of the unknown with its golden lining. 
 
 The conquest of the Seven Cities was undertaken 
 in earnest. The viceroy organized an army of 1,500 
 Spaniards and Indians, with 1,000 horses, and placed 
 it under the command of Don Francisco Vasquez 
 Coronado, governor of New Galecia. He is repre- 
 sented as " a good gentleman, and a wise, prudent 
 and able man ;" and the chronicler of the expedi- 
 tion says: "I doubt whether- there has ever been 
 collected, in the Indies, so brilliant a troop, part.-cu- 
 larly for the small number of 400 men." The army 
 marched from Compostella, in Januar\', 1541, amid 
 the acclamations of the inhabitants. 
 
 The Spaniards marched almost parallel with the 
 Gulf of California to the latitude of the Gila, when 
 they changed direction to the north-northeast. 
 Crossing that stream near Casas Grandes, otherwise 
 Chichilticle, meaning Red House, Coronado entered 
 upon a barren, broken country, and, in fifteen days, 
 reached the " country of the Seven Cities." The 
 chief town was taken by assault, when the province 
 submitted. Instead of seven great cities, the 
 province of Cibola contained but that many villages, 
 with houses built of mud and stones, and entered 
 
lO THE SPANIARD IN NEW MEXICO. 
 
 by outside ladders; whose inhabitants dressed in 
 >-kins and cotton stuffs, and the women were well 
 treated. They had priests, who preached from the 
 highest point in the villages every morning ; and the 
 cross was recognized as an emblem of peace. 
 
 The location of this initial point, in Coronado's 
 campaign, is highly important. After careful investi- 
 gation, assisted by several years residence in that 
 country, I believe the chief town, the Spaniards took 
 by assault, to have been the present Indian pueblo 
 of Zuiii, in the western part of New Mexico, near 
 Rio Colorado Chiquito. The approaches, the sur- 
 roundings, and location, all sustain it. This is con- 
 firmed by the journal of Cruzate, which states that 
 Zufii was known as the " BufTalo Province," at the 
 time Philip II. ascended the throne, twenty-five 
 years after Niza's explorations. 
 
 Starting from Zuiii, as one of the Seven Cities, the 
 subsequent march of Coronado may be intelligently 
 traced. If any other location be given it, the student 
 of his campaign will find himself at sea without 
 compass or chart. From this point several explora- 
 tions were projected. One party went westward 
 into the province of Tuscayan, the present Moqui 
 pueblos, on the tableaux between the rivers San Juan 
 and Colorado Chiquito. Thence they explored the 
 country to the river Tizon, the present Great Colo- 
 rado, and, from its rocky banks, peered down at the 
 
THE SPANIARD IN NKW MEXICO. II 
 
 silvery stream 2,000 feet below. In Shea's transla- 
 tion of "The Expedition of Don Diego Dionisio do 
 Penalosa," the river Tizon is said to be the same as 
 the present Gila, an error that cannot stand criticism. 
 In the expedition of Saldivar, 161 8, in going west he 
 struck the Tizon after passing the last of the " Moq" 
 towns, the present Moqui pueblos, and marched two 
 days up that stream " northward." As tiie course 
 of the Gila is from east to west, and that of the 
 Colorado from north to south, Saldivar could not 
 have marched up the Gila "northward." 
 
 Going eastward, the Spaniards visited Acuco, 
 identical with the present Acoma, a strong town on 
 a rock, and Cicuye, a large and strongly fortified vil- 
 lage in a narrow^ valley, watered by the present 
 Jemez or Guadalupe river, and of which province the 
 pueblos of Santa Ana and Silla are probably re- 
 mains. Coronado, in person, visited the provinces 
 of Tutahaco, of eight towns, in the valley of the 
 Gallo, of which Laguna only remains ; Tignex, of 
 twelve towns, on the bank of a river, probably the 
 Puerco, now an inconsiderable stream ; Hemes, the 
 Jemez of to-day, fifty miles west of Santa Fe, and 
 Quirix, likewise of seven villages, whose inhabitants 
 were hostile. 
 
 Coronada received flattering accounts of provinces 
 still further to the east. A native of one of them 
 said a river two leagues broad ran through it, in 
 
12 THE SPANIARD IN NEW MEXICO. 
 
 which were fish as large as a horse ; that the canoes, 
 capable of carrying twenty rowers, were propelled 
 by sails and fitted up in great magnificence ; that a 
 large golden eagle was fixed in the prow, and the 
 master reclined in the stern under a beautiful 
 canopy ; that the sovereign took his siesta in the 
 shade of a great tree, charmed to sleep by the 
 music of little golden bells suspended from the 
 branches, which sounded When the wind blew ; and 
 that the most common vessels were made of massive 
 wrought silver, and the plates and porringers were 
 of gold. Is it surprising such marvelous stories cap- 
 tured the Spaniards of the first half of the sixteenth 
 century? They would almost move the average 
 American at this day from his moorings. 
 
 The Spaniards now resume their march to the 
 northeast, over the Jemez mountains, crossing the 
 Rio Grande, probably between the present pueblos 
 of Cochiti and San Yldefonso, and a little to the 
 north of Santa Fe ; through the spurs and foot hills 
 of the Rockies, and reached the great plains, north- 
 east of Fort Union. After marching a considerable 
 distance upon the plains, encountering wandering 
 Indians called Querechos, and others, who spoke of 
 having seen Vaca and his companions ; meeting with 
 great herds of buffaloes, and hearing of a river to 
 the east that might be followed doivn for ninety 
 days without leaving an inhabited country, the army 
 returned to the west of the Rio Grande. 
 
THE SPANIARD IN NEW MEXICO. 1 3 
 
 Coronado separated himself from the army, an J, 
 with an escort of thirty horsemen, set ofi in search 
 of the town of Ouivira, of which he had heard fabu- 
 lous accounts from his guides. It was represented 
 as large and populous, but when reached, after a 
 long journey, it was found to be a small village re- 
 sembling those of New Spain. There is nothing in 
 the Spanish text to fix the location of Quivira, and 
 we are left almost wholly to conjecture. Shea, on 
 the authorit}' of Friar Freytas, the chronicler of 
 Peiialosa's expedition, of 1662, locates it out on the 
 plains, northeast of Santa Fe, and probably east of 
 the Missouri river. We think this an error. No 
 ruin, great or small, bearing the name, has ever been 
 discovered in all that section. We should look for it 
 in another direction. In the county of Valencia, New 
 Mexico, about one hundred and fifty miles south of 
 Santa Fe, is a ruin known as the " Grand Quivira." 
 Thirty-five years ago it covered an area of 950 by 
 450 feet, and the remains include the ruins of a stone 
 church and monastery, and no doubt belonged to a 
 Spanish mi.ssion. The name was probably handed 
 down from an Indian town that stood on or near the 
 spot. All the surroundings indicate great age ; 
 large cedar trees are growing upon an old road-bed ; 
 there is no trace of cultivation, and the nearest 
 water is fifteen miles away. Whether this is the 
 Quivira of Penalosa and Coronado, must be deter- 
 mined by future investigation. 
 
14 THE SPANIARD IN NEW MEXICO. 
 
 While the expedition of Coronado dissipated the 
 romantic stories of the greatness and richness of the 
 Seven Cities, it developed the fact, that New Mexico 
 had a numerous population, living in fixed habita- 
 tions grouped in villages, with the elements of a rude, 
 but interesting, civilization. 
 
 Two further attempts were made by the Spaniards 
 to explore New Mexico, in the next forty years ; by 
 Augustine Ruiz and two Franciscan friars, in 1581, 
 who were killed twenty miles south of Santa Fe ; and 
 by Antonio de Espejo, who led a small party thither 
 the following year. They gave such a flattering ac- 
 count of the country, and of the mines of precious 
 metals, the viceroy of New Spain determined to 
 take possession and colonize it. 
 
 This work was entrusted to Don Juan de Onate, 
 who entered the country, in 1 591. with 400 armed 
 men, 130 families as settlers, and a corps of Francis- 
 can friars to convert the Indians. The natives received 
 them as friends ; the new settlers began to build 
 and plant, and peace and plenty smiled on every 
 hand, until that disturber of the age, Spanish thirst 
 for gold, stepped in to destroy the sweet harmony 
 that prevailed. A keen hunt for gold and silver was 
 now set on foot, and as mines were opened and 
 worked the cultivation of the soil was neglected. 
 The sacred aphorism, " the love of money is the 
 root of all evil," was never more forcibly demon- 
 strated than in the settlement of Spanish America. 
 
THE SPAXIARD IN NEW MEXICO. 1 5 
 
 In a few years the Spaniards assumed the peroga- 
 tive of masters, and harmony between the races van- 
 ished. The Indians were forced to work in the 
 mines ; to assume a form of worship they neither un- 
 derstood nor sympathized with ; and to support priest? 
 in every village. Their favorite dance, the Cachina, 
 one of their religious rites, was interdicted ; their 
 altars removed ; their estufas closed. No people, 
 civilized or savage, can be touched in a tenderer 
 spot. 
 
 At length the Indians looked upon the Spaniards 
 as intruders and tyrants ; their yoke galled and they 
 longed to throw it off. Several attempts were made 
 at armed rebellion, prior to 1670, but failed ; in each 
 instance being betrayed by one of their own number, 
 or overpowered immediately they took up arms. 
 But failure did not dampen their ardor. 
 
 Spanish oppression reached its high water mark 
 in 1680, and the Indians determined to bear it no 
 longer. In that year, Pope, a distinguished San 
 Juan Indian, who exercised a controlling influence 
 over his brethren, combined the pueblos against their 
 oppressors. He had active and zealous co-laborers. 
 Among these were Catite, a half-breed Queres Indian ; 
 Tacu, of San Juan ; Jaca, of Taos, and Francisco, of 
 San Yldefonso. Pope traversed the country like 
 another Peter the Hermit, and, with an eloquent 
 tongue, pictured their wrongs to the Indians, and 
 
l6 THE SPANIARD IN NEW MEXICO. 
 
 aroused them to resistance. He told them the Great 
 Father, and Chief of all the pueblos, He, who had 
 been their Father since the flood, had commissioned 
 him to order his countrymen to rebel against the 
 Spaniards ; that he had conversed with three de- 
 parted Indian spirits in the estufa of Taos, Caidit, 
 Tilim and Tlesime, who directed him to make a rope 
 of the palm leaf, and tie in it knots to represent the 
 number of days before the uprising would take place, 
 one of the oldest methods known of recording 
 events ; that he must send this rope to all the 
 pueblos in the kingdom, and that each one should 
 signify approval by untying a knot. 
 
 Pope sent the palm-leaf rope, from pueblo to 
 pueblo, as directed, by the fleetest joung men, in- 
 viting all to join in the rebellion, and threatening 
 with death those who refused. Absolute secrec}' was 
 enjoined, and a constant watch kept upon those likely 
 to divulge the plot ; and not a woman was let into 
 the confidence of the conspirators. Pope put to 
 death his own son-in-law, Nicholas Bua, governor of 
 the pueblo of San Juan, who fell under his suspicion. 
 The time fixed for the rising was the loth of August, 
 and the Indians looked forward to it as their day of 
 deliverance. They had newly bent their bows, and 
 tipped afresh their arrows to draw Spanish blood, 
 and awaited the day with impatience. 
 
 But in spite of all their precaution, treachery 
 
THE SPANIARD IN NEW MEXICO. 1 7 
 
 lurked in their own ranks, and, two days before the 
 time, a couple of Tesuque Indians divulged the 
 conspiracy to the Spanish governor. The Indians 
 took up arms at once. That night the pueblos 
 nearest Santa Fe, the capital, began an indiscrimi- 
 nate slaughter of all Spaniards who fell into their 
 hands, sparing neither priests, women nor children, 
 except a few of the handsomest maidens the war- 
 riors reserved for wives. 
 
 The rebellion burst upon the Spanish authorities 
 before they were prepared to meet it. The settlers 
 were called in for refuge, but many were overtaken 
 and massacred ; and the capital was put in the best 
 possible state of defence. An infuriated body of 
 Indians, from the north and south, marched against 
 Santa Fe and surrounded it. Every effort was made 
 to induce them to return home, but they would 
 listen to no proposition that did not embrace the 
 immediate evacuation of the country by the Span- 
 iards. After a siege of ten days, and a desperate 
 sortie by the Spaniards, the garrison and citizens 
 withdrew from the town in the night, and marched 
 down the river to El Paso. 
 
 The Indians took possession of Santa Fe and com- 
 menced the work of destruction. They danced, in 
 wild delight, around the burning churches and con- 
 vent, crying, " God the Father, and Mary the 
 Mother, of the Spaniards are dead," and that their 
 
1 8 THE SPANIARD IN NEW MEXICO. 
 
 god alone lived. They re-established their heathen 
 rites, with the four cardinal points of the compass 
 as their visible church, and made offering of flour, 
 feathers, the seed of the meguey plant, corn and to- 
 bacco to propitiate their deity. They then bathed 
 in the little stream that flows by the town to cleanse 
 themselves of Christian baptism, and ordered all 
 baptismal names to be dropped. 
 
 Pope made a tour of the country, being received 
 with almost regal honors, promising health and good 
 crops to all who complied with his demands. He 
 everywhere ordered the churches and convents 
 burned, and the articles used in Christian worship 
 destroyed. He entered the pueblo of Cia riding on 
 a black mule, and dressed in full costume, with a 
 bull's horn fastened on his head. After making a 
 speech to the Indians, and sprinkling them with corn 
 meal as an emblem of happiness, he and his lieuten- 
 ants sat down to a sumptuous repast, drinking wine 
 from the sacred vessels. 
 
 The heaviest vengeance fell upon the poor priests, 
 who were generally put to death by their own flocks. 
 The priest at Jemez was first paraded around the 
 church on the back of a hog, and beaten with sticks; 
 then made to get down on all fours, when his cruel 
 persecutors got on his back and lashed and spurred 
 him until he fell dead. The priests of Acoma were 
 stripped, tied together by a hair rope, driven through 
 
THE SPANIARD IN NEW MEXICO. I9 
 
 the streets, then killed with clubs and stones, and their 
 bodies thrown into a cave. The priests at Zuiii 
 were dragged from their cells, stoned and then shot ; 
 while those at the distant Moqui villages, after suf- 
 fering many indignities, were stoned to death. The 
 only silver lining to this rebellion is the conduct of 
 the Franciscan friars. They were faithful to the 
 last, and in no instance is their flight, from danger 
 and death, recorded. Such devotion to duty de- 
 serves a place in History. 
 
 After the revolutionary chiefs had finished their 
 journey, they returned to their respective pueblos, 
 and set at work to consolidate their newly-obtained 
 power. If the old Spanish MSS. are to be believed, 
 some of the leaders did not long retain this power, 
 for it is recorded that both Catite and Louis Cupavo 
 burst asunder with a report like a gun, and were .car- 
 ried off by the devil. 
 
 The Indians retained possession of the country for 
 almost a quarter of a century, in spite of several at- 
 tempts to reconquer it, and Spanish rule was not re- 
 established until 1703. 
 
 The origin of the people the Spaniards found in 
 New Mexico 350 years ago, and what of them to-day, 
 are pertinent inquiries. There are two theories as 
 to their origin ; one, Aztec, the other, Toltec. By 
 tradition, when the Aztecs settled Mexico they came 
 from the north or northwest, and reached their new 
 
20 THE SPANIARD IN NEW MEXICO. 
 
 homes in the Valley of Anahuac after a period of 
 150 years; that they traveled by stages; halting, 
 building villages, and cultivating the earth. Caste- 
 nada believed they were of this migratory party, and- 
 that some of them remained in New Mexico, when 
 the main body moved on. 
 
 The Pueblo Indians themselves believe they are 
 the people of Montezuma, and he is strangely mixed 
 up in their social and religious life. The inhabitants 
 of Pecos, until their extinction, believed Montezuma 
 would return to deliver them from the Spaniards ; 
 and every morning, at sunrise, one of their number 
 ascended to the house top, and looked to the east 
 for their expected saviour and king. Many years 
 ago, I was shown, at the pueblo of Laguna, a strange 
 contrivance they worshiped as Montezuma, and 
 which the governor told me was both God and the 
 brother of God. A Jemez Indian told Lieutenant 
 Simpson that God and the sun were one. 
 
 On the other side we have conflicting testimony. 
 Albert Gallatin, who investigated the subject with 
 great care, and whose judgment is entitled to great 
 consideration, believed the people the Spaniards 
 found in New Mexico to be of Toltec origin. Hum- 
 boldt says the Aztec language differs, essentially, 
 from that spoken by the Pueblo Indians ; while 
 Castenada said the latter were unknown to the in- 
 habitants of Mexico, prior to the exploration of 
 Vaca and his companions. 
 
THE SPANIARD IN NEW MEXICO. 21 
 
 That the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico are the 
 same people the Spaniards encountered in their 
 search for the " Seven Cities," there is no question. 
 They live in the same quaint villages, half fortifica- 
 tion, half dwelling, standing where they then stood, 
 and many of them bear the same names ; they have 
 the same manners and customs, are governed by the 
 same laws, enforced by ofificers of the same title. 
 They eat the same food, dress, substantially, the 
 same, practice the same heathen rites in the secrecy 
 of the estufa, and believe in witchcraft, as probably 
 did their ancestors a thousand years ago. But they 
 are not the same powerful people. In number they 
 have been reduced to about 10,000, living in twenty- 
 six villages, mostly in the Valley of the Rio Grande. 
 In the days of their strength they formed four dis- 
 tinct nationalties, speaking as many languages, Peros, 
 Teguas, Queres, and Tagnos or Tanos. The lan- 
 guages of the first three remain, but the Tagnos has 
 become extinct. The villages are not grouped, ac- 
 cording to nationalities, but widely separated, some 
 that speak the same language being 300 miles apart. 
 The cause of this dispersion is buried deep with 
 other mysteries that surround this interesting people. 
 In the days of their greatest strength, the Queres 
 was the most powerful of all the Pueblo nations, 
 and, in their conflicts with the Spaniards, they sent 
 the ablest warriors into the field, and furnished the 
 most cunning statesmen to the council chamber. 
 
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