f A U CORONADO'S MARCH IN SEARCH OF THE "SEVEN CITIES OF CIBOLA" AND DISCUSSION OF THEIR PROBABLE LOCATION. By Brevet Brigadier General J. H. SIMPSON, Colonel of Engineers, U. S. A. The early Spanish explorations in Mexico in search of the " seven cities of Cibola " have always been of great interest to students of American history. Recent publications have drawn my attention anew to the vast geographical Held embraced in the toilsome inarch of Vasquez de Coronado and his adventurous followers, and, having in years past been engaged officially in the United States service in exploring that remote region, I have been tempted to reiuvestigate the grand enterprise of the Mexican government in 1540, and venture to offer the following essay as an expression of my well-considered views, derived, in early life, from observation of the field itself, and confirmed by careful study of all the authorities within my reach. Besides this, friends, in whose opinion I trust, believe that my reconnoissances of a large part of the country traversed by Coronado and his followers give me some advantages in the discussion of this subject over other investigators, who have not been favored by personal inspection and scientific location of the important points embraced in the adventurers' march, so that I now submit my conclusions with less diffidence than I should have done had I not re- ceived in advance their cordial encouragement. I must acknowledge my indebtedness to the library of the Peabody Institute of this city, to the library of the Historical Society of Mary- land, and to the private library of the president of this last- mentioned. society, Colonel Brantz Mayer, all of which have been thrown open to me in my researches. I must also express my particular obligations to Colonel Mayer for the very valuable aid he has afforded me in the pre- paration of this article, by the use of his excellent translation (yet in manuscript) ol'Ternaux Compans' version of the " Relation dn Voyage de Cibola," enlrepris en 1540, par Pedro de Castaneda de Nagera," pub- lished in Paris in IS.'JS. The arrangement of the following essay is, first, a brief narrative of the march of Coronado from the city of Mexico to the " seven cities of Cibohf and the province of Quiviva, together with an account of the ex- peditions of his subordinate officers, naval and military; and second, the discussion of the subject of the location of the important places visited in the several expeditions; and, in order to a clear understanding of the text. 1 accompany it with a map, for which, under my direction as to details of route, I am indebted to Mr. X. II. Ilntton, civil engineer, whose knowledge of New Mexico and Aii/ona, derived from his associa- tion with Generals Whipple and I'arke, as assistant engineer, in their explorations in New Mexico and Arizona in lS5;5-'5(i, has been of mate- rial service to me. In the year 15:50, Ntifio de Guzman, president of New Spain, was in- formed by his slave, an Indian, from the province of Tejos. situated somewhere north from Mexico, that in his travels he had seen cities so large that they might compare with the city of Mexico ; that these 310 cities were seven in number, and had streets which were exclusively oc- cupied by workers in gold and silver; that to reach them a journey of forty days through a desert was required; and that travelers pene- trated Vhe interior of that region by directing their steps northwardly between the two seas. Xufio de Guzman, confidently relying on this information, organized an army of four hundred Spaniards and twenty thousand Indian allies of New Spain,* and set out in search of these seven wonderful cities; but, alter reaching the province of Culiacan, he encountered such great difficulties on account of the mountains he had to cross that he aban- doned the enterprise, and contented himself with colonizing the prov- ince of Culiacan. In the mean time, the Tejos Indian who had been his guide dying, the seven cities remained only known by name, till about eight years after- ward, when there arrived in Mexico three Spaniards named Alvar Xufiez Cabeca de Vaca, Andres Dorantes, and Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, accompanied by an Arabian negro named Estevanico, (Ste- phen.^ These persons had been wrecked with the fleet which I'ani- * Castaneda's Relations. Ternaux Couipaus' Collections, Paris, 1838, p. 2. Haliluyt, quoting from a letter wfTYteu by the Viceroy Antonio de Mendoca to the Emperor Charles V, Stays: "Nuiio de Guzman departed out of the city of Mexico with 400 horsemen and 14,000 Indians." (Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. iii, p. 43(3, new ed. London, Id 10.) tThis is according to Castaiicda's account ; but according to that of Cabeca de Vaca, Ternanx Compans' Collections, these persons arrived in New Spain in l.'vio', or six in- stead of eight years alter Xuno de Guzman's expedition. Their adventures were so remarkable I cannot retrain from saying something about them : Pamphilo de Narvaez sailed from the West Indies early in 1.Y2S, with four hundred men. eighty horses, and four ships, for the purpose of exploring the country of Florida, of which he had been made governor. He seems to have reached the harbor of Santa Cruz (supposed to be Tampa Bay) in April of that year, and on the 1st May debarked with three hundred men, forty of whom were mounted, for the purpose of exploring the interior of the country. His course was northwardly, and generally parallel to the coast. On the 2i>th June he reached an Indian town called Apaladic, when; he tarried twenty-five days. He then journeyed in nine days TO a place called Aule. Continuing his course thence west \vardly for several days, his men became so dispirited from finding no gold, and on account of the rough treatment of the natives, that they returned to Ante, where, hearing nothing of their ships, which had been ordered TO coast along with, them and await their arrival at some good harbor, they constructed live small boats, in which two hundred and lifty of the party (all who had not died or been killed by the natives) embarked, steering along The coast west wardly for Paniico, on the coast of Mexico. At length they reached the mouth of a river. The current of which was so strong as to prevent their making headway against it. and whose fresh water was carried out some distance into the gulf. About seven days alter, while making their way with great difficulty westwardly, the boat commanded by Cabeca de Vaca was cast on an island, called by them Malhado. (Misfortune.) A day or two after this Cabeca de Vaca's boat and all the others were capsized in a storm oft' the island of Malhado, except that of the governor of Narvaez. which seems to have drifted out to sea, and. with its crew, was never afterward heard of. Those of the party that were not drowned remained on the island of Malhado and main land adjacent for six years, and endured from the Indians, who had enslaved them, the greatest indignities. From this cause, and from starvation and cold, the greater portion of them died. At length four of them, (those mentioned in the text above.) all that probably survived, escaped from their bondage, taking in their flight a northern course, toward the mountains, probably, of Northern Alabama. Thence their course Avas westwardly across the Mississippi (which was doubtless " the great river coming from the North." spoken of by Cabeca) and Arkansas rivers, to the headwaters of the Canadian, which they seem to have crossed just above the great canon of that river, (where Coronado crossed it in his outward route to Quivira. of which more in the sequel;) thence southwestwardly through what is now New Mexico and Arizona to Culiacan, in Old Mexico, near the Pacific Coast, which they reached in the spring of I5:>o. (See narra- tive of. Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca. translated by Buckingham Smith, Washington. 1~.">1 ; and, in confirmation of the above specified crossing of the Canadian River, " Tin: Relations of Castaueda, by Ternaux Compans." p. 120.) Mr. Albert Gallatiu, in his essay, vol. 2, pp. 5(5,57, Transactions of American Ethno- CORON ADO'S MARCH. 31 1 philo de Narvaez bad conducted to Florida, and after crossing the country from one sea to the other had reached Mexico. The tales they told were quite marvelous. They stated to the then viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoea, that they had carefully observed the country through which they had passed, and had been told of great and powerful cities, containing houses of four or five stories, &c. The vice- roy communicating these declarations to the new governor, Francisco 'Vasquez de Coromido, the latter set out with haste to the province of Ouliacan, taking with him three Franciscan friars, one of whom, by name Marcos de Niga, in the language of the chronicler Castafieda, was theologian and priest. As soon as he reached Culiacan he dispatched the three Franciscans, with the negro Stephen before mentioned, on a journey of discovery, with orders to return and report to him all they could ascertain by personal observation of the seven celebrated cities. The monks, not being well pleased with the negro on account of his excessive avarice, sent him in advance to pacify the Indians through whose country he had previously passed, and to prepare the way for the successful prosecution of their journey. Stephen, as soon as he reached the country of the " seven cities of Cibola," demanded, as Castaneda says, not only their wealth but their women. The inhabitants not relishing this killed him and sent back all the others that had accompanied him, except the youths, whom they retained. The former, flying to their homes, encountered the monks before men- tioned, in the desert sixty leagues from Cibola.* When the holy fathers heard the sorrowful intelligence of the death of Stephen, they became so greatly alarmed that, no longer trusting even the Indians who had accompanied the negro, they gave them all they possessed except the ornaments used in the celebration of the mass, and forthwith returned, by double-days' journey, without knowing more of the country than the Indians had told them. The monks returning to Culiacan, reported the results of their attempted journey to Coronado, and gave him such a glowing description of all the negro had discovered and of what the Indians had told them, "as well as of the islands tilled with treasure, which they were assured existed in the Southern sea,"t that he decided to depart immediately for Mexico, taking with him Friar Mar- cos de Nica, in order that he might narrate all he had seen to the vice- roy. He also magnified the importance of the discovery by disclosing it only to his nearest friends, and by pledging them to secrecy. Arrived at Mexico, he had an interview with the viceroy, and pro- claimed everywhere that he had found "the seven cities" searched for by Nufio de Guzman, and busied himself with preparing an expedition for their conquest. Friar Marcos having been made, through the influ- ence of the monks, the provincial of the Franciscans, their pulpits re- logical Society, .states that the river referred to above, whose current was so strong and which Xarvae/.'s party could not stein, was the Mississippi ; but this is not the view nf Mr. Smith, who has laid down the, routes of Narvaez and party as extending no further west than I.mf Him; which lies to tin- eastward of the Mississippi River. His idea, however, that the island of Santa Rosa, at the month of I'ensaeola Hay, was Malhado, I think erroneous, for the reason that ( 'aheea de Vaca expressly says this island was half a league broad and lives leagues (or seventeen miles) long," whereas Santa Rosa Island, according to the maps, is as much as forty-seven miles long. It is possible, however, that by accretions the island may have attained this length since Cabeea de Vaca was wrecked upon it. * So says CastanMa ; but Marcos de Xica. in his account of his journey, distinctly states that lie approached so near t lie city of ( 'ihnla that from a high el e vat ion he could see tin- houses, and gives quite a particular description of them. (Relation of Friar Marcos de Nica, Ternanx Oompans' Collections, p. 271). ) tCastancda's Relations, Ternanx Compans, p. 16. 314 CORONADO's MARCH. "Nevertheless, it was necessary to get possession of Cibola, which was no easy achievement, for the road leading to it was both narrow and winding. The general was knocked down by the blow of a stone as he mounted in the assault, and he would have been slain had it not been for Garci Lopez de Cardenas and Hernaudo d'Alvarado, who threw them- selves before him and received the blows of the stones which were de- signed for him and fell in large numbers; nevertheless, as it is impos- sible to resist the first impetuous charge of Spaniards, the village was gained in less than an hour. It was found filled with provisions which were much needed, and, in a short time the whole province was forced to accept peace."* The main army, which had been left at Culiacan under the command of Don Tristan d' Arellano, followed Corouado as directed by him, every one marching on foot, with lance in hand and carrying supplies. All the horses were laden. Slowly and with much fatigue, after estab- lishing and colonizing Sonora, and endeavoring to find the vessels under Alarcon already referred to, by descending the river, in which they failed, the army reached Cibola, Here they found quarters prepared for them and rejoiced in the reunion of the troops, with the exception of certain captains aud soldiers who had been detached on explorations. Meantime, Captain Melchior Diaz, who had been left at Sonora, placed himself at the head of twenty-five choice men, and under the lead of guides directed his steps towards the southwest in hopes of discovering the coasts. His course was probably down the Rio Souora, and not finding the vessels there he doubtless marched northward, keeping as close to the coast as the rivers would permit him. After traveling about one hundred and fifty leaguest it appears he arrived in a country iu which there was a large river, called Rio del Tizon, whose mouth was two leagues wide. Here the captain learned that the vessels under Alarcon had been on the sea-coast, at a distance of three days' journey from that place. In the language of Castaneda, " When he reached the spot that was indicated, and which was on the bank of the river more than fifteen leagues from its mouth, he found a tree on which was written 'Alarcon has come thus far ; there are letters at the foot of this tree.' They dug and found the letters, which apprised them that Alarcon, after having waited a certain length of time at that spot, had returned to New Spain, aud could not advance further because that sea was a gulf 5 that it turned around the Isle of the Marquis, which had been called the Isle of California, and that California was not an island, but a part of laud forming the gulf."! It appears that after a good deal of difficulty and a threatened attack from the natives, the party crossed the Rio del Tizon, on rafts, some five or six days' travel higher up, and continued its journey along the coast. Quoting from Castaneda, " When the explorers had crossed the Rio del Tizon, they continued following the coast, which at that place turns to- ward the southeast, for this gulf penetrates the land directly toward the north, aud the stream flows exactly toward the mouth from north to south." No better description could be given of the relative posi- tion of the Gulf of California, with respect to the Rio Colorado flowing into it from the north, than the foregoing. This expedition was terminated by the death of Melchior Diaz, which occurred in a very singular manner, as follows: "One day a greyhound belonging to a soldier attacked some sheep which the Spaniards were * Castaueda's Relations, Ternaux Compuns, pp. 40, 41, 4iJ, 43. t Castaiieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 49. t Castaiieda's Relations, Ternaux Compaus, pp. 50, 51. Ibid, p. 104, 315 driving with them to serve as food in case of need, when Captain Mel- chior Diaz threw his lance at the beast, in order to drive him off. Un- Ibrtuuately the weapon stuck in the ground with the point uppermost, and as Diaz could not rein in his horse, who was at a gallop, quickly enough, it pierced his thigh through and through, and severed his blad- der. The soldiers at once decided to retrace their steps, taking their wounded chief with them. The Indians, who were always in rebellion, did not cease attacking them. The captain lived about twenty days, during which he was borne along with the utmost difficulty. When, at length, he died, all his troops returned in good array, (to Sonora,) without the loss of a single man, and after traversing the most dan- gerous places."* In this connection it maybe interesting to give some account of Alar- con's discovery of the Rio Colorado.. It will be recollected that he was ordered by the Viceroy Mendoc> to follow the march of the army with his vessels along the coast of the Southern Sea, as the Pacific Ocean was then called. From his relation to the viceroy 1 1 gather the following: On the 9th of May, 1540, Fernando Alarcon put to sea from La Na- tivitad, in command of two ships, the Saint Peter and the Saint Cath- erine. He put into the ports of Xalisco and Agnaival, (respectively the ports of Compostella and Culiacan,) and finding Coronado and his army gone from this last-mentioned place, he continued his course northwardly along the coast, taking with him the ship St. Gabriel, which he found there laden with supplies for the army. At length arriving towards the upper end of what was till then believed to be a strait separating an island from the main land, but which he discovered to be a gulf, (the Gulf of California,) he experienced great difficulty in navigating, even with his small boats; and there were some in the expedition, he remarks, who lost heart and were anxious to return, as did Captain Francisco de Ullva, with his vessels, in a former voyage of discovery. Alarcon, it seems, however, had the necessary pluck, and, agreeably to the orders of the Viceroy Mendoga, he was determined to make his explorations as thorough as possible. After incredible hardships he managed to get his vessels to the bottom of the gulf, ( u au fond du gulfe."') Here he found a very great river, the current of which was so rapid, that they could scarcely stem it. Taking two shallops and leaving the others with the ships, and providing himself with some guns of small caliber, on the 26th of August, 1540, he commenced the ascent of the river by haul- ing the boats with ropes.} Oil his way he met a large number of Indians, * Castaneda's Relations, Tcrnaux Compaus, p. 105. tTernanx Com pans' Coll., p. 299-348. JThe most reliable information in relation to the Colorado River will be found in the report of Lieutenant Ives's ascent of that stream in 1858. (Ex. Doc. No. , 3Gth Con- gress, 1st session.) " From his account the region at the mouth of the Colorado is a flat expanse of mud, and the channels that afford entrance from the gulf are shifting and changeable. For 30 miles above the mouth the navigation is rendered periodically dangerous by the strength and magnitude of the spring tides. "Between the tide-water and Fort Yuma, which is 150 miles from the mouth, the principal obstructions an- sand-bars, continually shifting, having in some places 1ml two feet of water upon them. There are no rocks, but snags are numerous although not very dangerous. " For 180 miles above Fort Yuma the navigation is similar. The river passes throng! several chains of hills and mountains, forming gorges or canons, sometimes of a cou siderahle si/.e. In these t here is generally a better channel than in t lie valle\ . " lu the next lull miles gravelly bars are frequent, \vitli many stretches of good river and although the had places are worse, the channel is better than below. For the sue ceeding 50 miles there are many swift rapids. The river bed is of coarse gravel and sand, and there are some dangerous sunken rocks. The Black Canon, which is 25 uiilea 316 who made signs to him to return down the river, but by good manage- ment he so appeased them that he was enabled to reach a distance above the mouth of the river, such that in two and a half days, on his return to the ships, on account of the swiftness of the current, he made the same distance he had in fifteen and a half days in ascending the river. On this expedition he learned from the Indians he met, some particulars of the death of the negro Stephen, before referred to, at Cibola, and of there being white persons like themselves at that place, who doubtless belonged to Coronado's army. Alarcon was, however, unable to communicate with the army on account of the desert inter- vening between them, and the great distance they were apart. Refitting all his shallops this time for a second voyage up the river, he left its mouth on the 14th of September, but was no more successful in this than in his former expedition in communicating with Coronado. Having, therefore, reached as far up the river as he thought expedient, he planted a cross at that point, and deposited at its foot some letters, in the hope that some persons of Coronado's army, searching for news of the vessels, might find them. These letters, it has already been stated, were found by Melchior Diaz on the liio del Tizon, called by Alarcon the "Bon Guide," after the device of his lordship Don Antonio de Meii- do9a, and at the present day the Eio Colorado. At the end of Alarcon's relation to the viceroy he reports that he found the latitude, as given by the "patrons and pilots of the Marquis del Valle," wrong by two degrees ; that he had gone further by four de- grees than they, and that he had ascended the river a distance of eighty - five leagues.* This report of Alarcon's is very interesting from its great particularity and the many incidents it gives of the expedition ; it shows also that he was fully equal to the trust committed to him, and that no explorer could have done more to carry out the orders of the Viceroy Mendoa. We will now return to the army under Coronado, at Cibola. This general immediately set to work to explore the adjacent country. Hear- ing there was a province in which there were seven towns similar to those of Cibola, he dispatched hither Don Pedro de Tobar with seven- teen horsemen, three or four soldiers, and Friar Juan de Padilla, a Fran- ciscan, who had been a soldier in his youth, to explore it. " The rumor had spread among its inhabitants that Cibola was captured by a very ferocious race of people who bestrode horses that devoured men, and as they knew nothing of horses, this information filled them with the greatest astonishuient."t They, however, made some show of resistance to the invaders in their approach to their towns, but the Spaniards charging upon them with vigor, many were killed, when the remainder fled to the houses and sued for peace, offering, as an inducement, presents of cotton stuff, tanned hides, flour, pine nuts, niaize, native fowls, and some turquoises. These people informing the Spaniards of a great river on which there long, is now reached, and in it the rapids are numerous and difficult. Calville is some six miles above the head of this canon." (Letter of General A. A. Humphreys, Chief of Corps of Engineers United States Army, to Secretary of War, June '24, 1868, in his annual report for 1868, part 2, p. 1195.) * Alarcon's orders from the Viceroy Mendoca, as before stated, in a note, were to explore as high as the 36th degree of latitude. According to his own account of the distance he went up the Rio del Tizou, (Colorado,) he must have explored as far as about the 34th degree, and if he went no higher up than where Melchior Diaz found the tree, at the foot of which were letters from Alarcon, showing that there was the highest point to which he had attained, the highest latitude he reached must have been only about the 33d degree. tCastaueda's Relations, Teruaux Compans, p. 59. CORONADO'S MARCH. 317 were Indians living, who were very tall, a report of the same on his return to Cibola was made by Don Pedro de Tobar to Coronado, who sent out another party consisting of twelve men, under Don Garci-Lopez de Cardenas, to explore this river. It appears from Castaneda's He! a- tions that the party passed through Tusayan again on its way to the river and obtained from its inhabitants the necessary supplies and guides. After a journey of twenty days through a desert it seems they reached the river, whose banks were so high that, as Castaiieda expresses it, " they thought themselves elevated three or four leagues in the air." For three days they marched along the banks of the river, hoping always to find a downward path to the water, which from their elevation did not seem more than a yard in width, but which according to the Indi- ans' account was more than half a league broad. But their efforts to descend were all made in vain. Two or three days afterward, having approached a place where the descent appeared practicable, the cap- tain, Melgosa Juan Galeras, and a soldier, who were r the lightest men in the party, resolved to make the attempt. They descended until those who remained above lost sight of them. They returned in the afternoon declaring that they had encountered so many difficulties that they could not reach the bottom ; for what appeared easy when beheld from aloft, was by means so whtii approached. They added that they compassed about one-third of the descent, and that from thence the river already seemed very wide, which confirmed what the Indians stated. They assured them that some rocks which were seen from on high, and did not appear to be scarcely as tall as a man, were in truth loftier than the tower of the cathedral of Seville.* Castaiieda, after describing the further progress of the exploring party, goes on to say: "The river was the Tizou (Colorado.) A spot was reached much nearer its source than the crossing of Melchior Diaz and his people (before referred to;) and it was afterward known that the Indians which have been spoken of were the same nation that Diaz sa\v. The Spaniards retraced their steps (to Cibola) and this expedition had no other result."t During the march they met with a cascade falling from a rock. The guides said that the white crystals hanging around it were formed of salt. They gathered and carried away a quantity thereof, which was distributed at Cibola.l For 300 miles the cut edges of the table land rise abruptly, often perpendicularly, 6,000 feet' in height. This is the gorge as well as the grandest geo- from the water's edge, forming walls from 3,000 to 6,000 feet' in height." This is the great canon of the Colorado, the most magnificent gorge as well as the j logical section of which we have any knowledge. Again, the cation of the Colorado at the mouth of Grand River is but a portion of the stupendous chasm which its wafers have cut in the strata of the table lands, and of Avhich a general description has been given. At this point its walls have an altitude of over 3,000 feet above the Colorado, and the bed of the stream is about 1,200 feet, above the level of the sea, or 500 feet higher than those in the Black Canon. A few miles further east, where the surface of the table lands has an altitude of nearly 7,000 feet, the dimensions of the canon become far more imposing, and its cliffs rise to tho^ height of more than a mile above the river. (Report of Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives* Corps of Topographical Engineers United States Army, upon the Colorado River, 18f>7-'58, Senate Ex. Doc. 30th Congress, 1st session. Geology, chapter v, p. 42 ; Chap- ter vi, p. 54.) t Castaneda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 64. } Lieutenant, Ives speaks of having found salt on the Flax River, which Cardenas, party undoubtedly crossed or followed : "At noon to-day we came to the object of our search a well-beaten Indian trial' running toward the north. Camp was pitched at the place where it strikes the Flax River, and it is the intention to make the second attempt to-morrow to penetrate the, unexplored region. Near by are several salt springs, and scattered over the adjacent surface nro crystals of excellent salt." (Report of Lieutenant Ives, p. 117.) 318 COROXADO'S MARCH. I have thus briefly described the explorations which were made by Coronado and his captaius, as far as Cibola, ou the northern edge ot the great desert northward of Chichilticale ; the branch expedition of Mel- chior Diaz from Sonora northwestward to and around the head of the Gnlf of California, after crossing the Tizon (Colorado,) in search of the vessels; the exploration of the river Tizon, by Alareon, in boats for a distance of 85 Spanish leagues,* or about 200 miles, above its mouth ; the expedition of Don Pedro de Tobar from Cibola to Tusayan, lying to the northwest of Cibola twenty-five leagues ; and the exploration of Don Garci Lopez de Cardenas from Cibola through Tusayan west- wardly to the deeply cafioned river Tizon. I shall now give in as few words as I can some account of Corouado's subsequent explorations to the eastward of Cibola. While the discoveries above mentioned were being made, some In- dians living seventy leagues towards the east, in a province called Cicuye, arrived at Cibola. There was with them a Cacique, surname Bigotes (Mustaches) on account of his wearing these long appendages. They had heard of the Spaniards, and came to offer their services and their friendship. They offered gifts of tanned skins, shields, and helmets, which the general reciprocated by giving them necklaces of glass beads, and bells, which they had never before beheld. They informed him of cows, because one of these Indians had one painted on his body.'' Cas- taueda goes on to say, but u we would never have guessed it, from seeing the skins of these animals, for they are covered with a frizzled hair, which resembles wool;"* thus showing that they certainly were buffaloes. The general ordered Captain Hernando d'Alvarado to take twenty men and to accompany these Indians, but to return in eighty days to ren- der an account of what he might have seen. Alvarado departed with them, and "five days after they arrived at a village named Acnco, built on a rock. The inhabitants, who are able to send about two hundred warriors into the field, are the most formidable brigands in the province. This village was very strongly posted, inasmuch as it was reached by only one path, and was built upon a rock precipitous on all its other sides, and at such a height that the ball from an arqucbuse could scarcely reach its summit. It was entered by a stairway cut by the hand of man, which began at the bottom of the declivitous rock and led up to the vil- lage. This stairway was of suitable width for the first two hundred steps, but after these there were a hundred more much narrower, and when the top was finally to be reached it was necessary to scramble up the three last toises by placing the feet in holes scraped in the rock, and as the ascender could scarcely make the point of his toe enter them he was forced to cling to the precipice with his hands. On the su mm it- there was a great arsenal of huge stones, which the defenders, without exposing themselves, could roll down on the assailants, so that no army, no matter what its strength might be, could force this passage. There was ou the top a sufficient space of ground to cultivate and store a large 1 supply of corn, as well as cisterns to contain water and snow. ; 't The Indians here, as at Tusayau, traced lines on the ground, and for- bade the Spaniards to pass over them ; but seeing the latter disposed * Common Spanish league equals 3.42 American miles. (United States Ordnance Manual.) t Castafieda'.* Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. G8. " II est ici la question des bisons, quo 1'awteur nomine toujours racas. Je me servirai doreuavant du mot de bison." (Note by Tcruaux Compans.) t Castaueda's Relations, Teruaux Compans, pp. 68, 09, 70. 319 for an attack, they quickly sued for peace, and presented to their con- querors a supply of birds' bread, tanned deer-skins, pine-nuts, seeds, flour, and corn. Three days' journey thence Captain Alvarado and party reached a province called Tiguex, where, on account of Bigotes, whom the inhab- itants knew, they were received very kindly; and the captain was so well pleased with what he saw that he sent a messenger to Coronado inviting- him to winter in that country, which pleased the general greatly, as it made him believe that his affairs were growing better. Five days' journey thence, Alvarado reached Cicuye, a village very strongly fortified, and whose houses had four stories. He reposed here with his party some days, when he fell in with an "Indian slave who was a native of the county adjacent to Florida, the interior of which Fernando de Soto had lately explored."* This Indian, whom they called il Turco, (the Turk,) on account of his resemblance to the people of that nation, spoke of certain large towns, and of large stores of gold and silver in his country, t and also of the country of the bisons, (buffaloes.) Alvarado took him as a guide to the bison country, and after he had seen a few of them he returned to Tig- uex to give an account of the news to Coronado. in the order of events, Coronado, who had remained at Cibola with the main body of the army, hearing of a province composed of eight towns, took with him thirty of the most hardy of his men and set out to visit it on his way to Tiguex. In eight or eleven days (the narrative is here obscure) he reached this province, called Tutahaco, which ap- pears to have been situated on the Rio de Tiguex, below the city of Tig- uex, for Castaneda expressly states that he afterward ascended the river and visited the whole province until he arrived at Tiguex. The eight villages composing this province were not like those of Cibola, built of stone, but of earth, lie also learned of other villages still fur- ther down the river. " On his arrival at Tiguex, Coronado found Hern an do d'Alvarado with the Turk, and was not a little pleased with the news they gave him. This Indian told him that in his country there was a river two leagues wide, in which fish as large as horses were found ; that there were canoes with twenty oarsmen on each side, which were also pro- pelled by sails; that the lords of the laud were seated in their sterns upon a dais, while a large golden eagle was affixed to their prows. He added that the sovereign of this region took his sietita beneath a huge, tree, to whose branches golden bells were hung, which were rung by the agitation of the summer breeze. He declared, moreover, that the commonest vessels were of sculptured silver; that the bowls, plates, and dishes were of gold. He called gold acochia. He was believed because he spoke with great assurance, and because when some trinkets of cop- per were shown him he smelt them, and said they were not gold. He knew gold and silver very well, and made no account of the other metals. The general sent Ilernando d'Alvarado to Cicuye to reclaim the golden bracelets which the Turk pretended had been taken from him when he was made prisoner. When Alvarado arrived there the inhabitants received him kindly, as they had done before, but they pos- * Castaneda's Relations, Tcrnaux Compans, p. 72. The basin <>!' t he Mississippi River and tributaries, iu former (lavs, \vere included in Florida by the Spaniards. (Sec note, p. 90.) tThc country of Qnivira, which Coronada, as will be seen in the sequel, visited, anil which, beiii; adjacent to Florida, as stated above, must have been sit uated in the coun- try tributary to the Missouri or Mississippi, and not near the Rio Grande, as some com- mentators have supposed. 320 CORON ADO'S MARCH. itively affirmed that they had no knowledge of the bracelets, and they assured him that the Turk was a great liar, who deceived him. Alva- rado, seeing there was nothing else he could do, lured the chief, Bigotes, and the Cacique under his tent, and caused them to be chained. The inhabitants reproached the captain with being a man without faith or friendship, and launched a shower of arrows on him. Alvarado con- ducted these prisoners to Tiguex, where the general retained them more than six months."* This affair seems to have been the beginning of Corouado's troubles with the Indians, which were subsequently increased by his exacting a large quantity of clothing, which he divided among his soldiers. Two weeks after Coronado left Cibola for Tiguex, agreeably to his orders, the army under the command of Don Tristan d' Arellano took up its march from that place for Tiguex. The first day they reached the handsomest, and largest village in the province, where they lodged. a There they found houses of seven stories, which were seen no- where else. These belonged to private individuals, and served as fortresses. They rise so far above the others that they have the appear- ance of tow^ers. There are embrasures and loop-holes from which lances may be thrown and the place defended. As all these villages have no streets, all the roofs are flat, and common for all the inhabitants ; it is therefore necessary to take possession, first of all, of those large houses which serve as defenses."! The army passed near the great rock of Acuco, already described, where they were well received by the inhabitants of the city perched on its summit. Finally it reached Tiguex, where it was well received and lodged. The good news given by the Turk cast their past fatigues into oblivion, though the whole province was found in open revolt, and not without cause, for on the preceding day the Spaniards had burnt a village ; and we have already seen that the imprisonment of Bigotes and the Turk, and the exactions of clothing by Coronada, had also very greatly exas- perated them. The result of all this was that the Indians generally re- volted, as they said, on account of the bad faith of the Spaniards, and the latter retaliated by burning some of their villages, killing a large number of the natives, and at last laying siege to and capturing Tiguex. This siege lasted fifty days, and was terminated at the close of 1540.$ After the siege the general dispatched a captain to Chia, which had sent in its submission. It was a large and populous village, four leagues west of the Tiguex River. Six other Spaniards went to Qnirix, a prov- ince composed of seven villages. All these villages were at length tranquilized by the assiduous efforts of the Spaniards to regain the confidence which they had justly lost by their repeated breaches of faith ; but no assurances that could be given to the twelve villages in the province of Tiguex would induce them to return to their homes so long as the Spaniards remained in the country ; and no wonder, for no more barbarous treachery was ever shown to a submissive foe than had been shown to these Tigueans by these faithless Spaniards. So soon as the Tiguex River, (Rio Grande,) which had been frozen for four months, was sufficiently free from ice, the army took up its march on the 5th of May, 1541, to Quivira, in search of the gold and silver which *Castafieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, pp. 76, 77. 7>. tCastaiieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 80. JCastafieda says 154'2, evidently an error, as may be ascertained by accounting for the time consumed by the army in its march from Cluametla, which it left on the next day alter Easter, 1510. (See ante, p. 12.) CORONADO'S MARCH. 321 the Turk had said could be found there. Its route was via Cicuye, twenty-five leagues distant. The fourth day after leaving Cicuye and crossing some mountains it reached a large and very deep river, which passed pretty near to Cicuye", and was therefore called the Rio de Cicuye. Here it was delayed four days to build a bridge. Ten days after, on their march, they discovered some tents of tanned buffalo skins, inhabited by Indians who were like Arabs, and who were called Querechaos; continuing their march in a northeastwardly direction they soon came to a village in which Cabe9a de Vaca and Dorantes (mentioned in the first part of this paper) had passed through on their way from Florida to Mexico.* The army met with and killed an incredible number of buffalo-t and after reaching a point 250 leagues (850 miles) from Tiguex, the provision giving out, Coronado, with thirty horsemen and six foot- soldiers, continued his march in search of Quivira, while the rest of the army returned to Tiguex under the command of Don Tristan d'Arellano. The narrative goes on to say : " The guides conducted the general to Quivira in forty-eight days, for they had traveled too much in the direc- tion of Florida. At Quivira they found neither gold nor silver, and learning from the Turk that he had, at the instance of the people of Cicuye, purposely decoyed the army far into the plains to kill the horses, and thus make the men helpless and fall an easy prey to the natives, and that all he had said about the great quantity of silver and gold to be found there was false, they strangled him. The Indians of this region, so far from having large quantities of gold and silver, did not even know these metals. The Cacique wore on his breast a copper plate, of which he made a great parade, which he would not have done had he known anything about those precious metals. The army, as stated above, retreated to Tiguex before reaching Quivira. They took as guides some Teyans, through whose country they were passing, and were led back by a much more direct way than that they pursued in coming. These Teyans were a nomadic nation, and being constantly in the pursuit of game knew the country perfectly." It is narrated they guided the army thus : Every morning they watched to note where the sun rose, and directed their way by shooting an arrow in advance, and then before reaching this arrow they discharged another ; in this way they marked the whole of their route to the spot where water was to be found, and where they encamped. " The army consumed only tweuty- * It will be recollected that it was on information given by these persons and two others, Maldonado and the negro Estevan, that this expedition was founded. (See ante p. 310.) t The following minute and graphic description of the buffalo, seen by Coronado and his army, is taken from Goinara, as quoted in Hakluy t's Voyages, vol. iii. " These oxen are of the bigness and color of our bulls, but their horns are not so great. They have a great bunch upon their fore-shoulders, and more hair upon their fore part tliau on their hinder part ; and it is like wool. They have, as it were, a horse inane upon their back bone, and much hair, and very long from the knees down ward. They have great tufts of hair hanging down their foreheads, and it seemeth they have beards, because of the great store of hair hanging down at their chins and throats. The males have very long tails, and a great knob or ilock at the end, so that in some respects they resemble the lion, and in some other the camel. They push with their horns, they run, they overtake and kill a horse when they are in their rage and anger. Finally, it is a lleive beast of countenance and form of body. The horses lied from them, either be- oause of their deformed shape, or else because they had never seen them. Their mas- ters have no other riches nor substance ; of them they eat, they drink, they apparel, they shoe .themselves ; and of their hides they make many things, as houses, shoes, apparel, and ropes; of their bones they make bodkins ; of their sinews and hair, t hread ; of their horns, maws and bladders, vessels ; of their dung, lire; and of their calfskins, budgets, wherein they draw and keep water. To be short, they make so many things of them as they have need of, or as may snllice them, in the use of this life." L'l S " 322 COEONADO'S MARCH. five days on the journey, and even then much time was lost. The first time it had taken thirty-seven days."* " On the road they passed a great number of salt marshes where there was a considerable quantity of salt. Pieces longer than tables and four or five inches thick were seen floating on the surface. On the plains they found an immense number of small animals resembling squirrels, and numerous holes burrowed by them in the earth.' 1 ! These animals were most unquestionably the little prairie-dogs whose villages have been so naively described by Washington Irving and George Wilkins Kendall. On this march the army reached the river Cicuye, more than thirty leagues below the place where they had before crossed it by a bridge. They then ascended the river, by following the banks, to the town of Cicuye. The guides declared that this river, the Cicuye, (no doubt the Pecos,) at a distance of more than twenty days' journey, threw itself into that of Tiguex, (the Eio Grande,) and that subsequently it flowed toward the east. Castaiieda goes on to say: "It is believed that it (the Tiguex) joins the great river of Espiritu Sancto (Mississippi River) that the party of Hernando de Soto discovered in Florida."! The army under Arellano reaching Tiguex, on its return from the prairies in the month of July, ]o41, this officer immediately ordered Captain Francisco de Barrio-Nuevo to ascend the Eio de Tiguex (Eio Grande) in another direction with some soldiers on an exploring expe- dition. They reached the provinces, one of which, comprising seven villages, was called Hemes; the other, Yuque-Yuuque. Twenty leagues (68 miles) further in ascending the river, they came to a large and powerful village named Braba, to which the Spaniards gave the new title of Valladolid. " It was built on the two banks of the river, which was crossed by bridges built with nicely-squared timber." The country was very high and cold. From Braba the exploring party re- turned to Tiguex. Another party, it seems, went down the Eio de "Tig- uex (Eio Grande) eighty leagues, where they discovered four large vil- lages, and " reached a place where the river plunged beneath the ground; but inasmuch as their orderscoutiued them to a distance of eighty leagues, they did not push on to theplace where, according to the Indians' accounts, this stream escapes again from the earth with considerably augmented volume." || * Castaneda's Relations, pp. 133, 134. t Castaiieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 134. t" VARIOUS NAMES OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. I remember to have seen in the course of my reading the following Indian, Spanish, and French names applied to the river Mississippi ; and it may be well to record them in your magazine for preserva- tion, and probably to be augmented in number by other students of American history: "Indian names. Mico king of rivers; Mescha-Sibi-Mescha, great and Sibi River; Namosi-Sipou Fish River; Ukimo-chitto Great Water path a Chocta" name ; Missee- seepe; Meact-chassipi old father of rivers, according to Du Pratz; Malbouchia, according to Iberville. "French. Riviere de St. Louis; Riviere de Colbert ; Mississippi. "Spanish. Rio Grande; Rio Grande del Espiritu Santo; Rio de la Eulata ; Rio de la Palisada ; Rio de Chuchaqua. " The Vernci Ptolemy of 1513 lays it down, or, at least, marks a river without a name, at the site of its embouchure. Orbus Typis, 1515 ; Pineda's map, 1519 ; other Ptolemies, 1525; Cabeca de Vaca saw it in 1528. De Soto crossed it in June, 1541, and died iu Louisiana, on the west bank of the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Big Black River, May 21. 1542. "BRANTZ MAYER. " BALTIMORE, October 15, 1857." (Sec Historical Magazine, vol. 1, p. 342.) Castaiieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 139. || Castaiieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 140. Mr. Albert Gallatin, commenting on this passage, ays : "The assertion that the river was lost under ground was a mistake. CORONADO'S MARCH. 323 We shall now return to Coronado, whom we left at Quivira. It appears that, in consequence of his not arriving at Tiguex at the expected time, Don Tristan
U ; also, Lip-
piiicott, Grambo & Co., Philadelphia, Id5'2, pp. 89 ami 9U.
330 CORONADC-'S MARCH.
ruin. Bat the guide hurried us on half a mile further, when appeared
the ruins of a city indeed. Crumbling walls from 2 to i'2 feet high were
crowded together in confused heaps over several acres of ground. Upon
examining the pueblo we found that the standing walls rested upon
ruins of greater antiquity. The primitive masonry, as well as we could
judge, must have been about 6 feet thick. The more recent was not
more than a foot, but the small sandstone blocks had been laid in mud
mortar with considerable care."*
Now I take it that old Zirni was one of the seven towns of Cibola,
called by Coronado " Grenada, because it was somewhat like to it;"t and
the narrow winding icay, ascending which Coronado was knocked down
by stones hurled upon him by the defenders,! was in all probability the
very zigzag approach mentioned by Whipple, and which he found so
difficult in his ascent to the ruins.
The other six towns were doubtless Zufii of the present day, and those
whose ruins are to be found still further up the valley, showing the}' had
been stone structures, and to which I refer in my report before referred
to, as follows: "Within a few yards of us are several heaps of pueblo
ruins. Two of them, on examination, I found to be of elliptical shape
and approximating 1,000 feet in circuit. The buildings seem to have
been chiefly built on the periphery of an ellipse, having a large interior
court ; but their style and the details of their construction, except that
they were built of stone and mud mortar, are not distinguishable in the
general mass. The areas of each are now so overgrown with bushes and
so much commingled with mother earth as, except on critical examina-
tion, to be scarcely distinguishable from natural mounds. The usual
quantum of pottery lies scattered around. The governor of Zuiii, who
is again on a visit to us, informs us that the ruins I have just described,
as also those seen a couple of miles back, are the ruins of pueblos which
his people formerly inhabited."
There are other circumstances of relative position of places which
point most indubitably to the same conclusion, as follows : Castaueda
repeatedly states that Cibola was the first inhabited province they met
going north from Chichilticale after they crossed the desert, and the last
they left before entering the desert on their return to Mexico. Again,
the present relations to each other of Zufii and the Moqui Pueblos, and
also of Acoma, perched on a mesa height, in regard to courses and dis-
tances tally sufficiently near with the positions of Tusayan and Acuco,
as given by Castaileda, namely, the former northwest 25 leagues and the
\latter eastwardly five days' journey from Cibola,j| as to make it exceed-
' ingly probable that they refer to the same localities.^] Again, Castaiiedo,
* Pacific R. R. Reports, vol. iii. pp.
t Coronado's Relation, Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 451.
t " Cependant il fallait s'emparer de Cibola ce qni n'dtait pas chose facile, car le
chemin qui y coriduissat 6tait e"troit et tortnenx. Le General fut renverse d'nn coup
de pierre en inontant a I'assaut," &c. Castaiieda's Rel., Ternaux Compans, p. 43.
Simpson's Journal, p. 97.
|| Castanecla's Relations, Ternanx Compans, pp. 58, 07, 68, 69, 70, 165.
1IMr. Squier, in his article on the "Ancient Monuments, &c., in New Mexico and Cal-
ifornia," in American Review for November, 1 J -H. gives the position of Tusayan from
Cibola, loth northeast and northwest from Cibola, and on his map accompanying Mr.
Albert Gallatin's Essay, in the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, vol.
ii, he has placed it in a northeast direction. The proper direction of Tusayan with
regard to Cibola is northwest. (See Castaneda's Relations, Ternaux Compans. p. 165.)
Besides Cardenas, on his way to the Rio del Tizon, (Colorado,) passed through Tnsayau
from Cibola, which makes it all very natural if Tnsayan was northwest from Cibola,
but would not be so if it was in a northeast direction, as laid down on Mr. Squier's
331
describing the valley in which the province of Cibola was situated,
says, " Cest une val!6e tre"s-etroite entre des moatagnes escarpe"es,"*
which is an exact description of the valley of the Rio de Zuiii, confined
between the walls of inclosing mesas. Again, Jaraniillo says " this first
village of Cibola is exposed a little towards the northeast, and to the
northwest in about five days' journey is a province of seven villages
called Tusayan.t all of which exactly accords with the exposed position
to the northeast of old Zuiii and correctly describes the location of the
Moqui villages.
But there is some historical evidence upon this point which I consider
irrefragable, and which certainly makes Zufii and Cibola identical places.
Keferriiig to the relation of a notable journey made by Antonio de
Espejo to New Mexico, in 1583, to be found in Hakluyt's Voyages, vol.
iii, I read as follows: "Antonio de Espejo also visited Acoma, situated
upon a high rock which was about 50 paces high, having no other en-
trance but by a ladder or pair of stairs hewn into the same rock, whereat
our people marveled not a little.
" Twenty-five leagues from hence, toward the west, they came to a
certain province called by the inhabitants themselves Zuni, and by the
Spaniards Cibola. containing a great number of Indians, in which pro-
vince Francisco Vasquez de Coronado had been, and had erected many
crosses and other tokens of Christianity, which remained as yet stand-
ing. Here also they found three Indian Christians who had remained
there ever since the said journey, whose names were Andrew de Culia-
cau, Gaspar de Mexico, and Antonio de Guadalajara, who had about
forgotten their language, but could speak the country speech very well ;
howbeit after some small conference with our men they easily under-
stood one another."
Now turning to Castaneda's Relations, where he gives an account of
Corouado's leaving the country for Mexico, I find his language as fol-
lows : " When the army arrived at Cibola it rested for a while to pre-
pare itself for entering the desert, for it is the last point inhabited. We
left the country entirely peaceful; there were some Indians from Mexico
who had accompanied us, who remained there and established them-
selves, (il y ent merne quelques Indiens du Mexique qui nous avaieni ac-
compagnes, qui y resterent et s'y etablireut.")|
Thus it would seem that the two accounts of Espejo and Castaiieda
correspond in such a manner as not to leave the slightest doubt that
Zuiii of the present day is the Cibola of old. Corouado left three of
his men at Cibola, who were found living there by Espejo and his party
forty years afterwards ; they had nearly forgotten their original lan-
guage, but yet, after awhile, "managed to converse with some of Espejo's
men. What more natural, and, indeed, what could have been a more
interesting topic than the adventures of these men ; how they got there,
and whether Zufii was veritably the far-famed Cibola that forty years
previously had excited the attention of the governments of New and
Old Spain. Espejo, under the above circumstances, reporting that the
Spaniards called Zufii Cibola, certainly could not have meant anything
else than that he believed it veritably such. I have been thus particu-
lar with regard to this testimony, for the reason that Mr. Morgan, in his
essay already referred to, while he recognizes the historical fact of Zuui
having been called by the Spaniards, according to Espejo's Relations,
Cibola, in 1583, yet advances the idea that after all Espejo probably
* (,'astanc