Spanish Explorers in the Southern United States, 1528-1543. / The Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca. The Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando De Soto by the Gentleman of Elvas

FOOTNOTES:

active 16th century Pedro de Castaneda de Najera

[1] This heading is taken from the title-page of the edition of 1542. The edition of 1555, generally followed in this book, has a title-page so phrased as to cover both the North American and the South American narratives of the author. The return really took place in 1537.

[2] The Emperor Charles V.

[3] He doubtless refers particularly to the services of his grandfather, Pedro de Vera, conqueror of the Canaries, to whom he refers at the close of this work. See the Introduction.

[4] He arrived in Florida with the Narvaez expedition in April, 1528, and reached New Spain overland in April, 1536—eight years later.

[5] The Spanish edition of 1542 has the date June 27.

[6] At the mouth of the Guadalquivir, in the province of Cadiz, Spain; noted as the point of debarkation of FernÃo MagalhÃes, or Magellan, September 20, 1519.

[7] Probably the Rio de Santander, which enters the Gulf of Mexico one hundred miles north of Tampico. The name was later applied to the province that joined the province of PÁnuco on the north. The latter was, in general terms, the region drained by the streams that empty into the Gulf about Tampico.

[8] The edition of 1542 has "Juan Gutierrez."

[9] A term often used to designate one of the districts or territories into which a Spanish province was divided for purposes of administration, and having a head pueblo or village; but here employed to signify the favorable proposals which the colonists made to the deserters from the fleet.

[10] In southeastern Cuba, the Santiago de Cuba that was surrendered to the American forces in the summer of 1898.

[11] Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa afterward became De Soto's lieutenant-general in Florida, but returned to Cuba early in the history of the expedition.

[12] On the southern coast, longitude 80°.

[13] Now Cabo Cruz, longitude 77° 40'.

[14] One Juan Pantoja, captain of crossbowmen and Lord of Ixtlahuaca, accompanied Narvaez on his first expedition to Mexico. If the same as the present Pantoja, which seems likely, he was killed by Sotomayor in a quarrel. See ch. 17.

[15] The present Jagua, at the entrance to the bay of Cienfuegos.

[16] Evidently one of the numerous keys between Xagua Bank and the Isle of Pines.

[17] Southwestern Cuba.

[18] The westernmost point of the island.

[19] The place of landing is identified as having been about St. Clement's Point, on the peninsula west of Tampa Bay, on the western coast of Florida. See Woodbury Lowery, Spanish Settlements, 1513-1561 (New York, 1901), p. 177, and App. J.

[20] These were Indians belonging to the Timuquanan, or Timucuan family, now entirely extinct. The Seminoles were comparatively recent intruders in the peninsula, except in the extreme northern part.

[21] April 14, 1528.

[22] April 15, 1528

[23] An Arawak term for house, referring specifically to a dwelling with an open shed attached. The Spaniards became acquainted with the word in Santo Domingo. For descriptions of these habitations see Fewkes, "The Aborigines of Porto Rico and Neighboring Islands," Twenty-fifth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1906.

[24] April 16, 1528.

[25] For the interesting if farcical formula used in taking possession of a country in the name of Spain, see Buckingham Smith, Relation of Alvar NuÑez CabeÇa de Vaca (ed. 1871), App. III., 215-217, and Lowery, op. cit., pp. 178-180.

[26] Really northeast.

[27] The western arm of Tampa Bay, known as Old Tampa Bay.

[28] With forty men and a dozen horses.

[29] In the letter addressed by the survivors to the Audiencia of Santo Domingo (Oviedo, Historia General y Natural de las Indias, III., cap. i. 583, Madrid, 1853), it is stated that when the natives were asked whence came these intrusive articles, which included also some pieces of shoes, canvas, broadcloth, and iron, they replied by signs that they had taken them from a vessel that had been wrecked in the bay. Compare also cap. VII. 615. It has been suggested that possibly the objects may have come from the vessel which Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon lost in 1526, but as this wreck occurred at the mouth of Cape Fear River, on the southern coast of North Carolina, it does not seem likely that they could have been derived from this source. That natives of the West Indies had intercourse by canoe with Florida, and that an Arawakan colony was early established on the southwest coast of the peninsula, is now well established.

[30] The Apalachee were one of the Muskhogean tribes that occupied northwestern Florida from the vicinity of Pensacola eastward to Ocilla River, their chief seats being in the vicinity of Tallahassee and St. Marks. In 1655 they numbered six or eight thousand, but about the beginning of the eighteenth century they were warred against by the Creeks, instigated by the English of Carolina, and in 1703 and 1704 expeditions by English troops, reinforced by Creek warriors, resulted in the capture and enslavement of about fourteen hundred Apalachee and in practically exterminating the remainder. The town of Apalachicola, on the Savannah River, was inhabited by Apalachee refugees colonized later by the Carolina government, but these were finally merged with the Creeks. Appalachee Bay and the Appalachian Mountains derive their names from this tribe.

[31] "Apalachen," as above, in the edition of 1542 (Bandelier translation).

[32] The Spanish league varied greatly, but in these early narratives the judicial league, equivalent to 2.634 English miles, is usually meant. Distances, however, while sometimes paced, were generally loose guesses, as is often shown by the great disparity in the figures given by two or more chroniclers of the same journey.

[33] "JerÓnimo de Albaniz" in the edition of 1542 (Bandelier translation).

[34] Fray Juan Xuarez.

[35] Buckingham Smith has "Sunday," translating SÁbado ("Sabbath") literally; the Christian Sabbath is the Spanish Domingo.

[36] The Letter (Oviedo, 584) says two hundred and sixty men afoot and forty horsemen. References to the Letter to the Audiencia of Santo Domingo will henceforth be cited simply as Oviedo, in whose work it appears (see the Introduction).

[37] Buckingham Smith says: "This is the dwarf fan-palm, not the cabbage-palm, to which we often inadvertently apply the diminutive termination ito, mispelled etto." Smith lived in Florida for many years.

[38] Evidently the Withlacoochee, which enters the Gulf at latitude 29°.

[39] The Spaniards were still among the Timucuan tribes.

[40] May 18, 1528.

[41] Castillo.

[42] Two leagues, according to Oviedo, op. cit., 585.

[43] The Withlacoochee.

[44] Forty men according to Oviedo, 585.

[45] When Hernando de Soto passed through this country eleven years later he also was met by Indians playing flutes.

[46] The Suwannee.

[47] Saint John the Baptist's Day, June 24. They had been travelling through the jungle for four or five days.

[48] The assessor, or inspector, it will be recalled, was Alonzo de Solis.

[49] The sweet-gum, copalm, or alligator tree (Liquidambar styraciflua).

[50] Seemingly the lake country in the northern part of Leon and Jefferson counties, Florida. "Apalachen" town was perhaps on Miccosukee Lake.

[51] The opossum. This is probably the first allusion to this animal. The name is derived from the Algonquian language of Virginia, having first been recorded by Captain John Smith.

[52] As it was now late in June, this is not explicable, unless the season was an unusual one.

[53] Buckingham Smith thinks it strange that the turkey and the alligator are not particularly mentioned among the fauna of the region.

[54] Most authorities agree that this place was at or near the site of St. Marks, south-southeast of Tallahassee, although the distance seems too short for nine days' travel, as will be seen.

[55] See Buckingham Smith, Relation of Alvar NuÑez CabeÇa de Vaca, 1871, p. 42, note 7, regarding this Aztec prince of the blood.

[56] "Twenty-six days." Oviedo, 586. The edition of 1542 (Bandelier trans., p. 30) says: "And so we left, arriving there five days after. The first day we travelled across lagunes and trails without seeing a single Indian."

[57] July 19-20, 1528.

[58] Alonzo Enrriquez.

[59] "Eight or nine days." Oviedo, 587.

[60] St. Marks River, which flows into St. Marks Bay, at the head of which Aute was situated.

[61] August 1, 1528.

[62] August 3, 1528.

[63] About six hundred and forty bushels.

[64] Tampa Bay.

[65] In reality they could not have travelled much more than as many miles in a straight line from Tampa Bay.

[66] Consult Garcilasso de la Vega, La Florida, 78, 1723, for the finding of the relics of Narvaez by De Soto's expedition in 1539, and see the De Soto narration of the Gentleman of Elvas, later in the present volume.

[67] "Bay of Horses": St. Marks Bay of Appalachee Bay.

[68] The conditions are applicable to the mouth of St. Marks Bay, the two small islands, and the strait between them and the coast.

[69] St. Michael's Day, September 29, 1528.

[70] That is, in a southwesterly direction.

[71] Pensacola Bay. The Indians were Choctaws or a closely related tribe.

[72] "Killing three men." Oviedo, p. 589.

[73] October 28, 1528.

[74] "Three or four days." Oviedo, p. 589.

[75] Biedma's Narrative (Publications of the Hakluyt Society, IX. 1-83, 1851) says of the De Soto expedition in 1539: "Having set out for this village [Mavila, Mauvila, Mobile], we found a large river which we supposed to be that which falls into the bay of Chuse [Pensacola Bay]; we learned that the vessels of Narvaez had arrived there in want of water, and that a Christian named Teodoro and an Indian had remained among these Indians: at the same time they showed us a dagger which had belonged to the Christian."

[76] "Three or four," according to the Letter (Oviedo, p. 589), which also gives the number of canoes as twenty.

[77] According to the Letter they travelled two days more before reaching this point of land.

[78] The Mississippi, the waters of which were now seen by white men fourteen years before the "discovery" of the stream by De Soto.

[79] The present normal depth at this distance from the delta is about sixty feet.

[80] The selfishness and incompetence of Narvaez, shown throughout the narration, are here further exemplified. His life had more than once been spared through the self-sacrifice of his men, yet he now thought more of saving himself, with the aid of his hardy crew, than of lending a hand to his weakened companions.

[81] Juego de herradura, a game played with an iron bar, often a crowbar, which is grasped at the middle and cast as far as possible.

[82] See p. 57, note 2.

[83] As this was the root-digging season, the word campo in the original evidently refers to the digging "grounds" in the shoal water, and not to "woods" as Mr. Smith interpreted it.

[84] "Two hundred archers with holes in their ears in which were joints of cane." Oviedo, p. 590.

[85] For an account of these Indians, see ch. 14, p. 50, 51.

[86] Alonzo de Solis.

[87] As he does not speak of crossing water, the dwellings of these Indians were doubtless those seen by Lope de Oviedo on the island, where they lived from October until March, for the purpose of obtaining the roots from the shoal water, as well as fish and oysters.

[88] This would seem to indicate that Dorantes' boat was cast ashore on the same island.

[89] November, 1528. Dorantes' boat was therefore cast ashore the day before the landing of Cabeza de Vaca's party.

[90] About four miles.

[91] PÁnuco, previously referred to.

[92] The edition of 1542 omits the last two words. Auia has been regarded as the native name of Malhado Island, but this is seemingly an error, otherwise Cabeza de Vaca would in all probability have mentioned the nativity of the Indian in later speaking (ch. 17) of his death from cold and hunger. Herrera says: "the island of Cuba," which seems more probable.

[93] That is, the Indians believed the Christians to be sorcerers.

[94] "Misfortune," "ill-fate."

[95] The Capoques, or Cahoques, and the Hans. See ch. 26.

[96] This is characteristic of all Indians, who punish their children very rarely.

[97] Nevertheless these same people were so horrified by the uncanny action of the Spaniards who ate their dead companions that they sought to put them to death. It should be noted that the Attacapan and probably the Karankawan tribes of the Texas coast, to which the people of Malhado Island may have belonged, were reputed to be cannibals.

[98] Tabu of the mother-in-law by a young man is quite common among the Indians, but refusal to see or to speak to the wife's father is very rare.

[99] On their food, compare Oviedo, p. 592.

[100] An areito, or areyto, was a dance ceremony of the Arawak Indians of the West Indies in which their traditions were recounted in chants. Like buhÍo, previously mentioned, the word was now carried to the continent.

[101] These were evidently the Hans, of whom he speaks later.

[102] See p. 57, note 2.

[103] Spanish moss.

[104] Important as it is in affording evidence of the route of Cabeza de Vaca and his companions, it is not possible, with our present knowledge of the former tribes of the coast region of Texas, to identify with certainty the various Indians mentioned by the narrator. Whether the names given by him are those which the natives applied to themselves or are those given by other tribes is unknown, and as no remnant of this once considerable coast population now exists, the only hope of the ultimate determination of these Indians lies in the historical archives of Texas, Mexico, and Spain. The two languages and stocks represented on the island of Malhado—the Capoque and the Han—would seem to apply to the Karankawan and Attacapan families respectively. The Capoques (called Cahoques on p. 87) are seemingly identical with the Cocos who lived with the Mayayes on the coast between the Brazos and Colorado Rivers in 1778, and with the CokÉs, who as late as 1850 are described as a branch of the Koronks (Karankawa). Of the Han people nothing more definite is known than that which is here recorded.

[105] Compare Barcia, Ensayo, 263, 1723, and Gatschet in Archaeological and Ethnological Papers of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, 1891, for references to these "weepers."

[106] Diego Dorantes and Pedro de Valdivieso were cousins of AndrÉs Dorantes. See p. 69.

[107] Called also Alaniz—the notary.

[108] The Capoques.

[109] From 1528 to 1533.

[110] The identification of Malhado Island is a difficult problem. On general principles Galveston Island would seem to supply the conditions, in that it more likely would have been inhabited by two distinct tribes, perhaps representing distinct linguistic families, as it is known to have been occupied by Indians (the Karankawa) at a later period, besides having the smaller island or islands behind it. But its size and the other conditions are not in favor of the identification, for its length is at least twice as great as that of Malhado, as given in the narrative, and it is also more than two leagues from its nearest end to the first stream that the Spaniards crossed after departing from the island (Oviedo, p. 593). Mr. James Newton Baskett suggests that the so-called Velasco Island, next south of Galveston Island, better fulfils the requirements, as indeed it does topographically, except for the fact that it is really a peninsula. Aside from this, it possesses all the physical features,—length and width, distance from the first stream to the southward, and having the necessary island or islands (Mud and San Luis) off its northern shore. Accepting Mr. Baskett's determination, it is not difficult to account for the four streams, "very large and of rapid current," one of which flowed directly into the gulf. Following the journey of the Spaniards from the island, down the coast, in April, when the streams were swollen by flood, the first river was crossed in two leagues after they had reached the mainland. This was evidently Oyster Creek. Three leagues farther was another river, running so powerfully that one of the rafts was driven to sea more than a league. This fully agrees with the Brazos, which indeed is the only large stream of the landlocked Texas coast that flows directly into the gulf. Four leagues still farther they reached another river, where the boat of the comptroller and the commissary was found. From this fact it may be assumed that this stream also flowed into the open gulf, a condition satisfied by Caney Creek. The San Bernardo may well have escaped notice in travelling near the coast, from the fact that it flows into Cedar Lake. Five or six leagues more brought them to another large river (the Colorado), which the Indians carried them across in a canoe; and in four days they reached the bay of EspÍritu Santo (La Vaca Bay?). "The bay was broad, nearly a league across. The side toward PÁnuco [the south] forms a point running out nearly a quarter of a league, having on it some large white sand-stacks which it is reasonable to suppose can be descried from a distance at sea, and were consequently thought to mark the River EspÍritu Santo." After two days of exertion they succeeded in crossing the bay in a broken canoe; and at the end of twelve leagues they came to a small bay not more than the breadth of a river. Here they found Figueroa, the only survivor of the four who had attempted to return to Mexico. The distance from Malhado Island is given as sixty leagues, consequently the journey from the Colorado to the bay now reached, which seems to be no other than San Antonio Bay, covered thirty-two to thirty-three leagues. Lofty sand dunes, such as those seen on what we regard as perhaps La Vaca Bay, occur on San Antonio Bay. See United States Coast Survey Report for 1859, p. 325. The western shore of the bay is a bluff or bank of twenty feet. "At one place on this side, a singular range of sand-hills, known as the Sand-mounds, approaches the shore. The highest peak is about seventy-five feet above the bay."

[111] These were all members of Dorantes' party who visited Cabeza de Vaca when he was ill on the mainland. See p. 55.

[112] Esquivel was one of the party under Enrriquez the comptroller; Mendez was one of the good swimmers who started from the island in the hope of reaching PÁnuco.

[113] Guevenes in the edition of 1542 (Bandelier translation). There is reason to believe that these people may have been identical with the Cohani, who lived west of the Colorado River of Texas in the first quarter of the nineteenth century.

[114] Doguenes in ch. 26.

[115] The fruit of the Opuntia cactus, of which there are about two hundred species.

[116] Mariames in ch. 26, and in the edition of 1542. These people are not identified. They were possibly of Karankawan or Coahuiltecan affinity, but there is no direct evidence of this.

[117] Iguaces in the edition of 1542.

[118] See p. 57, note 2.

[119] Rafts built for the purpose of crossing the streams.

[120] Yerba pedrera: "Of which glass is made in Spain." Oviedo, p. 593. Doubtless kelp. It was burned and from the product glass and soap were formerly manufactured. It is still a source of manufacture of carbonate of soda and iodine.

[121] Alvaro Fernandez, the Portuguese sailor and carpenter; Astudillo, the native of Zafra; and the Indian from the island of "Auia" (Cuba).

[122] The Mississippi delta.

[123] Doubtless consisting of mats fastened to a framework.

[124] That is, he supposed that he was then somewhere on the coast of central Mexico.

[125] See the extracts from the letter of the survivors (preserved by Oviedo) appended to this chapter.

[126] Evidently for the insertion of canes, as was the custom of the Capoques and Hans of the island of Malhado.

[127] The Capoques of Malhado Island.

[128] It is not improbable that the liquor was made from the peyote, or mescal button, still used by the Kiowa, Comanche, and others to produce stupefaction. See Mooney in Seventeenth Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1898.

[129] This is the first printed reference to the bison.

[130] In an article on the wanderings of Cabeza de Vaca, by Ponton and McFarland (Texas Historical Association Quarterly, I. 176, map, 1898), the northern limit of the cactus belt is placed on a line extending irregularly westward from the mouth of the Colorado River of Texas.

[131] 1534. Cabeza de Vaca had evidently lost his reckoning (perhaps during his illness), as the date of the new moon in this year was September 8.

[132] Anagados in the 1542 edition. The tribe cannot be identified, although it may be well known under some other name. Anegado is Spanish for "overflowed," "inundated," but it is by no means certain that the Spaniards applied this name to them. Buckingham Smith suggests that they may have been the Nacadoch (Nacogdoches), but this does not seem probable, as the latter tribe lived very far to the northeast of the point where the Spaniards now were, that is, some thirty leagues inland from the coast between latitude 28° and 29°. The name sounds more like NadÁko, the designation which the Anadarcos give themselves. This Caddoan tribe, when first known, lived high up on the Brazos and the Trinity, but in 1812 their village was on the Sabine. They are now incorporated with the Caddo in Oklahoma.

[133] Camoles in ch. 26. They evidently lived toward the northeast, north of Malhado Island; unidentified.

[134] Esquivel.

[135] EstÉvanico.

[136] A shaman, or "medicine-man."

[137] Chavavares in ch. 26, in which it is said that they joined the Mariames. Their affinity is unknown. The statement that the Spaniards are again among these tribes suggests that they were now pursuing a northerly direction.

[138] The Mariames. See note to ch. 26, respecting these tribes.

[139] This may have been the San Antonio or the San Marcos-Guadalupe.

[140] Presumably the river last mentioned, where they had erected their shelters.

[141] Cultalchulches in ch. 26 (q. v.), and in the edition of 1542.

[142] These were possibly the Adai, or Adaize, although their country was in northeastern Texas, about Red River and the Sabine; nevertheless they may have wandered very far during the prickly-pear season. There is evidence that in 1792, fourteen families of the Adai migrated to a region south of San Antonio de BÉjar, where they were merged with the tribes living thereabout. The main body, although greatly reduced, did not leave their old home until the nineteenth century, when the remnant, who had been missionized, were incorporated with their kindred the Caddo.

[143] It is not uncommon for all the possessions of an Indian, including his dwelling, to be destroyed at the time of his death. In recent times this custom has had the tendency, as among the Navahos, for example, to cause them to adhere to their simple aboriginal form of dwellings instead of to go to the trouble of erecting substantial houses that might have to be demolished.

[144] See page 19, note 5.

[145] See chap. 26.

[146] Buckingham Smith prefers this meaning for i en tiempo que muere el Pescado to "by the time when the fish die," or "at times at which the fishes die."

[147] That is, until the summer of 1535.

[148] See ch. 27: "By the coast live those called Quitoks, and in front inward on the main are the Chavavares, to whom adjoin the Maliacones, the Cultalchulches and others called Susolas and the Comos." This would seem to indicate that he was journeying in a generally northward or north-westward direction.

[149] The name suggests the Bidai, a Caddoan tribe that lived at a later period west of the Trinity, about latitude 31°, but this locality does not agree with the narrative.

[150] Elsewhere called Doguenes.

[151] Guevenes in the edition of 1542.

[152] Cabeza de Vaca is now evidently recalling the experience of Narvaez's men in Florida.

[153] In the 1542 edition these tribal names are similarly spelled except in the case of Capoques, Charruco, Deguenes, Yeguaces, Decubadaos (for Acubadaos), Quitoles (for Quitoks), Chauauares, and Camolas. None of these Indians have thus far been conclusively identified with later historical tribes, with the possible exception of the Atayos and the Quevenes. See p. 76, note 2, and p. 59, note 1.

[154] In the 1542 edition, as given by Mrs. Bandelier, "Among them is a language wherein they call men mira aca, arraca, and dogs xo." Compare hÁka, "sit down," in Karankawa (Gatschet, Karankawa Indians, Cambridge, Mass., 1891, p. 80). In the above it would appear as if the Spanish mira had been regarded as a part of the Indian exclamation.

[155] The tree from which the so-called "black drink" is made is Ilex cassine, and the custom of preparing and partaking of the liquid (known also as Carolina tea) was general among the tribes of the South, including the Gulf coast. The drink was known among the Catawbas as yaupon, among the Creeks as Ássi-lupÚtski, the latter signifying "small leaves," commonly abbreviated Ássi, whence the name of the celebrated Seminole chief Osceola, i.e., "Black-drink Hallooer," or "Black-drink Singer." The partaking of the black drink was an important part of the puskita, or busk, ceremony among the Creeks.

[156] The Arbadaos or Acubadaos. See chs. 22, 23.

[157] The mesquite (Prosopis juliflora). The beans are still extensively used as food by the Indians of southern Arizona and northern Mexico.

[158] See p. 52, note 3.

[159] Probably the Colorado River. Buckingham Smith remarks that the Guadalquivir at Seville is about a hundred paces in width.

[160] The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico have cultivated gourds for use as rattles and receptacles, especially dippers, from time immemorial. If the Pecos were the stream, or one of the streams, whence the gourds were derived, they might have come from the pueblo of Pecos, southeast of the present Santa FÉ; if from the Rio Grande, they might have come from various villages along that river and its tributaries in the north. See p. 95, note 1.

[161] Probably the escarpment that extends from Austin to Eagle Pass. The Colorado (which was probably the wide, deep stream previously encountered) was crossed seemingly below the present Austin. It should be remembered that the information regarding the point at which the mountains commenced to rise was given by Indians whose language the Spaniards could not understand. At any rate, the fact that the latter believed the mountains to rise fifteen leagues from the sea would tend to indicate that the direction they had been following was a northerly one. See the statement in the following paragraph of the text.

[162] According to Oviedo (p. 617): "This is an error of the printer, and should read 'little bags of margarite [pearl-mica],' instead of silver." Buckingham Smith translates Oviedo's margarita, "pearls," and Cabeza de Vaca's margarita (ch. 29) as "marquesite." It may be added that magnetic iron ore of the highest quality occurs in Mason County, Texas.

[163] In the face of such an assertion it is difficult to conceive that the Spaniards had been journeying directly westward, away from the coast.

[164] That is, they decided to change their course from northward to a more westward direction.

[165] The possession of one of these "medicine" rattles was not improbably one of the causes of the death of EstÉvanico at the hands of the ZuÑis of Cibola in 1539. See the Introduction, and compare p. 90, note 2; p. 117, note 2.

[166] See p. 97, note 1.

[167] See pp. 92-93, note 2, regarding the occurrence of magnetic iron in Mason County, where it is found in great quantities, but is yet unworked.

[168] Perhaps the Llano, a branch of the Colorado, or possibly they had met the Colorado again. See p. 90, note 1.

[169] See p. 92, note 2. In the edition of 1542 the text here says silver.

[170] Lead is found in Texas in the trans-Pecos region. The mineral resources of the state have not yet been well exploited.

[171] Doubtless the nut pine (Pinus edulis). Cabeza de Vaca evidently here aims to describe the character of this tree and its fruit without necessarily asserting that the tree was found growing very far east of the Pecos. In the valley of the latter stream it is more or less prolific.

[172] The allusion is probably to Mexico rather than to a northern country, as previously asserted by the Indians. See the second preceding paragraph.

[173] Of this exchange of gifts, or perhaps we may call it plunder, there was an echo a few years later, when Coronado and his army were traversing the eastern part of the Staked Plain, under the guidance of the "Turk," in search of Quivira, in 1541. Before sending the army back, and while among the ravines of western Texas, Rodrigo Maldonado was sent forward to explore, and in four days reached a deep ravine in the bottom of which was a village that Cabeza de Vaca had visited, on which account (see p. 332) "they presented Don Rodrigo with a pile of tanned skins and other things." An unfair distribution being threatened, the men rushed upon the skins and took possession without further ado. "The women and some others were left crying, because they thought that the strangers were not going to take anything, but would bless them as Cabeza de Vaca and Dorantes had done when they passed through here." Captain Jaramillo does not mention this occurrence in his narrative (Fourteenth Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 588), but he speaks of reaching a settlement of Indians, in advance of that, according to the narrations, of which CastaÑeda speaks, "among whom there was an old blind man with a beard, who gave us to understand by signs which he made, that he had seen four others like us many days before, whom he had seen near there and rather more toward New Spain [Mexico], and we so understood him, and presumed that it was Dorantes and Cabeza de Vaca and those whom I have mentioned." Although we do not have here conclusive evidence that Cabeza de Vaca actually visited the village or villages mentioned, there is no question that he must have been in this vicinity, and as the evidence is strong that the Rio Colorado was the ravined stream alluded to, there is little likelihood that Cabeza de Vaca's route lay far below that river.

[174] The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico have similar communal rabbit-hunts, in which the animals are killed with a curved stick shaped somewhat like a boomerang.

[175] Evidently the Pecos. This is the first stream mentioned as flowing from the north.

[176] Eighty leagues would probably be a reasonable estimate of the distance from the Pecos to the Rio Grande, which the travellers had now reached. It would seem strange that no mention is made of the caÑon of the latter stream (which hereabouts flows through a territory four thousand feet above sea level), were it not for the fact that they had become thoroughly inured to suffering and hard travelling; nevertheless, the terribly rough country through which they had just been guided from stream to stream is commented on, while the fact that the Rio Grande here "flows between some ridges" is mentioned farther on.

[177] An assertion quite contrary to the popular belief in "Indian gifts."

[178] The Indians were evidently endeavoring to compel the Spaniards to remain among them as long as possible.

[179] The river was the Rio Grande, to which they had now returned. The description of the topography is in accordance with the facts.

[180] The substantial character of the houses was noted also by Antonio de Espejo, toward the close of 1582, on his journey northward to New Mexico. Espejo speaks of these Indians, the Jumanos, or Patarabueyes, as occupying five villages from about the junction of the Conchos northward up the Rio Grande for twelve days' journey, and as numbering ten thousand souls—but Espejo's estimates of population are always greatly exaggerated. More important is his statement that the Jumanos knew something of Christianity which they had gleaned years before from three Christians and a negro, whom he naturally believed to have been "Alvaro NuÑez Cabeza de Vaca, y Dorantes, y Castillo Maldonado, y un negro," who had made their escape from Narvaez's fleet. This is one of the few definite points of the narrative that can be established without question. See Coleccion de Documentos InÉditos relativos ... de AmÉrica y OceanÍa, XV. 107 (1871).

[181] Melones in the edition of 1542. Bandelier has no doubt that a species of squash is meant.

[182] ... "beans and many squashes to eat, gourds to carry water in" (ed. of 1542, Bandelier translation).

[183] That is, the Jumanos and probably the Tobosos respectively. The captive woman evidently belonged to the latter tribe.

[184] Apparently other settlements of the Jumanos, as mentioned in the above note. The Spaniards were now going up the Rio Grande.

[185] Although they resided in permanent habitations at this time, the Jumanos lived east of the Rio Grande, in New Mexico, a century later and practised the habits of the buffalo-hunting plains tribes rather than those of sedentary Indians. The "neighborhood" was evidently not the immediate vicinity, and the stream alluded to seems much more likely to have been the Pecos than the Rio Grande, the former having been named Rio de las Vacas by Espejo in 1583. On this point see the opening paragraph of the following chapter.

[186] The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico are here referred to. Later Spanish explorers found cotton garments in abundance in their country. The statement here that the Jumanos spoke the same tongue as some of the Pueblos is significant, and accounts in a measure for the affiliation of the Jumanos with the Piros when missions were established by the Franciscans among these two tribes east of the Rio Grande, in New Mexico, in 1629.

[187] This was not an uncommon practice, especially among the non-sedentary tribes who could not readily transport pottery from place to place. The name Assiniboin, meaning "stone Sioux," abbreviated to "Stonies," is derived from this custom. Tightly woven baskets and wooden bowls were also used for the purpose.

[188] Probably the Rio Santa Maria, in Chihuahua.

[189] The Sierra Madre.

[190] The numerous villages of the Opata and cognate tribes of Sonora.

[191] Bandelier (p. 156) believes that there may have been malachites.

[192] For the clothing of the Opata Indians, see CastaÑeda's narration in this volume.

[193] Amole, the root of the yucca.

[194] Town of the Hearts, at or near the present Ures, on the Rio Sonora. The place became celebrated in 1540, when Coronado's army passed through the country. See the CastaÑeda narration in this volume.

[195] These were the Seri, Guaymas, Upanguaymas, and Tepoca tribes. The Seri particularly have ever been noted for their warlike character, but Cabeza de Vaca does not here speak from personal knowledge.

[196] That is, in the West Indies, see p. 19, note 5.

[197] See the CastaÑeda narration, p. 326, post; and compare the Rudo Ensayo (ca. 1763), p. 64, 1863, which says: "Mago, in the Opata language, is a small tree, very green, luxuriant, and beautiful to the eye; but it contains a deadly juice which flows upon making a slight incision in the bark. The natives rub their arrows with it, and for this reason they call it arrow herb; but at present they use very little."

[198] Twelve leagues, and the same distance from the Gulf of California, according to the last paragraph of this chapter.

[199] Perhaps at or in the vicinity of the present Hermosillo, Sonora, although the distance is greater than that given later.

[200] Petatlan; so also in the edition of 1542. This is the Rio Sinaloa. See CastaÑeda's narration of the Coronado expedition, part 2, ch. 2, post.

[201] See the note on Guzman in the CastaÑeda relation. The narrative is here slightly confused, as the town at which they first heard of Christians was the one in which they were overtaken by the rain, according to Cabeza de Vaca's previous statement in this chapter.

[202] The Gulf of California. As he did not go to the coast, however, his estimate is considerably below the actual distance.

[203] The Jumanos, previously mentioned.

[204] There were twenty horsemen according to the Letter (Oviedo, p. 612).

[205] Alcaraz later served as a lieutenant under Diaz in the Coronado expedition. CastaÑeda characterizes him as a weakling.

[206] Evidently the Rio Sinaloa.

[207] San Miguel Culiacan. See CastaÑeda's narration.

[208] Evidently intended for Pimahaitu, through misunderstanding. These tribes who lived in permanent habitations, from the village of the Corazones (Hearts) to Culiacan, were all of the Piman family, and consequently spoke related languages. The Pima do not call themselves Pima, but O-otam, "men," "people." Pima means "no"; pimahaitu, "no thing." The term Vasconyados, or Vascongados, refers to the Biscayans.

[209] For the later career of this officer, see CastaÑeda's narration. Melchior Diaz was a man of very different stamp to Guzman, Alcaraz, and Zebreros (or Cebreros), so far as his treatment of the Indians is concerned.

[210] Petatlan—the Rio Sinaloa.

[211] Evidently one of those obtained in Texas and which the Indians there so highly regarded. See p. 90, note 2; p. 95, note 1.

[212] Among the Indians of this region who were carried away into captivity were the Yaqui, who have been hostile to the whites to this day.

[213] 1536.

[214] The day of Saint James the Apostle—July 25, 1536.

[215] The Viceroy Mendoza and CortÉs.

[216] Spain.

[217] 1537.

[218] Corvo.

[219] The day of Saint Lawrence (San Lorenzo) is August 10.

[220] Tampa Bay, Florida.

[221] Colophon of the first edition.

[222] First printed by Buckingham Smith in his Coleccion de varios Documentos para la Historia de la Florida (London, 1857).

[223] From the title page of the original.

[224] We inhabit the Northern Arctic Pole, and that people inhabit the Southern Antarctic Pole. Golden Pole is used because the region is rich. (Footnote in the original.)

[225] The printer.

[226] In 1531.

[227] Span. real, the eighth of a silver dollar.

[228] The India House, or Board of Trade, at Seville.

[229] Gentleman.

[230] Dorantes.

[231] In eastern Portugal, near the Spanish border.

[232] January 20.

[233] Cassava.

[234] Whitsunday.

[235] Ucita or OÇita. This first town was on the point at the mouth of Charlotte Harbor, Florida.

[236] The name of this town was Hirriga, according to the Inca, and it seems to have been located on the northeast arm of the harbor.

[237] The town of MocoÇo was located west of Miakka River (Macaco of the old maps), which enters the northwest arm of the harbor.

[238] Tocaste was on an island in the marsh at the first crossing of "the great marsh," so graphically described by the Inca.

[239] This was the river or marsh of Cale, and the Inca's second crossing of the great marsh.

[240] They had now reached the higher country, which begins in the southern part of Polk County.

[241] An officer somewhat like an adjutant-general.

[242] St. Francis's day is the fourth of the month (October), but it was not Wednesday in 1539. Ranjel says that the crossing was finished on Friday, October 3.

[243] This should be Sunday, October 5. October 25, 1539, came on Saturday.

[244] Calahuchi, according to Ranjel. The modern name may be Chattahuchi.

[245] This word means plums, but when applied to the American fruit, it has reference to the persimmon.

[246] The bay where Narvaez built his brigantines was known to the Spaniards as Bahia de Caballos, or Horse Bay. The modern name is Bay Ocklockonee.

[247] Probably Flint River.

[248] This should be Thursday the eleventh, which was the day on which they arrived at the first town in Capachiqui. Capachiqui was the second town in that province, according to Ranjel.

[249] Wednesday was the twenty-fourth, but they arrived at Toalli early on the morning of the twenty-third, according to Ranjel.

[250] Mud walls.

[251] Before arriving at this stream they crossed a very broad river, according to Ranjel, which Biedma says was the first river flowing to the east. This was the Ocmulgee River.

[252] Altamaha, according to Ranjel. Before arriving at this place they crossed a great river which was either the Oconee or the Altamaha River.

[253] The Great Ohoopee and Cannouchee rivers.

[254] The Ogeechee River.

[255] From the wording of the Ranjel narrative, Aymay was on the east side of the Savannah River and Cutifachiqui on the west side. The latter town was not at Silver Bluff, South Carolina, as commonly thought, but further down the river. Cofitachequi (as Ranjel spells it) is proper Creek, and means Dog-wood Town.

[256] This should be May 13, according to Ranjel.

[257] In two days, according to Ranjel.

[258] This town is the Choualla of the Inca and the old Cherokee town of Qualla, which was located above the junction of the Tuckaseegee and Oconna-Luftee Rivers, in Swain County, North Carolina. From Cofitachequi the army took a northerly course, probably following the old Indian and traders' trail to old Fort Prince George, in Jackson County, South Carolina, and from there to Xualla.

[259] The second day after leaving Xualla they camped at the junction of two rivers, according to Ranjel. This was probably at the junction of the Little Tennessee and Oconna-Luftee rivers.

[260] It should be June 5, according to Ranjel.

[261] Chiaha was evidently on the island at the junction of the Little Tennessee and Tennessee Rivers, in Loudon County, Tennessee.

[262] This place was located on one of the islands in the Tennessee River, just above Chattanooga.

[263] Tali was located in the bend of the Tennessee River, just below Chattanooga. Here they left the river.

[264] CoÇa may not have been the Coosa of the last century, which was located some two miles north of Childersburg, in Talladega County, Alabama.

[265] Ranjel applies a similar description to an old town on the road, three days' march from Toasi or Tuasi.

[266] This is probably not the modern town of that name, which was located above the elbow of the Tallapoosa River, in Tallapoosa County.

[267] TascaluÇa is correct Creek (meaning Black Warrior), and TastaluÇa, there can be little doubt, is a misspelling; nevertheless we think it better to present all the native names in the spellings of the Portuguese original.

[268] From Ranjel's description of this place it is not improbable that Piachi was located on the north side of the Black Warrior River.

[269] Mauilla or Mabila may have been located on the prairie north of the Black Warrior and east of the Tombigbee River, in Greene County, Alabama.

[270] "Only forty horsemen," according to Ranjel.

[271] This should be the fourteenth, according to Ranjel.

[272] According to Ranjel they crossed a large river at a town called MoÇulixa which was located one-half league from Taliepataua, and recrossed the river at Cabusto. Apparently Cabusto was above the Sipsey River and west of the Tombigbee River, while MoÇulixa was below the former and east of the latter stream.

[273] The east side of the Tombigbee River, and probably in the northern part of Monroe County, Mississippi.

[274] This town was located about one mile northwest of Redland, in Pontotoc County, Mississippi.

[275] This province was located on the lower Tallahatchie River, and the town burned by the Indians, as mentioned by Ranjel, was probably located in Tallahatchie County.

[276] Chicacilla of the Inca, which was probably located about three and one-half miles north of ChicaÇa.

[277] This should be Tuesday.

[278] This fort and ford were on the Tallahatchie River, and probably at or near New Albany, in Union County, Mississippi. From here the army turned to the westward.

[279] The Mississippi.

[280] The crossing was made either at Council Bend or Walnut Bend, in Tunica County, Mississippi, in a straight line some twenty-five to thirty-eight miles below Memphis.

[281] This was Fifteen-Mile Bayou, and the crossing-place was probably near the southeast corner of St. Francis County, Arkansas.

[282] This place was probably located near the mouth of Tyronza River.

[283] Tyronza River.

[284] It was on Wednesday, June 29, that they entered Pacaha. This place was probably located in the vicinity of Osceola, Mississippi County, Arkansas, but not further northward.

[285] It was from ChicaÇa that the expedition was sent. This province was probably located in the northeastern part of Mississippi, extending from Baldwyn, Prentiss County, to the Tennessee River, in Tishomingo County.

[286] St. Francis River.

[287] This place was on the west side of the St. Francis River, in the northern part of Lee County or the southern part of St. Francis County, Arkansas.

[288] This may have been Lake Michigamia of the French maps, which ceased to exist after the New Madrid earthquakes.

[289] They crossed four swamps, according to Ranjel, which were the L'Anguille River, Big Creek, Bayou de Vue, and Cache River.

[290] Coligoa was in the valley of Little Red River, and before arriving there, they crossed White River below the mouth of Little Red River, in Woodruff County, Arkansas.

[291] According to Ranjel, before arriving at this place they passed through Calpista, where there was a flowing salt spring. This spring was on the bank of Little Red River, in Cleburne County.

[292] After leaving Tatalicoya they came to a great river, according to Ranjel. This was White River.

[293] This province was in the region of northwestern Arkansas and the Indian Territory.

[294] Tanico was located on the east side of Grand or Neosho River, in the Indian Territory.

[295] Buffalo skins are meant.

[296] The Boston Mountains.

[297] According to Ranjel they entered the plains on the second day after leaving Quipana. Before doing so, they crossed the Arkansas River, probably at the old ford, located some fifteen miles above Fort Smith.

[298] This town was located within thirty miles east of Fort Smith, and on the south side of the Arkansas River.

[299] This place was located in the province of Chaguate.

[300] This province should not be confounded with the province of Aays, which was located to the southward of Red River, in Texas.

[301] This crossing-place was to the northward of Pine Bluff, and probably in Jefferson County.

[302] This place was on Big Bayou Meto, near the southeast corner of town 6, range 5, east, in Jefferson County.

[303] Nilco was located a few miles southeast of Arkansas Post, on section 30, town 8, south, range 2, west, in Desha County, where there is a large mound.

[304] Guachoya was in the vicinity of Arkansas City, in Desha County, and possibly at or near the large mound one mile to the northward.

[305] Sunday was the sixteenth of April.

[306] This province was probably on Saline River, in Saline County. From here they turned to the south-southeast.

[307] The fourth of July was Tuesday.

[308] This town and lake were on the west side of Quachita River, about two miles south of Arkadelphia, in Clark County.

[309] The twentieth of July was Thursday.

[310] Probably on Prairie de Roane, near Hope.

[311] Little River, in Hempstead County.

[312] Red River.

[313] This ford was located about three miles east of the line between Texas and Arkansas, in the latter state, and is known as White Oak Shoals.

[314] This was apparently to the southward of Gainesville, Texas, the town being located just west of the "Lower Cross Timbers," on the prairie.

[315] This place was apparently located in the "Upper Cross Timbers." The Spaniards here turned to the southward.

[316] Waco. The town was evidently located on the Brazos River, near old Fort Belknap, in Young County, Texas.

[317] These two provinces were to the southeast of Guasco, in the Brazos valley.

[318] Probably the Double Mountain fork of Brazos River. The crossing was probably made at the south angle of the river, in the northwestern part of Fisher County, Texas.

[319] A continuous forest extends from old Fort Belknap to the eastern slope of the "Staked Plains," and is the only one through which they could have marched for ten days to the westward.

[320] I.e., less than a peck.

[321] This name should be Ayays,—the old crossing-place on the Arkansas River, above Pine Bluff.

[322] The town was located above the mouth of the Arkansas River, in Desha County, Arkansas.

[323] The fanega of Lisbon was somewhat more than a pint.

[324] This province was on White River, and the town was probably in the southern part of Monroe County, Arkansas, possibly at Indian Bay.

[325] This was a channel connecting the Mississippi River with Bayou Macon, and was located in the northern part of Chicot County, Arkansas.

[326] From the time and distance travelled, this place was at the Vicksburg Bluffs.

[327] The Inca gives the distance as being seven hundred and fifty leagues. The real distance was about seven hundred and twenty miles.

[328] At that time the Atchafalaya probably formed the lower course of Red River, the latter not having cut through to the Mississippi, and it was its current that they encountered.

[329] Or PÁnuco. A Mexican river which flows into the Gulf about a hundred and fifty miles north of Vera Cruz.

[330] The viceroy.

[331] Henry, cardinal archbishop of Evora, uncle of King John III., great uncle of King Sebastian, and himself King of Portugal from 1578 to 1580.

[332] For information concerning the author of this narrative, see the Introduction.

[333] Mendoza was first viceroy of New Spain (Mexico), serving from 1535 to 1550, when he was ordered to Peru as its second viceroy. He reached Lima in September, 1551, and died July 21 of the year following.

[334] CastaÑeda is supposed to have been writing at Culiacan, in western Mexico, about 1565.

[335] The Seven Cities of Cibola. See p. 287, note 1; p. 300, note 1.

[336] NuÑo BeltrÁn de Guzman was appointed governor of PÁnuco, Mexico, in 1526, assuming the office in May, 1527. In December he became president of the Audiencia, the administrative and judicial board which governed the province, and in the following year participated in the trial of CortÉs, his personal and political enemy, for strangling his wife to death in 1522. Guzman's barbarous cruelty, especially to the natives, whom he enslaved and bartered for his personal gain, resulted in a protest to the crown by Bishop ZumÁrraga, and in the hope of finding new fields for the gratification of his avarice he raised a large force, including 10,000 Aztecs and Tlascaltecs, and started from Mexico late in 1529 to explore the northwest (later known as Nueva Galicia), notwithstanding CortÉs had already penetrated the region.

He conquered the territory through which he passed, laying waste the settlements and fields and inflicting unspeakable punishment on the native inhabitants. Guzman built a chapel at TonalÁ, which formed the beginning of the settlement of the present city of Guadalajara, named from his native town in Spain; he also founded the towns of Santiago de Compostela and San Miguel Culiacan, in Tepic and Sinaloa respectively, and started on his return journey late in 1531. Meanwhile a new Audiencia had arrived in New Spain, and Guzman was summoned to appear at the capital. This he refused to do, and when Luis de Castilla was sent by CortÉs, the captain-general of the province, to subdue him, Guzman captured him and his force of 100 men by a ruse. In May, 1533, the king commanded him to submit to the provincial authorities; many of his friends and adherents deserted him, and he was stripped of his title as governor of PÁnuco. In 1536 (March 17) the licentiate Diego Perez de la Torre was appointed juez de residencia, an officer whose duty was to conduct a rigid investigation of the accounts and administration of governmental officials—this time with special reference to Guzman. By Torre's order, Guzman was arrested and confined in jail until 1538, when his case was appealed to Spain; but from this he received no comfort. He was banished to Torrejon de Velasco, where he died in 1544, penniless and despised.

[337] MarquÉs del Valle de Oaxaca y Capitan General de la Nueva EspaÑa y de la Costa del Sur. He arrived at Vera Cruz in July, 1529.

[338] The best discussion of the stories of the Seven Caves and the Seven Cities is in A. F. Bandelier's Contributions to the History of the Southwestern Portion of the United States, in Papers of the Archaeological Institute of America, American Series, V. (Cambridge, 1890).

[339] See the narrative of Alvar NuÑez Cabeza de Vaca in the present volume.

[340] See the account of this journey by Marcos de Niza in Coleccion de Documentos InÉditos de Indias, III. 325-351; Ramusio, Terzo Volume delle Navigationi (Venice, 1556); Hakluyt, Voyages, IX. 125-144 (1904); Ternaux-Compans, Voyages, IX. 249-284 (1838); and an English translation by Fanny Bandelier in The Journey of Alvar NuÑez Cabeza de Vaca (1905). Cf. also A. F. Bandelier, "The Discovery of New Mexico by Fray Marcos of Nizza," in Magazine of Western History, IV. 659-670 (Cleveland, 1886).

[341] Bandelier, Papers of the Archaeological Institute of America, Am. ser., V. (1890), p. 104, says this was Topia, in Durango, a locality since noted for its rich mines.

[342] The Pacific.

[343] Daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, wife of Philip I., and mother of Charles V.

[344] In a letter of the Viceroy Mendoza to the King, April 17, 1540, Samaniego is mentioned as the warden of a fortress.

[345] The correct date is 1540. CastaÑeda carries the error throughout his narration, although he gives the year correctly in the preface.

[346] An error for Hernando de Alarcon.

[347] That is, from a point on the Pacific coast in latitude 19° to another in latitude 21° 30´.

[348] See Alarcon's narrative translated by Hakluyt in his Voyages, IX. 279-318 (ed. 1904), and also Buckingham Smith, Coleccion de Varios Documentos para la Historia de la Florida (1857), p. 1.

[349] The province of Nueva Galicia, explored under Guzman's direction. See p. 285, note 1.

[350] For this locality see p. 299, note 1.

[351] Culiacan, or San Miguel Culiacan, as it was named by Guzman, is in central Sinaloa. CastaÑeda was a resident of this town and evidently joined the expedition there.

[352] Chichilticalli, or the "Red House," was so named by the Aztec Indians on account of its color. It was doubtless situated on or near the Rio Gila, east of the mouth of the San Pedro, probably not far from the present Solomonsville in southern Arizona.

[353] The ZuÑi River, within the present Arizona. Its waters are very muddy in springtime, which is the only time of the year that it flows into the Little Colorado.

[354] This was the ZuÑi Indian pueblo of Hawikuh, one of their seven villages, from which Coronado wrote to the Viceroy Mendoza, dating his letter "from the province of Cevola, and this city of Granada, the 3d of August, 1540." (See Winship's translation in Fourteenth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, pp. 552-563.) Hawikuh, or "Granada," was situated about fifteen miles southwest of the present ZuÑi, near the ZuÑi River, in New Mexico, and its ruins are still to be seen. This was the pueblo in which EstÉvan doubtless lost his life the year before, and which was viewed from an adjacent height by Fray Marcos. Hawikuh was the seat of a mission established by the Franciscans in 1629; it was abandoned in 1670 after having been raided by the Apaches and its priest killed. The name "Cibola," now and later applied to Hawikuh, is believed to be a Spanish form of Shiwina, the ZuÑi name for their tribal range. Cibolo later became the term by which the Spaniards of Mexico designated the bison.

[355] The houses were built in terrace fashion, one above the other, the roof of one tier forming a sort of front yard for the tier of houses next above it.

[356] The war cry or "loud invocation addressed to Saint James before engaging in battle with the Infidels."—Captain John Stevens's Dictionary.

[357] See Cabeza de Vaca's narrative in the present volume. The place was at or near the present Ures, on the Rio Sonora in Sonora, Mexico.

[358] Whence the name of the present state of Sonora.

[359] Evidently a Seri Indian. The Seri are a wild tribe speaking an independent language and occupying the island of Tiburon and the adjacent Sonora coast of the Gulf of California. They are noted for their stature. For an account of this people, see McGee in Seventeenth Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pt. 1 (1898).

[360] Believed to be in the present Sonora valley, where it opens out into a broader plain a number of miles above Ures.

[361] This should be September.

[362] It is not without interest to record here the finding, in 1886, in western Kansas, of a sword-blade, greatly corroded, but still bearing sufficient trace of the name "Juan Gallego" to enable its determination, as well as the inscription "No me saques sin razon. No me embaines sin honor." See W. E. Ritchey in Mail and Breeze, Topeka, Kansas, July 26, 1902.

[363] These were evidently the Cocopa, a Yuman tribe, whose descendants still inhabit the lower Rio Colorado, which is the Rio del Tison of this narrative. The Cocopa now number perhaps 800.

[364] It had been supposed that Lower California, the "Isle of the Marquis" (CortÉs), was an island, yet notwithstanding its determination as a peninsula it appeared as an island on maps of a much later period.

[365] The rafts, or balsas, referred to, were made by tying together a large number of reeds. The vessel was wide at the middle and pointed at the ends, and was very buoyant.

[366] Vacapan was apparently an Opata pueblo, or rather two pueblos, on a branch of the Rio Yaqui, which the Spaniards passed through shortly before reaching Corazones (Ures) on the Rio Sonora. The preserved cactus fruit is regarded highly by all the Indians of the general region even to-day, and in season they subsist largely upon it. The saguara (Cereus giganteus), or great columnar cactus, furnishes the chief supply.

[367] The well-known Rocky Mountain sheep. As late as twenty years ago some of the mountain ranges of southeastern Arizona, especially the Catalina Mountains, were noted for this animal.

[368] Compare Chapter 13. These two groups of pueblos were not the same.

[369] CastaÑeda speaks as a member of the "army," not of the advance guard. See the preceding chapter.

[370] These lines were drawn in corn meal and must not be crossed. To this day similar lines of meal are made across a trail when certain ceremonies are being performed. The Spaniards were now at the pueblo of Awatobi, the first village of the Hopi (Moqui) people of Tusayan, in northeastern Arizona, reached in coming from the southward. It was destroyed by the other Hopi villagers in 1700, because the Awatobi people favored the re-establishment of the Spanish mission that had been destroyed in the great Pueblo revolt of 1680.

[371] CastaÑeda, speaking from hearsay with respect to the Tovar expedition, errs in this statement, as the Hopi were the principal cotton growers and weavers of all the Pueblos. Later Spanish accounts all agree on this point. Indeed, even now the Hopi cotton kilts, sashes, and ceremonial robes are bartered throughout the Pueblo region.

[372] PiÑon nuts.

[373] Obtained by trade with the Rio Grande Pueblos, who mined them in the Cerillos, southeast of Santa FÉ, New Mexico. It is from the same deposits that much of the "matrix turquoise" of our present-day commerce is derived.

[374] See the reference to the Cocopa Indians met by Melchior Diaz, in Chapter 10.

[375] The Grand CaÑon of the Colorado, now visited and described by white men for the first time.

[376] The Giralda, or celebrated bell-tower of the Cathedral of Seville, which is 275 feet high.

[377] The report of Alvarado, translated by George Parker Winship, is published in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1896).

[378] This is the pueblo of Acoma, about fifty miles east of ZuÑi. It occupies the summit of the same rocky mesa, 357 feet high, that it did in Coronado's time. The name here given is doubtless an attempt to give the ZuÑi designation, HÁkukia, from Ako, the name by which it is known to the Acoma people. The present population is 650. Acoma has the distinction of being the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the United States.

[379] The slope referred to is an immense sand-dune. The horse trail did not exist in Coronado's time, having been built by Fray Juan Ramirez, who established a mission at Acoma in 1629.

[380] The Acomas still obtain their water supply from this source.

[381] Tiguex. See p. 317, note.

[382] Pecos. See p. 329, note 2.

[383] See p. 308, note 3.

[384] This name has always been a problem to students of the expedition, and various attempts have been made to determine its application. Jaramillo, one of Coronado's captains, applies the name to Acoma, and indeed its final syllables are the same as the native name of Acoma. In the heading to Chapter 11 CastaÑeda erroneously makes Tutahaco synonymous with Tusayan. The description indicates that the Tigua village of Isleta and others in its vicinity on the Rio Grande in the sixteenth century were intended.

[385] This Eldorado is seemingly a combination of falsehood and misinterpretation. The Turk's only means of communication were signs; and we shall see later on that he deliberately deceived the Spaniards for the purpose of leading them astray. The name acochis here given is an aid in the identification of the mysterious province of Quivira. See p. 337, note 1.

[386] This was Matsaki, at the northwestern base of Thunder Mountain, about three miles east of the present ZuÑi and eighteen miles northeast of Hawikuh, where the advance force had encamped. The ruins may still be seen, but no standing walls are visible.

[387] The first-story rooms were entered by means of hatchways through the roof. As the necessity for defence no longer exists, the rooms of the lower stories of ZuÑi houses are provided with doors and windows.

[388] The army passed from Cibola by way of the present farming village of Pescado, Inscription Rock or El Morro (thirty miles east of ZuÑi), and over the ZuÑi Mountains to Acoma. Alvarado followed an almost impassable trail eastward from Hawikuh, across a great lava flow, to reach Acoma.

[389] Tiguex (pronounced Tee-guaysh') is the name of a group of Pueblo tribes, now consisting of Isleta, Sandia, Taos, and Picuris, speaking the Tigua language, as it is now designated. Their principal village in Coronado's time was also called Tiguex by the Spaniards; this was the Puaray of forty years later (1583), the first time the native name was recorded. It was situated at the site of Bernalillo, on the Rio Grande, and was inhabited up to the time of the Pueblo rebellion of 1680, when it contained two hundred Tiguas and Spaniards.

[390] Antonio de Espejo learned of this occurrence at "Puala" (Puaray) when the place was visited by him in 1583 (see Documentos InÉditos de Indias, XV. 175).

[391] The pueblos are not provided with cellars. The underground ceremonial chambers, or kivas, are doubtless here meant.

[392] The altitude of Bernalillo is 5260 feet, and snowstorms are sometimes severe.

[393] Wooden war-clubs.

[394] The Rio Grande, which is near by.

[395] Should be Alcaraz. See Chapter 10.

[396] That is, the west coast of the Gulf of California.

[397] During 1905 the waters of the Rio Colorado were diverted westward below Yuma and are now (1906) flowing into the Salton Sink, or Imperial Valley, in southern California, forming an immense lake.

[398] Doubtless the Opatas, whose poisoned arrows are often alluded to by later Spanish writers. See, for example, the Rudo Ensayo (ca. 1762), (San Augustin, 1863); also Guiteras's translation in Records of the American Catholic Historical Society, V. No. 2 (Philadelphia, June, 1894).

[399] The upper part of the Rio San Pedro (which rises in northern Sonora), according to recent studies by Mr. James Newton Baskett.

[400] The present Sia, a small pueblo on the Rio Jemez. In 1583 Sia was one of a group of five pueblos which Antonio de Espejo called Cunames or Punames. It suffered severely by the Pueblo revolt a century later, and is now reduced to about a hundred people who have great difficulty in gaining a livelihood, owing to lack of water for irrigation.

[401] That is, the Rio Grande.

[402] The "province" occupied by the Queres or Keresan Indians, consisting of the pueblos of Cochiti, San Felipe, and Santo Domingo, of to-day—all on the Rio Grande. Sia and Santa Ana are and were also Queres villages in Coronado's time, but as these were not on the Rio Grande, they may not have been included in CastaÑeda's group. When Espejo visited the Queres in 1583, they occupied only five pueblos on the Rio Grande; now only the three above mentioned are inhabited.

[403] See p. 337, note 1.

[404] Evidently the Harahey of other chroniclers, which has been identified with the Pawnee country of southern Nebraska.

[405] Possibly the Kansa or Kaw tribe, after whom the state of Kansas is named.

[406] In his letter to the King, dated Tiguex October 20, 1541, Coronado says that he started April 23. See Winship's translation in Fourteenth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (1896), p. 580.

[407] Cicuye is Pecos, as above mentioned. The direction is north of east and the distance forty miles in an air line, or fifteen Spanish judicial leagues. By rail, which follows almost exactly the old trail, the distance is sixty-five miles, or almost precisely twenty-five leagues.

[408] The Rio Pecos. The bridge was doubtless built across the stream somewhere near Puerto de Luna. The Ms. here reads Cicuyc for Cicuye.

[409] The name by which the eastern Apaches, or Apaches Vaqueros of later times, were known to the Pecos Indians. The first Querechos were met near the eastern boundary of New Mexico.

[410] Wherever "cows" are mentioned, bison are of course meant. Herds of these animals ranged as far as the Pecos, which was known as the Rio de las Vacas later in the century.

[411] All the Indians of the great plains were expert in the sign language, as their spoken languages were many and diverse.

[412] The place has not been identified with certainty.

[413] This river, if it existed at all, was in all probability the lower Arkansas or the Mississippi, hundreds of miles away.

[414] The Turk was evidently lying, at least so far as the distance was concerned. The Texas Indians were not canoeists. The army was now in the western part of the staked plains of Texas, but had changed its course from northeasterly to south of east. The country is greatly broken by the caÑons of the streams which take their rise in these parts.

[415] See Cabeza de Vaca's narration in this volume, p. 97.

[416] Probably an albino is here referred to.

[417] CastaÑeda here refers to the buffalo-hunting Indians in contrast to the Pueblo tribes which the Spaniards had left.

[418] "A manera de alixares." The margin reads Alexeres, a word meaning "threshing floor."

[419] These were evidently the Indians later called Tejas, or Texas, from which the state took its name. The name was indiscriminately applied by various later writers, but always to one of the Caddoan tribes or group of tribes.

[420] "We were brought into the Church, every one with a S. Benito upon his backe, which is a halfe a yard of yellow cloth, with a hole to put in a mans head in the middest, and cast over a mans head: both flaps hang one before, and another behinde, and in the middest of every flap, a S. Andrewes crosse, made of red cloth, sowed on upon the same, and that is called S. Benito."—Robert Tomson, "Voyage into Nova Hispania," 1555, in Hakluyt, Voyages, IX. 348 (1904).

[421] The league is equivalent to 2.63 English miles. This Spanish judicial league is still used in Mexico.

[422] The Tiguex villages on the Rio Grande are often referred to as the region where the settlements were.

[423] The point of separation of the army was in all probability the upper waters of the Rio Colorado in Texas. See the narration of Cabeza de Vaca, p. 97, note 2.

[424] That is, toward the southeast. At a somewhat later period Florida included everything from the peninsula northward.

[425] For additional details respecting the route pursued by Coronado after the main army was sent back, consult the narrative of Jaramillo, the Relacion del Suceso, and other documents pertaining to the expedition, in Winship's Coronado Expedition (1896) and Journey of Coronado (1904), and in connection therewith a discussion of the route by F. W. Hodge, in J. V. Brower's Memoirs of Explorations in the Basin of the Mississippi, II. (St. Paul, 1899). Continuing due north from the upper waters of the Rio Colorado of Texas, Coronado's immediate force in thirty days' march, according to the Relacion del Suceso (or "more than thirty days' march, although not long marches," according to Jaramillo), reached the river of St. Peter and St. Paul the last of June, 1541. This was the "river of Quivira" of the Relacion del Suceso, the present Arkansas River in Kansas, which was crossed at its southern bend, just east of the present Dodge City. The party continued thence northeast, downstream, and in thirty leagues, or six or seven days' march, reached the first of the Quivira settlements. This was at or near the present Great Bend, Kansas, before reaching the site of which the Turk was "made an example of." That the inhabitants of Quivira were the Wichita Indians there can be no reasonable doubt. The Quivira people lived in grass or straw lodges, according to the Spaniards, a fact that was true of the Wichitas only of all the northern plains tribes. The habitations of their congeners and northern neighbors, the Pawnee (who may be regarded as the inhabitants of the province of Harahey), were earth lodges. The word acochis, mentioned by CastaÑeda as the Quivira term for "gold," is merely the Spanish adaptation of hakwichis, which signifies "metal," for of gold our Indians knew nothing until after the advent of the white man. After exploring Quivira for twenty-five leagues, Coronado sent "captains and men in many directions," but they failed to find that of which they went in search. There is no reason to suppose that Coronado's party went beyond the limits of the present state of Kansas.

[426] Prairie-dogs.

[427] This would make the point at which the army reached Pecos River about eighty miles below Puerto de Luna, or not far from the present town of Roswell.

[428] CastaÑeda is writing about twenty years later. De Soto's army was exploring the eastern country as Coronado was traversing the buffalo plains. The Espiritu Santo is the Mississippi.

[429] See the Gentleman of Elvas in the second part of the present volume.

[430] As usual CastaÑeda gives a date a year later than the actual one.

[431] The pueblos occupied by the Jemez people. Only one of these now exists; this is on the Rio Jemez, a western tributary of the Rio Grande, which enters the latter stream above Bernalillo, New Mexico. See p. 359, note 2.

[432] This was Yukiwingge, on the site of the present small village of Chamita, at the mouth of the Rio Chama, opposite San Juan pueblo. The other one of the two villages was doubtless San Juan. Both of these were occupied by Tewa Indians. At Yukiwingge was established, in 1598, by Juan de OÑate, the colonizer of New Mexico, the settlement of San Gabriel de los EspaÑoles, which was occupied until the spring of 1605, when the seat of the provincial government was moved to Santa FÉ, founded for the purpose in that year. See p. 359, note 4.

[433] These may have been the pueblos, now in ruins, in and north of the Pajarito Park, one of which, called Puye, gives evidence of occupancy in post-Spanish times.

[434] It is not known definitely whether actually glazed pottery or merely the black, highly polished earthenware characteristic of the Tewa Indians of the neighborhood is here meant. The ancient Pueblos manufactured a ware with decoration in what appears to be a salt glaze. Specimens of this have been gathered in the Pajarito Park, at ZuÑi, among the Hopi of Arizona, and from ancient ruins around Acoma, but the art seems to have been lost. There is abundant evidence that this form of decoration was prehistoric. The finding of the "shining metal" (called antimony in Pt. 2, chap. 4) would seem to indicate that the polished rather than the glazed ware was here meant.

[435] This was the pueblo of Taos, which stood near the site of the present village of the same name, on both sides of the little stream (Taos River). The present Taos has 425 inhabitants. The swift and deep river without the ford, here referred to, must have been the Rio Grande in the neighborhood of Taos, rather than the Rio de Taos, which is insignificant except in seasons of freshet. CastaÑeda was evidently not one of Barrionuevo's party.

[436] The altitude of Taos is 6983 feet; of Taos Peak, 13,145 feet.

[437] Seemingly the Piros villages on the Rio Grande south of Isleta. They are now extinct, having been finally abandoned during the revolt in 1680, the inhabitants fleeing with Governor Otermin to El Paso. Senecu and Socorro (taking their names from former villages) were afterward established below El Paso, where the few survivors of the Piros, almost entirely Mexicanized, still reside.

[438] This rendering, doubtless correct, is due to Ternaux. The Guadiana, however, reappears above ground some time before it begins to mark the boundary of the Spanish province of Estremadura. The CastaÑeda family had its seat in quite the other end of the peninsula. (Winship.)

[439] See p. 337, note 1.

[440] The Newfoundland region.

[441] See p. 285, note 1.

[442] CastaÑeda, like many other early Spanish chroniclers, is careless in his directions. It will be observed that he frequently says west, east, etc., when he means westwardly, eastwardly. This has led one writer on the Coronado expedition seriously astray. Culiacan is decidedly northwest of Mexico City.

[443] The Gulf of California.

[444] Lower California is of course meant.

[445] For an account of the Indians of Lower California in the eighteenth century, see the translation of Father Jacob Baegert's narrative, by Charles Rau, in the Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1863 and 1864.

[446] The Rio Petlatlan is the present Rio Sinaloa. The name Sinaloa is synonymous in application with Cahita, a group of tribes including the present Yaqui and Mayo.

[447] That is, as far northward as the Rio Gila.

[448] The fruit of the prickly-pear cactus.

[449] The giant cactus. See p. 305, note 1.

[450] Sonora. See p. 301, notes 1 and 2.

[451] See p. 334, note 1.

[452] This was Arizpe, on the upper waters of the Rio Sonora. Jaramillo calls it Ispa.

[453] See p. 326, note 2.

[454] These are, from the south northward, the Pimas Bajos or Nevome, Opatas, Papagos, and Pimas. The older Pima women still paint their faces in fine lines and also are tattooed, but the custom is becoming a thing of the past. The Opatas are almost entirely Mexicanized.

[455] These were doubtless cantaloupes The southwestern Indians still slice and dry them in a manner similar to that here described.

[456] The Pueblo Indians, particularly the ZuÑi and the Hopi, keep eagles for their feathers, which are highly prized because regarded as sacred and are much used in their ceremonies.

[457] Probably Dragoon Pass, through the Dragoon and Galiuro Mountains of southeastern Arizona, thence between the PinaleÑo and Chiricahua mountains to the plains of San Simon.

[458] This ruin is supposed to have been in the vicinity of the present Solomonsville, Graham County. The name is Aztec (chichiltic "red," calli "house"). Writers have endeavored to identify it with the celebrated Casa Grande farther to the northwest, but this is inconsistent with the directions recorded in the narratives, and all students of the subject have now abandoned this theory.

[459] These people are not identifiable with certainty. If the Apaches of Arizona, it is the only mention of them and is contrary to all other testimony. The Sobaipuris lived on the upper Rio San Pedro and on the Gila near the mouth of the former stream, until the latter part of the eighteenth century.

[460] Picones are catfish.

[461] The "wilderness," or uninhabited region, extended from the Gila in central Graham County to the crossing of the New Mexico boundary by ZuÑi River, where Cibola began.

[462] These are the mountain lion and the wildcat.

[463] See p. 300, note 1.

[464] See p. 315, note 1.

[465] Identical with the dress of the ZuÑi women of to-day. Rabbit-skin robes have been replaced by woollen blankets, like those woven by the Navaho, who learned the art from the Pueblos. The rabbit-skin robes are now manufactured chiefly by the Paiutes, the Pueblos having almost ceased to make them.

[466] This custom has been abandoned except by the Hopi maidens, who still wear their hair in picturesque whorls, one on each side of the head, until married.

[467] See p. 308, note 3. This entire description is characteristic of the present ZuÑi country, except that game is not so abundant.

[468] PiÑon nuts, which are still gathered in large quantities.

[469] The kivas, or ceremonial chambers, of which there are usually several in each pueblo. It is in these that most of the secret rites are performed.

[470] PÁpa is a true ZuÑi word, signifying "elder brother," as distinguished from sÚ-e, "younger brother." These terms allude both to age and to rank.

[471] All public announcements are still made in this way.

[472] Rather to the religious societies. Some of them belong exclusively to the women.

[473] Excavations made at Halona, one of the Seven Cities of Cibola, yielded only skeletons that had been interred within the houses, beneath the floors. In the Salt River and Gila valleys, southern Arizona, this method was also practised, but in addition remains were cremated and deposited in earthen vessels in mounds near by.

[474] See p. 307, note 1; p. 358, note 3.

[475] This would indicate a population of 10,500 to 14,000, which is doubtless an excessive estimate for the sixteenth century. The present population of ZuÑi is 1514; of the Hopi villages, about 2000.

[476] The Rio Grande, as previously described.

[477] The Sandia Mountains.

[478] The pueblo of Picuris, about twenty miles south of Taos. This is a Tigua village of about 125 inhabitants.

[479] Compare the previous reference to Tutahaco (p. 314). Both the distance and the direction here given seem to be erroneous.

[480] This would indicate the existence of a true communal system that does not prevail at the present time.

[481] See Voth, "Oraibi Marriage Customs," American Anthropologist, II. 238 (1900).

[482] The American turkey cocks.

[483] A custom still common at ZuÑi and other pueblos. Before the introduction of manufactured dyes the Pueblos used urine as a mordant.

[484] See Mindeleff's "Pueblo Architecture," in the Eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 208; also Cushing, "ZuÑi Breadstuff," in The Millstone (Indianapolis, 1884-1885).

[485] A number of memoirs on the pottery of the ancient Pueblos may be consulted in the Annual Reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology.

[486] This is Pecos, the largest pueblo of New Mexico in the sixteenth century and for a long time after. Its people belonged to the Tanoan family, although their language was understood only by the Jemez villagers, their nearest kindred. It was the scene of the missionary labors of Fray Luis Descalona, who remained behind when Coronado returned to Mexico in 1542, but he was probably killed before the close of that year. Pecos became the seat of an important Franciscan mission early in the seventeenth century, but it began to decline after the revolt of 1680-1692, and in 1838 the half-dozen survivors removed to Jemez, where one of them still (1906) lives. Cicuye is the Isleta, or Tigua, name for Pecos, while "Pecos" itself is the Keresan, or Queres, appellation, with the Spanish-English plural. The ruins of the town are plainly visible from the Santa FÉ Railway. See Bandelier in Papers of the Archaeological Institute of America, Amer. ser., I. (1881); Hewett in American Anthropologist, n. s., VI. No. 4, 1904.

[487] The spring was "still trickling out beneath a massive ledge of rocks on the west sill" when Bandelier (op. cit.) sketched it in 1880.

[488] The former Tanos pueblo of Galisteo, a mile and a half northeast of the present town of the same name.

[489] According to Mota Padilla, Historia de la Conquista, 1742 (Mexico, 1870), this was called Coquite.

[490] These Indians were seen by Coronado during his journey across the plains. See p. 333, note 3.

[491] The name applied in Mexico at the time to any warlike, unsubdued tribe.

[492] The mountains to the north, in which the Rio Pecos has its source.

[493] The Rio Pecos, still noted for trout.

[494] Only the pueblos of Acoma and Isleta occupy their sixteenth-century sites, all the other villages having shifted their locations after the great revolt of 1680-1692, when the Spaniards granted specific tracts of land, usually a league square, later confirmed to the Indians by Congress under the provisions of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

[495] ZuÑi, including the pueblos of Halona, Matsaki, Kiakima, Hawiku, Kyanawe, and two others which have not been identified with certainty.

[496] The Hopi villages, among them being Awatobi (destroyed at the beginning of the eighteenth century), Oraibi, Walpi, Mishongnovi, Shongopovi, and Shupaulovi. The remaining pueblo has not been determined absolutely. Sichomovi and Hano are comparatively modern.

[497] Acoma. See p. 311, note 2.

[498] The Tigua pueblos; see p. 312, note 2.

[499] See p. 314, note 1.

[500] Meaning that the provinces of Tiguex and Tutahaco were those farthest down the valley.

[501] The pueblos of the Queres, or Keresan, family. See p. 327, note 3.

[502] Toward the north, in the direction of Santa FÉ.

[503] Ximena itself was Galisteo. The others were "Coquite" and the "Pueblo de los Silos." See p. 356, notes 2 and 3.

[504] Pecos. See p. 355, note 2.

[505] Jemez, including GiusiwÁ, AmushungkwÁ, Patoqua, and AstyalakwÁ. There are many ruins in the vicinity, including those of a large Spanish church at GiusiwÁ. Evidently some of the Sia villages are here included.

[506] The Jemez villages about the Jemez Hot Springs, above the present Jemez pueblo. CastaÑeda here duplicates his provinces somewhat, as the Aguas Calientes pueblos were Jemez, GiusiwÁ being one of the most prominent.

[507] See p. 340, note 1. This group of Tewa villages doubtless included San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Nambe, Pojoaque, and Yukiwingge. Jacona, Cuyamunque, and others were also occupied by the Tewas during this period, no doubt, but these may have been included in CastaÑeda's province of the Snowy Mountains.

[508] Taos. See p. 340, note 4.

[509] Sia, a Queres pueblo, probably included, with Santa Ana, in his "Quirix" group, above.

[510] CastaÑeda lists seventy-one, probably having added others without altering the total here given.

[511] The trend of the Rio Grande is really southwestward until after the southern limit of the old Pueblo settlements is passed. Perhaps CastaÑeda had in mind the southeastward course of the stream farther south "toward Florida," as mentioned later in this paragraph. He is probably here speaking from hearsay, as the exploration downstream was not made by the main body.

[512] This would give a total Pueblo population of about 70,000, whereas it could scarcely have much exceeded CastaÑeda's estimated number of men alone.

[513] Ruy Lopez de Villalobos sailed from Acapulco, Mexico, in command of four vessels, in 1542, discovered the Caroline and Pelew archipelagos and sighted Caesarea Caroli, believed to be Luzon, of the Philippine group. Later he established a colony on an island which he called Antonio or Saragan. Supplies failing, he despatched three of the vessels to Mexico, but these were wrecked. Forced by hunger to flee to Amboina, Villalobos was imprisoned by the Portuguese. One of his men, escaping, carried the news to Mexico in 1549.

[514] "The Spanish text," remarks Mr. Winship, "fully justifies CastaÑeda's statement that he was not skilled in the arts of rhetoric and geography."

[515] CastaÑeda here contradicts himself, as Pecos, Acoma, and the ZuÑi and Tusayan groups of pueblos are not in the valley of the Rio Grande.

[516] Previously called antimony. See p. 355, note 1.

[517] After leaving Cicuye (Pecos) the army marched down the river for four days, crossed the stream over a bridge that they had built, and then reached the Staked Plain of Texas by travelling first a northeasterly then a southeasterly course. See Pt. 1, chap. 19.

[518] The Rio Colorado.

[519] That is, if the writer overlooks the settlements (one of them called Cona) in the ravines of the headwaters of the Texas streams, about the eastern escarpment of the Staked Plain, previously mentioned.

[520] The salt lakes near the Texas-New Mexico boundary. Further allusion to these salt lakes is made in Pt. 1, chap. 21.

[521] The well-known travois of the plains tribes. The poles were those used to support the tents, or tipis, and were usually of cedar.

[522] Some of the tribes of Texas, however, especially the Attacapa and the Tonkawa, were noted as cannibals.

[523] The sign language was in general use among the tribes of the great plains, rendered necessary by the diversity of languages. See Mallery, Introduction to the Study of Sign Language (Washington, 1880); Clark, Indian Sign Language (1885).

[524] The "jerked beef" of the later frontiersmen.

[525] The pemmican of the Indians.

[526] CastaÑeda is sometimes confused in his directions. In this instance unless "west" (poniente) is a slip of the pen, he evidently forgot that the army travelled for weeks to the north, "by the needle," after journeying for some distance toward sunrise from the ravines of western Texas.

[527] This flora is characteristic of the upper plains generally, and the passage has been quoted by students of the route to show that Quivira lay both in Kansas and in Nebraska.

[528] Note the character of the houses as one of the chief means of determining the inhabitants of Quivira. See p. 337, note 1.

[529] The Jaramillo narrative says Capottan or Capotean.

[530] Possibly the Kaw or Kansa Indians. See Pt. 3, chap. 4.

[531] Compare Herrera, Historia General, dec. vi., lib. ix., cap. xii., Vol. III., p. 207 (ed. 1730); Gomara, Historia General, cap. CCXIIII. (1553); Mota Padilla, Historia de la Conquista, 1742, p. 167 (1870); and specially Bandelier in American Catholic Quarterly Review, XV. 551-565 (Philadelphia, July, 1890).

[532] The Missouri-Mississippi.

[533] The Harahey of Jaramillo's account—evidently the Pawnee country, about the Platte River, Nebraska. The "Relacion del Suceso," Fourteenth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology (Washington, 1896), spells it Harale.

[534] The North and the South seas are the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans respectively.

[535] See Cabeza de Vaca's narrative in the present volume.

[536] Mr. Winship calls attention to Mota Padilla's reasons for the failure of the expedition: "It was most likely the chastisement of God that riches were not found on this expedition, because, when this ought to have been the secondary object of the expedition, and the conversion of all those heathen their first aim, they bartered with fate and struggled after the secondary; and thus the misfortune is not so much that all those labors were without fruit, but the worst is that such a number of souls have remained in their blindness." Historia de la Conquista, 1742, p. 166 (repr. 1870).

[537] According to the Relacion del Suceso: "Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas started off for Mexico, who, besides the fact that his arm was very bad, had permission from the viceroy on account of the death of his brother. Ten or twelve who were sick went with him, and not a man among them all who could fight." Cardenas, it will be recalled, had broken his arm. See Pt. 1, chap. 19.

[538] Of 1541-1542.

[539] Cardenas had "reached the town of the Spaniards and found it burned and two Spaniards and many Indians and horses dead, and he returned to the river on this account." (Relacion del Suceso.)

[540] Compare the spelling of this name on p. 297.

[541] That is, to poison their arrows.

[542] The San Pedro, in Sonora near the Arizona boundary. The Indians who made this attack may have been the Sobaipuri.

[543] See p. 368, note 2.

[544] Fray Luis Descalona, or De Escalona, or De Ubeda. For references on these friars, see p. 365, note 1. See also p. 355, note 2.

[545] Gen. W. W. H. Davis, in his Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, p. 231, gives the following extract, translated from an old Spanish MS. at Santa FÉ: "When Coronado returned to Mexico, he left behind him, among the Indians of Cibola, the father Fray Francisco Juan de Padilla, the father Fray Juan de la Cruz, and a Portuguese named Andres del Campo. Soon after the Spaniards departed, Padilla and the Portuguese set off in search of the country of the Grand Quivira, where the former understood there were innumerable souls to be saved. After travelling several days, they reached a large settlement in the Quivira country. The Indians came out to receive them in battle array, when the friar, knowing their intentions, told the Portuguese and his attendants to take to flight, while he would await their coming, in order that they might vent their fury on him as they ran. The former took to flight, and, placing themselves on a height within view, saw what happened to the friar. Padilla awaited their coming upon his knees, and when they arrived where he was they immediately put him to death. The same happened to Juan de la Cruz, who was left behind at Cibola, which people killed him. The Portuguese and his attendants made their escape, and ultimately arrived safely in Mexico, where he told what had occurred." In reply to a request for further information regarding this manuscript, General Davis stated that when he revisited Santa FÉ, a few years ago, he learned that one of his successors in the post of governor of the territory, having despaired of disposing of the immense mass of old documents and records deposited in his office, by the slow process of using them to kindle fires, had sold the entire lot—an invaluable collection of material bearing on the history of the Southwest and its early European and native inhabitants—as junk. (Winship.) The governor referred to was Rev. William A. Pile, appointed by President Grant and serving in 1869-1870.

[546] When Antonio de Espejo visited Cibola, or ZuÑi, in 1583, he found three Indians, natives of Mexico, who had been left by Coronado but who had forgotten their mother tongue. He also found crosses that had been erected by Coronado.

[547] There were two settlements in Sonora bearing this name, one occupied by the Eudeve and the other by the Tegui division of the Opata. The latter village, which was probably the one referred to by CastaÑeda, was situated on the Rio de Oposura, a western tributary of the Yaqui, eight leagues east of San JosÉ Matape. It became the seat of the Jesuit mission of Santa MarÍa in 1629.

[548] See pp. 346, 347. Petatlan is an Aztec word signifying "place of the petates," or mats, referring to the character of the native dwellings.

[549] June 24, 1542.

[550] See p. 360, note 2.

[551] The Indians of this vicinity had a similar regard for Cabeza de Vaca and his companions. See the narrative in the present volume.

[552] The kersey, or coarse woollen cloth out of which the habits of the Franciscan friars were made. Hence the name Grey Friars. (Winship.) Various attempts were made to manufacture the hair into garments, especially stockings, but the ventures did not prove profitable. See Hornaday, "The Extinction of the American Bison," Report of the United States National Museum for 1886-1887.

[553] The cross is common to the Indians and always has been. It often is symbolic of the morning and the evening stars. Those referred to as having been seen by Coronado's men at Acoma were characteristic prayer-sticks, the downy feathers representing the breath of life. Such are still in common use by the Pueblo Indians.

[554] Probably dried corn-husk.

[555] The northeastern province of New Spain.

[556] That is, he travelled from the Quivira province, in the present Kansas, southwestwardly to Mexico.

[557] Zacatecas.

[558] This wild tribe inhabited chiefly the region of the present state of San Luis PotosÍ, Mexico. They were known also as Cuachichiles and Quachichiles.

[559] The dictionary of Dominguez says: "Isla de negros; Ó isla del Almirantazgo, en el grande OcÉano equinoccial; grande isla de la AmÉrica del Norte, sobre la costa oeste." Apparently the location of this island gradually drifted westward with the increase of geographical knowledge, until it was finally located in the Philippine group. (Winship.)

[560] This would indicate that the bronze cannon which Coronado left at Sia pueblo were worthless.

[561] The Gulf of California (which had been navigated by CortÉs) and the Rio Colorado.

Transcriber's note:

Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been retained except in obvious cases of typographical error, and in the following cases: Castaneda has been changed to CastaÑeda and Relacion to RelaciÓn.

The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

In the index for Mesa, "Spanish soldier", the transcriber has changed the page number 538 to 376.

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