Chapter VII: Early Explorations of New Mexico (2)

As the Turk now represented that Haxa was only two days’ march distant, Diego Lopez was sent in advance, with ten light-armed men, to explore it; while the army, continuing on in the same direction, fell in with an innumerable quantity of bisons, and lost several horses in chasing them. Lopez, after marching twenty leagues without seeing anything but the sky and the bisons, was at last brought back by the friendly natives; and his ill success contributed still more to discredit the Turk. One of the force, a native of Quivira named Sopete, had given quite different information about the route; and Coronado therefore sent out another exploring party under Rodrigo Maldonado, who came to a village in a great ravine, where a blind old man gave them to understand by signs that a long while before he had seen four of their countrymen: these were believed to be Cabeza de Vaca and his companions.[1446] This people were very friendly, and gave to the Spaniards a great quantity of tanned skins and other objects, including a tent as large as a house. Forthwith a messenger was despatched to bring the whole body of the soldiers to this spot, who, on arriving, proceeded at once to divide the skins among themselves, to the great chagrin of the natives, who had supposed that they would only bless the skins, as Cabeza de Vaca had done, and then return them. While the army was resting here there came a terrible storm, in which hailstones fell of such enormous size as would have done great mischief if it had been encountered in the open plain. A party sent out to reconnoitre came upon another wandering tribe, called Teyas, who conducted the army for three days’ march to their town, which was called Cona. This people were hostile to the Querechos, and had their faces and bodies painted; and from them guides were procured, who were not permitted to have any communication with the Turk. These confirmed what Sopete had said, that Quivira lay some forty days’ march in a northerly direction; and they led the way to another great valley, a league broad, watered by a little stream, where were vines and fruit-trees in abundance; and here the army rested some time. As it had now become evident that the Turk had deceived them, and as their supply of food began to run short, Coronado called a council of war, at which it was decided that he should take thirty of the bravest and best mounted horsemen and push on in search of Quivira, and that the rest of the army should return to Tiguex, under the command of Arellano. This decision, however, was not well received by the soldiers, who besought their General not to leave them, declaring that they were ready to die with him. But Coronado would not yield to their wishes, and set out with his party, promising to send back word in eight days if they might rejoin him.

The army waited fifteen days, during which they killed a large number of bisons; but several of their number lost the way and were never found, although cannon were fired and every means taken to recover them. Then messengers arrived repeating the order to return to Tiguex, and they quitted the valley for the country of the Teyas. This nomadic people knew the region perfectly, and supplied them with guides, by whom they were conducted back in twenty-five days to the river of Cicuyé, which they struck more than thirty leagues below where they had built the bridge, passing on their way great salt marshes. The guides told them that the river flowed toward the east, and fell into the river of Tiguex more than twenty days’ journey away. From this point they marched up the river to Cicuyé, where they were no longer well received by the inhabitants, who refused to furnish them with provisions. Accordingly they returned to Tiguex, arriving about the middle of July, 1541.

In the mean time Coronado, after marching in a northerly direction over the plains for thirty days, came to a large river, which was named for Saints Peter and Paul. All this time he and his men had lived entirely upon the flesh of bisons, and often had only their milk to drink. Sopete said there were villages farther down the river; and accordingly he followed the northern bank for three days or more in a northeasterly direction, until he came to one situated upon a branch of the great river. Journeying for four or five days more, he reached in succession six or seven other villages similarly situated, until he arrived at one which he was told was called Quivira.[1447] Here he heard of other villages still farther distant on the banks of a yet larger river called Teucarea. Great was Coronado’s disappointment at finding that Quivira, instead of being as he had been informed a city of stone houses of many stories, consisted only of a collection of straw-built huts, and that its people were the most barbarous of any that he had hitherto encountered. They ate their meat raw, like the Querechos and the Teyas, and were clad in tanned bison-skins, not having any cotton; but they cultivated maize. The Turk, who had for some time been conducted in chains with the rear-guard, was now interrogated as to his motives in so misrepresenting the nature of the country, and misleading the Spaniards. He replied that his own country lay beyond Quivira, and that the people of Cibola had begged him to lead the strangers astray upon the plains, so that they might perish by famine, as it was supposed that they relied upon maize for their food, and did not know how to chase the bison. One night he endeavored to stir up the people of Quivira to massacre the Spaniards; but being put upon their guard, the Spaniards strangled him, to the great delight of Sopete. No gold or silver was found in the country; but one of the chiefs wore a plate of copper suspended from his neck, by which he set great store. Coronado says that Quivira was nine hundred and fifty leagues distant from Mexico, and was situated in latitude 40°. The soil was rich and black, watered by many streams, and bore an abundance of grapes and plums.[1448] Here he remained for twenty-five days, sending out exploring parties in all directions, who found great difficulty in communicating with the natives, owing to the diversity of languages spoken by them, and the want of interpreters. It was now the latter part of July,[1449] and it was time to start to rejoin the army at Tiguex. So, after collecting a supply of maize for the journey, and erecting a cross with an inscription saying that Coronado had been there, he procured fresh guides, leaving Sopete in his home, and returned by the route he had come, as far as to the river named for Saints Peter and Paul. At that point, bending more towards the west, they reached the country where they had first fallen in with the Querechos, and had been turned from the direct course by the Turk; and in forty days they reached Cicuyé.

In the mean time, Arellano and the main portion of the force had been making preparations for passing the winter at Tiguex, and had been despatching parties in different directions to procure supplies of provisions. One under Francisco de Barrio-Nuevo was sent in a northerly direction up the river and visited two provinces, of which one, called Hemez, contained seven villages; the other, named Yuque-Yunque, two fine ones on the bank of the river, and four others strongly fortified and difficult of access in the mountains.[1450] Twenty leagues farther up the river was a large and powerful village called Braba, to which the Spaniards gave the name of Valladolid. It was built on both banks of a deep and rapid stream, which was crossed by a bridge of well-squared pine timber; and contained large rooms that could be heated, supported by huge pillars, superior to anything of the kind that had been seen in the country.[1451] Another expedition was sent down the river, as has been already related.

By this time some apprehension began to be felt for Coronado’s safety, as the time fixed for his return had expired and nothing had yet been heard from him. Accordingly Arellano started with a small party in search of him, and at Cicuyé he was attacked by the inhabitants, with whom he kept up a contest for four days. Tidings then came from the General; and, contenting himself with guarding the passes, Arellano waited there for his arrival. Coronado soon succeeded in re-establishing friendly relations, and continued on immediately to Tiguex. As soon as he reached that place he set about in earnest to pacify the whole province, and to persuade the inhabitants to return to their homes. The most strenuous exertions were made to procure a supply of clothing for the troops, who were in great distress for it, and to provide in every way for their comfort; so that Castañeda says, “Never was Spanish general in the Indies more beloved or better obeyed than he.” In the spring he promised his men that they should start again in search of the unknown countries, about which the Turk had set their imaginations on fire. The greater part were firm in the conviction that the natives were familiar with gold, despite their assurances to the contrary, and that they should find it in abundance. But it is plain from Coronado’s report that he did not share in this belief; and the sequel proved that others agreed with him. The region of Tiguex he found far too cold and too distant from the sea to make it a desirable situation for a colony.

About this time Tobar arrived with the reinforcements which, as we have seen, he had been ordered to bring from the valley of Suya. He had taken only the best soldiers, leaving many discontented and mutinous ones behind; and these arrived in the full expectation of finding the General already established in the rich countries about which the marvellous reports had reached them. But their disappointment was somewhat consoled when they learned that in the spring the whole army would start in the search of them. Tobar had brought despatches from the Viceroy, and private letters,—among them one informing Cardenas that he had fallen heir to his elder brother’s estate. Cardenas accordingly obtained leave to return to Mexico, and several others went with him. Castañeda says that many more would have been glad to do so, if they had not been restrained by fear of being accused of cowardice. This shows the divided feeling that prevailed. And soon trouble arose between the General, who studied only the welfare of the whole army, and certain of the officers, who selfishly looked more after the interests of their own men; so that some already began to talk of abandoning the expedition and returning to New Spain.

When the winter was over, Coronado ordered preparations to be made to start for Quivira, on the way to the unknown countries. But fate had ordained a different termination for his enterprise. On a holiday, while he was amusing himself by tilting at the ring with Maldonado, Coronado’s saddle-girths broke, and he fell to the ground, where he received a blow on the head from Maldonado’s horse, which nearly cost him his life. A long illness followed, during which Cardenas suddenly returned in haste from Suya, with the news that he had found that post broken up and the inhabitants massacred. It seems that the discontented element left behind by Tobar,—pretending that they had been abandoned, and that the route for New Spain had left them on one side,—had deserted Alcarraz and the sick men under his charge, and had fled to Culiacan. Upon this the natives became insubordinate, and one night made an attack upon the enfeebled force with poisoned arrows, killing a number of them. The rest escaped on foot to Corazones, whose people, always friendly to the Spaniards, aided them on their way to Culiacan, where they, as well as the mutineers, were found by Gallegos not long afterward, when he arrived there with reinforcements.

The news of this calamity was so afflicting to Coronado that he grew worse, or, as Castañeda intimates, feigned to do so, as he had allowed himself to give way to the influence of superstitious terrors. In his youth the prediction had been made that he would become lord of a distant land, and that he would lose his life there by a fall. This now seemed to him to be in the way of accomplishment, and he longed to return to die with his wife and children. The surgeon had kept him informed of the discontent that prevailed among a portion of his force, and he accordingly took secret counsel with certain of the officers, in which it was agreed that they should persuade their men to present a petition, praying that they might be allowed to return to New Spain. A council of war was then held, at which the conclusion was reached that the country was neither sufficiently rich nor populous to make it worth the holding. Coronado thereupon issued the necessary orders for the return march. Some of the officers, however, repented of their decision, and asked the General to give them sixty picked men, with which to maintain themselves until reinforcements should be sent by the Viceroy; or for him to take that number of men for his escort, and leave the command of the expedition to some other person. But the army would not listen to either of these propositions, as they had no inclination to make the trial of any new commander. The consequence was that the zeal and affection of some of the officers for their chief disappeared, though that of the men still held firm.

It was in the early part of April, 1542, that the army began its return march to New Spain. Two of the missionaries remained behind, in the hope of making proselytes of the natives. One of them, a lay brother named Luis, remained at Cicuyé; the other, Juan de Padilla, who had led the charge at Tusayan, continued on to Quivira with some native converts; where, in the words of Castañeda, he speedily “received the martyr’s crown.” To better insure the safety of the priests, Coronado ordered his men to set at liberty their native slaves, and then started for Cibola. On the journey thither the horses, which thus far had kept in excellent condition, began to die in great numbers. The army accordingly rested a while there before entering upon the desert lying between that place and Chichilticalli; and some Christianized Indians from Mexico remained behind at Cibola, where they were found by Antonio de Espejo, forty-one years afterward, in 1583.[1452]

The crossing of the desert was uneventful, and two days after they reached Chichilticalli, Gallegos arrived there from the Viceroy with reinforcements of men and munitions of war. Great was his dismay at finding the army on its way back, and all the splendid visions dissipated that the Turk had conjured up. Those of the officers who had offered to remain and hold the country until the Viceroy’s commands should be received, now renewed their proposition; but the soldiers refused to return, and clamored to be led back to New Spain. Coronado found himself powerless to constrain them, even if he possessed the inclination to do so; nor was his authority sufficient to enable him to inflict any punishment upon the deserters who had abandoned Alcarraz at Suya. During the march, Castañeda says that Coronado kept up the fiction of being ill, and only allowed his intimates access to his person. The natives, seeing that the country was being abandoned by the Spaniards, kept up a succession of hostile encounters, in which several of the force perished. As provisions began to fail, the army hastened on to Petatlan, thirty leagues from Culiacan, the seat of Coronado’s government. All the bonds of discipline had now become relaxed, and even his authority there as governor was not sufficient to reinforce it; but by begging his friends to use their influence with the men, he was able to bring about one hundred of the force back with himself to Mexico. Here he was received but coolly by the Viceroy, Mendoza; his reputation was gone, and soon after he was deprived of his position as Governor of New Gallicia.

Such was the end of an expedition which, as General Simpson says, “for extent in distance travelled, duration in time, and the multiplicity of its co-operating expeditions, equalled, if it did not exceed, any land expedition that has been undertaken in modern times.”[1453]

CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION.

THE original sources of information in regard to the early Spanish explorations of New Mexico have been made available for students within the last thirty years by the publication of several collections of documents, preserved either in Mexico or in the Archivo de Indias, at Seville, or in the great national repository at Simancas. The first to appear was the one entitled _Documentos para la historia de Mejico_, published by order of the Mexican Government between 1853 and 1857.[1454] This is distributed into four series, of which the third and the fourth contain important historical material bearing upon this subject. Next came the well-selected _Coleccion de varios documentos para la historia de la Florida y tierras adyacentes_, undertaken by the late Buckingham Smith, of which, however, only the first volume appeared in Madrid, in 1857.[1455] Then Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta, the accomplished translator of Prescott’s _Conquest of Peru_, published in Mexico a valuable _Coleccion de documentos para la historia de México_, in two volumes, the first in 1858 and the second in 1866.[1456] But by far the most important of all is the great _Coleccion de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y colonizacion de las posesiones Españolas en América y Oceanía, sacados en su mayor parte del real Archivo de Indias_. Forty volumes of this indispensable repertory have already appeared at Madrid, between 1864 and 1884, edited by Joaquin Francesco Pacheco and other scholars.[1457] A most essential service, however, had been rendered to the students of early American history at a still earlier date by the publication of Henri Ternaux-Compans’ admirable series of _Voyages, relations, et mémoires originaux pour servir à l’histoire de la découverte de l’Amérique, publiés pour la première fois en Français_, of which twenty parts appeared in Paris between 1837 and 1841.[1458] Prior to this our knowledge had been mainly restricted to Italian translations of original narratives published by Giovanni Battista Ramusio in the third volume of his _Navigationi et Viaggi_, Venice, 1556 (reprinted in 1565 and subsequently); of most of which Richard Hakluyt has given an English version in the third volume of his _Voyages, nauigations, traffiques, and discoueries_, London, 1600 (reprinted in 1810).

The different expeditions, in their chronological order, may now be studied in the following original authorities:—

An account of the expedition of Nuño Beltran de Guzman to Ciguatan is contained in the _Primera_ (_segunda_) (_tercera_) (_quarta_) _relacion anonima de la jornada que hizo Nuño de Guzman à la Nueva Galicia_, in Icazbalceta’s _Coleccion_, vol. ii. pp. 288-306; 439-483. Other narratives can be found in Pacheco’s _Documentos Inéditos_, tom. xiv., pp. 347-373, and 411-463; tom. xvi., pp. 363-375. De Guzman first conquered and then colonized Sinaloa, and even penetrated into Sonora, thus preparing the way for the subsequent explorations. Very little information, however, about New Mexico is to be obtained from any of these narratives.

Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca published his remarkable story at Zamora in 1542, under the title: _La relacion que dio Aluar Nuñez Cabeça de Vaca de lo acaescido en las Indias en la armada donde yua por gouernador Páphilo de Narbaez, desde el año de veynte y siete hasta el año de treynta y seys que boluio a Sevilla con tres de su compañia_.[1459] Notwithstanding the vivid interest that will always attach to this thrilling story of adventure and suffering, the indications given in it of the routes by which he journeyed, and of the places and peoples he visited, are practically of far too vague a character to enable them to be satisfactorily identified,[1460] even if we feel warranted in placing implicit confidence in the author’s veracity.

The original report by Fray Marcos de Nizza (of Nice) of his _Descubrimiento de las Siete Ciudades_, can be found in Pacheco’s _Documentos inéditos_, tom. iii. p. 329; and the instructions received by him from the Viceroy Mendoza are given on p. 325 of the same volume. An Italian translation of the report is contained in Ramusio, _Navigationi_, vol. iii. p. 356 (ed. of 1565); and from this was made the English version in Hakluyt, _Voyages_, vol. iii. p. 438 (ed. of 1810). But on comparing both Ramusio’s and Hakluyt’s versions with the original, not only will it be found that in many places they are mere paraphrases, but that frequently additional particulars have been foisted into the text. Especially noticeable are the many exaggerated statements in regard to the quantities of gold and of precious stones seen by the monk during his journey, or about which stories are told to him by the natives, for which there is not a vestige of authority to be found in the original. Fray Marcos claims to have related what he himself saw or what was told to him; but it is evident not only that he was prone to lend a credulous ear to whatever fictions might be imposed upon him, but that he grossly misrepresented what he had himself seen. This is directly charged upon him by those who followed in his footsteps under Coronado, and who suffered grievously by reason of his falsifications; so that he was even compelled to flee to Mexico to escape the consequences of their just indignation. We think that he fairly deserves the epithet of “the lying monk,” which has been bestowed upon him, in spite of the air of probability which pervades the greater part of his narrative. But it must in justice be said, however, that he appears rather to have been carried away by religious enthusiasm than actuated by any personal or mercenary considerations; and with the hope of being able to convert the natives to Christianity, he invested them and their surroundings with the glow of his own imagination. Still, this need not militate against the truth of his statements in regard to the distances he travelled, or the physical characteristics of the regions through which his route lay; so that his narrative will always be important for the students of the topography, if not of the ethnology, of New Mexico at the period of its discovery.

Ternaux-Compans (_Voyages, etc._, vol. ix. p. 256) has made a most faithful French translation, from copies of the originals at Simancas, of Fray Marcos’s report, and of the letter from Mendoza to the Emperor Charles V., which accompanied it, as well as of the instructions received by the Friar from Mendoza.

The story of Coronado’s romantic expedition in search of “The Seven Cities of Cibola” has been told with more or less of detail by four different persons who took part in it. We have also three of his own letters and despatches narrating his earlier proceedings. Of these, the first is a brief one, written to the Viceroy Mendoza, dated Culiacan, March 8, 1539, transmitting a report received from Fray Marcos while upon his journey. An English version of this can be found in Hakluyt, _Voyages_, vol. iii. p. 434 (ed. of 1810), translated from Ramusio, _Navigationi_, vol. iii. p. 395 (ed. of 1565); and a French translation, in Ternaux-Compans, vol. ix. p. 349. Next comes a short letter to the Viceroy dated April 10, 1539, in which he tells about the preparations for his ineffectual expedition to Topira; Hakluyt, p. 352; Ramusio, p. 435; Ternaux-Compans, p. 352. Of much greater importance, however, is the full report transmitted by him to Mendoza from Cibola (or Granada, as he called it), August 3, 1540, setting forth everything that had occurred between that date and April 22, when he had started. An Italian version of this is given by Ramusio, Navigationi, vol. iii. p. 359 (ed. of 1565); _Relatione de Francisco Vazquez de Coronado del viagio alle dette setta cita_. An English translation can be found in Hakluyt, _Voyages_, vol. iii. p. 446 (ed. of 1810). Finally, there is the letter which he wrote to the Emperor Charles V., from Tiguex, after his return from Quivira, in which is related the course of events from April 23, 1541, up to October 20 of the same year. This can be found in Pacheco’s _Documentos inéditos_, tom. iii. p. 363; and it has been repeated in tom. xiii. p. 261. A French translation of it is given in the _Voyages_ of Ternaux-Compans, vol. ix. p. 355.

The four narratives by other pens are—

1. An anonymous _Relacion del suceso de la jornada que Francisco Vazquez hizo en el descubrimiento de Cibola_, contained in Buckingham Smith’s _Coleccion de varios documentos_, p. 147. This was afterwards printed in Pacheco’s _Documentos inéditos_, tom. xiv. p. 318, but with the erroneous date of 1531, instead of 1541.

2. A second anonymous account, entitled _Traslado de las nuevas y noticias que dieron sobre el descobrimiento de una Cibdad que llamaron de Cibola, situada en la Tierra Nueva_, can also be found in _Documentos inéditos_, tom. xix. p. 529, with the same error in the date.

3. Of much greater value is the _Relacion que dió el Capitan Joan Jaramillo, de la jornada que hizo à la tierra nueva de la que fué General Francisco Vazquez de Coronado_; of which a French translation was first published by Ternaux-Compans, in his _Voyages_, etc., vol. ix. p. 364. The original was afterwards printed in Buckingham Smith’s _Coleccion_, p. 155, and subsequently in Pacheco’s _Documentos inéditos_, tom. xiv. p. 304, but under the erroneous date of 1537. It is a straightforward, soldierly narrative, well written, and with many picturesque details, and it contains an unusual amount of topographical information; so that it is of great value in establishing the route followed by the expedition, and in identifying the various localities.

4. But if our knowledge of the expedition had been confined to the authorities thus far indicated, we should have had a very imperfect idea both of its events and of its results. In 1838 Ternaux-Compans published a translation into French of a quarto manuscript, of 157 leaves, which he had found in the Uguina Collection, at Paris, under the title _Relation du Voyage de Cibola enterpris in 1540; ou l’on traite de toutes les peuplades qui habitent cette contrée, de leurs mœurs et coutumes, par Pédro de Castañeda de Nagera_ (_Voyages_, vol. ix. p. 1). Nothing has been discovered in relation to this writer except what is contained in his own account. He states that he “wrote his narrative in the city of Culiacan, where he was living in the midst of misery and dangers, as the whole country was in a state of insurrection” (p. 233). The volume bears the indorsement, “Finished copying at Seville, Oct. 26, 1596.” As his name is not mentioned in the list of officers which he has given, it is supposed that he was only a private soldier. The work shows that he was a man of considerable education, but it is evidently the production of a novice in the art of literary composition. It is an attempt at a methodical narrative, divided into three parts, but it is quite difficult to follow in it the order of events. In the first part he treats of the incidents of the expedition, and of the army and its officers; the second contains a description of the provinces, villages, and mountains that were discovered, of the religion and customs of the inhabitants, and of the animals, fruits, and vegetables to be found; and in the last part he tells about the return of the army, and explains the reasons for abandoning the attempt at colonization. As he wrote more than twenty years after the events he has described, he sometimes signifies his inability to remember precisely the number of miles travelled, or of the days during which they journeyed. He has even fallen into the error of making the day on which the expedition entered Campostello, Shrove Tuesday, 1541 (p. 24), although he gives the correct date, 1540, in the _Dedicatory Epistle_ (p. xiv). Throughout his entire narrative, whenever he gives the date of the year, it is always one too large, as can be seen on pp. 101, 137, and 213. He professes to have written for the purpose of correcting the many misrepresentations and fables that had sprung up in regard to the country they had discovered, and the character of the people, and the nature of the animals to be found there. Castañeda impresses the reader as a religious, humane, and candid man, who cannot fail to win his confidence in the truth of the events he relates. He does not hesitate to expose and to comment upon the cruel and rapacious acts of his own countrymen; and he does full justice both to the natural amiability and to the valor of the natives. His various observations show him to have been a man of sagacity and good judgment. Mr. Bandelier vouches for the remarkable accuracy of his description of the country, although the distances generally are estimated one third too great (_Historical Introduction to Studies among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico_, p. 22). The Castañeda MS. is now in the Lenox library.

These are all the original sources of knowledge in regard to the earliest attempts at exploration in New Mexico by the Spaniards, and especially respecting Coronado’s expedition to the Seven Cities of Cibola. The historians of Mexico, from Gomara down, while adding no new information to that detailed by Castañeda, are in agreement with him as to the general facts.

Renewed attention was directed to Coronado’s expedition and to the probable locality of Cibola by the publication of the reports contained in the _Notes of a Military Reconnoissance made by Lieut.-Colonel William H. Emory, in 1846-1847, with the advance guard of the army of the West_, during the war between the United States and Mexico,[1461] and the _Report of Lieutenant J. W. Abert of his examination of New Mexico_. Colonel Emory, in a letter to Hon. Albert Gallatin, dated Oct. 8, 1847, made the statement that he had met with “an Indian race living in four-story houses, built upon rocky promontories, inaccessible to a savage foe, cultivating the soil, and answering the description of the seven cities of Coronado, except in their present insignificance in size and population, and the fact that the towns, though near each other, are not in a (continuous) valley six leagues long, but on different branches of the same stream” (p. 133). He had in mind the villages in the vicinity of Ciboletta, Laguna, etc., on the Rio San Jose, a tributary of the Rio Grande del Norte, about ninety miles east of the present Zuñi pueblo. This opinion was corroborated by Lieutenant Abert (p. 491). Mr. Gallatin thereupon proceeded to prepare for the _Transactions of the American Ethnological Society_ (vol. ii. p. liii, 1848) an elaborate essay on the _Ancient semi-civilization of New Mexico, Rio Gila, and its vicinity_, in which large use was made of these military reports, and to which was prefixed a map compiled by Mr. E. G. Squier. In November of the same year Mr. Squier contributed to the _American Review_ an article on _New Mexico and California. The ancient monuments and the aboriginal semi-civilized nations of New Mexico and California, with an abstract of the early Spanish explorations and conquests in those regions, particularly those falling within the territory of the United States_. Mr. Gallatin came to the conclusion that the seven cities “appear to have been near the sources of a tributary of the great Colorado, and not of the Rio del Norte” (p. lxxii); but he inclined to the opinion that they had been destroyed by the Apaches (p. xciv). Mr. Squier identified Cibola with Zuñi; but there are inconsistencies to be found between his map and statements contained in his article. In that same year Lieutenant J. H. Simpson, in his _Journal of a Military Reconnoissance from Santa Fé to the Navajo Country_,[1462] gave a detailed description of Zuñi, which he considered to be the site of Cibola.

The explorations carried on in New Mexico and Arizona, from 1853 to 1856, during the search for a suitable route for the Pacific Railroad, took Lieutenant A. W. Whipple and Professor W. W. Turner over the same ground, and they both came to a similar conclusion (_Pacific Railroad Reports_, vol. iii. pp. 68, 104). But in 1857 Mr. H. M. Breckenridge published at Pittsburg a brief narrative of the _Early discoveries by Spaniards in New Mexico, containing an account of the castles of Cibola and the present appearance of their ruins_, in which he maintained that Cibola was the well-known ruin called Casa Grande, on the river Gila. Mr. R. H. Kern, however, upheld the Zuñi theory in his map, prepared in 1854 to accompany Schoolcraft’s _History of the Indian Tribes of North America_ (vol. iv. p. 33); and Mr. Schoolcraft himself adopted the same view (vol. vi. p. 70, 1857).

In the year 1869 important additions were made to our knowledge of the early history of New Mexico, and especially of Coronado’s expedition. Mr. W. H. H. Davis, who had held an official position in that Territory, and in 1856 had published an interesting study of it under the title of _El Gringo_, gave to the world the first history of _The Spanish Conquest of New Mexico_, Doylestown, Penn. In the same year Brevet Brigadier General Simpson, who had had his attention directed to the question twenty years previously, prepared for the _Annual Report of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1869_ a thorough study, accompanied by a map, of _Coronado’s March in search of the “Seven Cities of Cibola,” and discussion of their probable location_.[1463] In April of the same year there appeared in the _North American Review_ an article by the late Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, entitled _The Seven Cities of Cibola_, in which that eminent archæologist made an elaborate argument in favor of the identification of that site with the remarkable group of ruined stone structures, discovered not long before in the valley of the Rio Chaco, one of the affluents of the Colorado, about one hundred miles to the northeast of Zuñi. On this point, however, both Mr. Davis (p. 119) and General Simpson have pronounced in favor of Zuñi, and General Simpson has even undertaken to answer Mr. Morgan’s arguments in detail (p. 232). Mr. Morgan, nevertheless, still held to his opinion in his _Study of the houses of the American Aborigines_, p. 46 (_First annual report of the Archæological Institute of America_, 1880) expanded into the _House and House-life of the American Aborigines_ (Geographical and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain region, in charge of J. W. Powell, vol. iv., 1881, pp. 167-170).

_The Spanish Conquest of New Mexico_, by Mr. Davis, is a valuable contribution to history, in which faithful and diligent use has been made of the original authorities and of unpublished documents; and it is the only full and connected narrative that has yet appeared of the series of events which it relates. The important episode to which General Simpson confines his attention is treated in abundant detail, and great acuteness and local knowledge are displayed in the discussion of the route followed by Coronado. It is likely to remain always the leading authority upon this subject.

In his elaborate work upon _The Native Races of the Pacific States_, Mr. H. H. Bancroft adopted the Zuñi theory as to the site of Cibola (vol. iv. p. 674), repeated in his _History of the Pacific States_ (vol. x. p. 85).[1464] This is also the opinion maintained by Mr. A. F. Bandelier in his _Historical Introduction to Studies among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico_, p. 12 (_Papers of the Archæological Institute of America._ American series, no. 1, Boston, 1881). This is a very careful and thorough investigation of the whole subject of the geography of New Mexico and of the tribal relations of its inhabitants.

At a meeting, however, of the American Antiquarian Society in April, 1881, Rev. E. E. Hale read a paper entitled _Coronado’s Discovery of the Seven Cities_, in which he expressed himself as inclined to abandon his previously maintained opinion[1465] in favor of the Zuñi identification, on account of certain newly discovered evidence set forth in an accompanying letter from Lieutenant J. G. Bourke, who argued that the Moqui pueblos better satisfy the conditions of the question. To this the present writer replied in a communication at the following October meeting of the society, under the title _What is the true site of “The Seven Cities of Cibola” visited by Coronado in 1540?_ In this all the different opinions are discussed and the Zuñi theory upheld.

The same view is supported by Mr. L. Bradford Prince, late Chief-Justice of New Mexico, in his _Historical Sketches of New Mexico from the earliest records to the American occupation_, 1883 (p. 115). This modest little volume is the first attempt yet made to write a continuous history of the Territory down to the year 1847. It is a useful and in the main a trustworthy compendium. But in the chapter upon Coronado he has followed Castañeda’s erroneous dates, as Davis also has done before him, and he has fallen into a few other mistakes.[1466]

EDITORIAL NOTE.

IN the _Don Diego de Peñalosa y su descubrimiento del reino de Quivira_ of Cesário Fernández Duro, published at Madrid in 1882, there is an enumeration (pp. 123-144) of the expeditions organized in New Spain for exploration towards the north. The following list, with the chief sources of information, is taken from this book:

=1523.= Francisco de Garay to Pánuco. _Documentos inéditos_ (Pacheco), xxvi. 77.

=1526.= Garay and Nuño de Guzman to Pánuco, _MS._ in Archivo de Indias.

=1530.= Nuño de Guzman to New Galicia. _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco) xiv. 411; also xiii. and xvi. (see chap. vi. of the present History, _ante_, p. 441 and chap. vii. p. 499).

=1531.= Coronado to Cibola. _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), xiv. 318; xix. 529. (See chap. vii.)

=1533.= Diego de Guzman to Sinaloa, _Doc. inéd._ (Navarrete); B. Smith’s _Coleccion_, 94.

=1536.= Cabeça de Vaca. _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), xiv. (See chap. iv.)

=1537.= Coronado to Amatepeque. _Muñoz’s MSS._ in Madrid Acad. of Hist. lxxxi., fol. 34.

=1539.= Fray Marcos de Nizza to Cibola. _Muñoz MSS._; _Ramusio_; _Ternaux-Compans_; _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), iii. 325, 351.

=1539.= Coronado to Cibola. (See chap. vii.)

=1539.= Hernando de Soto. (See chap. iv.)

=1540.= Melchior Diaz. (See chap. vii.)

=1540.= Hernando de Alvarado and Juan de Padilla to the South Sea. _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), iii. 511; B. Smith, 65. (See chap. vii.)

=1540=. Gomez Ariaz and Diego Maldonado along Gulf of Mexico. Garcilasso de la Vega, _La Florida del Inca_.

=1541.= Coronado to Tiguex. _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), iii. 363; xiii. 261. (See chap. vii.)

=1548.= Juan de Tolosa, one of the captains serving under Cortés. =1554.= Francisco de Ibarra to Copala, New Biscay, etc. _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), xiv. 463.

=1558.= Guido de Lavazares to Pánuco and Florida.

=1559.= Tristán de Arellano to the Coast of Florida, and river Espiritu Santo. _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), iv. 136, xiii. 280.

=1563.= Diego Ibarra to Copala. _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), xiv. 553.

=1566.= Juan Pardo to Florida. _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), iv. 560.

=1568.= Francisco Cano to New Mexico, _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), xix. 535.

=1569.= Juan de Orozco on New Gallicia, with map. _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), ii. 561.

=1575.= Juan de Miranda on the Country. _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), xvi. 563.

=1581.= Francisco Sanchez Chamuscado to New Mexico and Cibola.

=1581.= Fray Francisco Ruiz among the Indians.

=1582.= To New Mexico. _Cartas de Indias_, 230.

=1582.= Antonio de Espejo to New Mexico. Juan Gonzáles de Mendoza’s _Historia del Reino de China_, Madrid, 1589; De Laet’s _Novus Orbis_.

=1583.= Cristóbal Martin to New Mexico. _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), xvi. 277.

=1584.= Antonio de Espejo’s continued discoveries. _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), xv. 151.

=1589.= Juan Battista de Lomas Colmenares agrees to settle New Mexico. _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), xv. 54.

=1590.= Gaspar Castaño de Sosa, Governor of New Leon, to New Mexico. _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), iv. 283; xv. 191.

=1596.= Sebastian Viscaino on the Coast.

=1598.= Juan de Oñate to New Mexico. Bustamante, _Los Tres Siglos de México_; _Doc. inéd._ (Pacheco), xvi. 88, 306, 316-320. Of his expedition to the Pueblo of Acomo, Luis Tribaldo of Toledo sent an account to Hakluyt in 1603, and extracts from it are published in De Laet’s _Novus Orbis_.

=1599.= Juan de Humaña to Quivira.

* * * * *

Others are noted from 1600 to 1783. Captain George M. Wheeler, U. S. Geological Survey, is preparing a Chronology of the Voyages and Explorations to the West Coast and the interior of North America between 1500 and 1800.

The alleged expedition of Peñalosa to Quivira is placed about 1662. The accounts of it depend on a _Relacion del descubrimiento del Pais y Ciudad de Quivira echo por D. Diego Dionisio de Peñalosa, escrita por el Padre Fr. Nicolas de Freytas_ (1684). In 1882 there were two annotated renderings of this narrative,—one by Duro, mentioned at the beginning of this note, who discredits the journal and gives other documents on the same theme; the other, an English version, was issued under the title, _The expedition of Don Diego Dionisio de Peñalosa, from Santa Fé to the river Mischipi and Quivira in 1662, as described by Father Nicholas de Freytas. With an account of Peñalosa’s projects to aid the French to conquer the mining country in Northern Mexico; and his connection with Cavelier de la Salle. By John Gilmary Shea_, New York, 1882.

Dr. Shea in this volume claims that Quivira was north of the Missouri, while it has generally been placed south of that river. He also derives from this narrative an opinion, contrary to the one ordinarily received, namely, that La Salle was carried, against his will, beyond the mouths of the Mississippi in his expedition of 1682; for he judges his over-shooting the mouths was intentional, in order to land where he could better co-operate with Peñalosa in wresting the mines in New Mexico from the Spaniards.