Chapter 9: , which treats of the direction which the army took, (1)

and of how another more direct way might be found if anyone
was going to return to that country … 544

Translation of the letter from Mendoza to the King, April 17, 1540
… 547

Translation of the letter from Coronado to Mendoza, August 3, 1540
… 552

Translation of the Traslado de las Nuevas … 564

Relación postrera de Sívola … 566

Spanish text … 566

Translation … 568

Translation of the Relacion del Suceso … 572

Translation of a letter from Coronado to the King, October 20, 1541
… 580

Translation of the narrative of Jaramillo … 584

Translation of the report of Hernando de Alvarado … 594

Testimony concerning those who went on the expedition with
Francisco Vazquez Coronado … 596

A list of works useful to the student of the Coronado expedition …
599

[p337]

ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE
XXXVIII. The New Spain and New Mexico country … 345

XXXIX. The Ulpius globe of 1542 … 349

XL. Sebastian Cabot’s map of 1544 … 353

XLI. Map of the world by Ptolemy, 1548 … 357

XLII. Battista Agnese’s New Spain, sixteenth century … 361

XLIII. The City of Mexico about 1550, by Alonzo de Santa Cruz … 365

XLIV. Zaltieri’s karte, 1566 … 369

XLV. Mercator’s northwestern part of New Spain, 1569 … 373

XLVI. Mercator’s interior of New Spain, 1569 … 377

XLVII. Abr. Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1570 … 381

XLVIII. Dourado’s Terra Antipodv Regis Castele Inveta, 1580 … 385

XLIX. Western hemisphere of Mercator, 1587 … 389

L. Northern half of De Bry’s America Sive Novvs Orbis, 1596 … 393

LI. Wytfliet’s Vtrivsqve Hemispherii Delineatio, 1597 … 397

LII. Wytfliet’s New Granada and California, 1597 … 401

LIII. Wytfliet’s kingdoms of Quivira, Anian, and Tolm, 1597 … 405

LIV. Matthias Quadus’ Fasciculus Geographicus, 1608 … 409

LV. The buffalo of Gomara, 1554 … 512

LVI. The buffalo of Thevet, 1558 … 516

LVII. The buffalo of De Bry, 1595 … 520

LVIII. On the terraces at Zuñi … 525

LIX. Middle court at Zuñi … 527

LX. Zuñi court, showing “balcony” … 529

LXI. Zuñi interior … 531

LXII. Zuñis in typical modern costume … 534

LXIII. Hopi maidens, showing primitive Pueblo hairdressing … 536

LXIV. Hopi grinding and paper-bread making … 539

LXV. Hopi basket maker … 543

LXVI. Pueblo pottery making … 547

LXVII. Pueblo spinning and weaving … 551

LXVIII. The Tewa pueblo of P’o-who-gi or San Ildefonso … 555

LXIX. Pueblo of Jemez … 559

LXX. Ruins of Spanish church above Jemez … 562

LXXI. The Keres pueblo of Sia … 569

LXXII. The Keres pueblo of Cochití … 571

LXXIII. The Tewa pueblo of Nambe … 573

LXXIV. A Nambe Indian in war costume … 576

LXXV. A Nambe water carrier … 578

LXXVI. The Keres pueblo of Katishtya or San Felipe … 583

LXXVII. The south town of the Tiwa pueblo of Taos … 585

LXXVIII. The Tewa pueblo of K’hapóo or Santa Clara … 587

LXXIX. The Tewa pueblo of Ohke or San Juan … 589

LXXX. A native of San Juan … 592

LXXXI. A native of Pecos … 596

LXXXII. Facsimile of pages of Castañeda’s relacion … 456

LXXXIII. Facsimile of pages of Castañeda’s relacion … 442

LXXXIV. Facsimile of pages of Castañeda’s relacion … 466

[p339]

THE CORONADO EXPEDITION, 1540–1542

BY GEORGE PARKER WINSHIP

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

The following historical introduction, with the accompanying translations, is the result of work in the Seminary of American History at Harvard University. Undertaken as a bit of undergraduate study, it has gradually assumed a form which has been considered worthy of publication, chiefly because of the suggestions and assistance which have been given with most generous readiness by all from whom I have had occasion to ask help or advice. To Dr Justin Winsor; to Professor Henry W. Haynes, who opened the way for students of the early Spanish history of the North American southwest; to Dr J. Walter Fewkes, who has freely offered me the many results of his long-continued and minute investigations at Tusayan and Zuñi; and to the careful oversight and aid of Mr F. W. Hodge and the other members of the Bureau of Ethnology, much of the value of this work is due. Mr Augustus Hemenway has kindly permitted the use of the maps and documents deposited in the archives of the Hemenway Southwestern Archeological Expedition by Mr Adolph F. Bandelier. My indebtedness to the researches and writings of Mr Bandelier is evident throughout. Señor Joaquin Garcia Icazbalceta—whose death, in November, 1894, removed the master student of the documentary history of Mexico—most courteously gave me all the information at his command, and with his own hand copied the _Relación postrera de Sívola_, which is now for the first time printed. The Spanish text of Castañeda’s narrative, the presentation of which for the first time in its original language affords the best reason for the present publication, has been copied and printed with the consent of the trustees of the Lenox Library in New York, in whose custody is the original manuscript. I am under many obligations to their librarian, Mr Wilberforce Eames, who has always been ready to assist me by whatever means were within his power.

The subject of this research was suggested by Professor Channing of Harvard. If my work has resulted in some contribution to the literature of the history of the Spanish conquest of America, it is because of his constant guidance and inspiration, and his persistent refusal to [p340] consent to any abandoning of the work before the results had been expressed in a manner worthy of the university.

Before the completion of the arrangements by which this essay becomes a part of the annual report of the Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, it had been accepted for publication by the Department of History of Harvard University.

GEORGE PARKER WINSHIP _Assistant in American History in Harvard University._

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, _February, 1895._

[p341]

ITINERARY OF THE CORONADO EXPEDITIONS, 1527–1547

1527

[Sidenote: June 17]

Narvaez sails from Spain to explore the mainland north of the Gulf of Mexico.

1528

[Sidenote: April 15]

Narvaez lands in Florida.

[Sidenote: Sept. 22]

The failure of the Narvaez expedition is assured.

1535

Cortes makes a settlement in Lower California.

Mendoza comes to Mexico as viceroy of New Spain.

1536

[Sidenote: April]

Cabeza de Vaca and three other survivors of the Narvaez expedition arrive in New Spain.

The Licenciate de la Torre takes the residencia of Nuño de Guzman, who is imprisoned until June 30, 1538.

1537

Franciscan friars labor among the Indian tribes living north of New Spain.

Coronado subdues the revolted miners of Amatepeque.

The proposed expedition under Dorantes comes to naught.

[Sidenote: April 20]

De Soto receives a grant of the mainland of Florida.

1538

[Sidenote: September]

It is rumored that Coronado has been nominated governor of New Galicia.

1539

Pedro de Alvarado returns from Spain to the New World.

[Sidenote: March 7]

Friar Marcos de Niza, accompanied by the negro Estevan, starts from Culiacan to find the Seven Cities.

[Sidenote: April 18]

The appointment of Coronado as governor of New Galicia is confirmed.

[Sidenote: May]

De Soto sails from Habana.

[Sidenote: May 9]

Friar Marcos enters the wilderness of Arizona.

[Sidenote: May 21]

Friar Marcos learns of the death of Estevan.

[Sidenote: May 25]

De Soto lands on the coast of Florida.

[Sidenote: July 8]

Ulloa sails from Acapulco nearly to the head of the Gulf of California in command of a fleet furnished by Cortes.

[Sidenote: August]

Friar Marcos returns from the north and certifies to the truth [Sidenote: Sept. 2] of his report before Mendoza and Coronado.

[Sidenote: October]

The news of Niza’s discoveries spreads through New Spain.

[Sidenote: November]

Mendoza begins to prepare for an expedition to conquer the Seven Cities of Cibola.

Melchior Diaz is sent to verify the reports of Friar Marcos.

De Soto finds the remains of the camp of Narvaez at Bahia de los Cavallos.

[Sidenote: Nov. 12]

Witnesses in Habana describe the effect of the friar’s reports.

1540

[Sidenote: Jan. 1]

Mendoza celebrates the new year at Pasquaro.

[Sidenote: Jan. 9]

Coronado at Guadalajara.

[Sidenote: Feb. 5]

Cortes stops at Habana on his way to Spain.

[Sidenote: February]

The members of the Cibola expedition assemble at Compostela, where the viceroy finds them on his arrival.

[Sidenote: Feb. 22]

Review of the army on Sunday.

[Sidenote: Feb. 23]

The army, under the command of Francisco Vazquez Coronado, starts for Cibola (not on February 1).

[Sidenote: Feb. 26]

Mendoza returns to Compostela, having left the army two days before, and examines witnesses to discover how many citizens of New Spain have accompanied Coronado. He writes a letter to King Charles V, which has been lost.

[Sidenote: March]

The army is delayed by the cattle in crossing the rivers.

The death of the army master, Samaniego, at Chiametla.

Return of Melchior Diaz and Juan de Saldivar from Chichilticalli.

[Sidenote: March 3]

Beginning of litigation in Spain over the right to explore and conquer the Cibola country.

[Sidenote: March 28]

Reception to the army at Culiacan, on Easter day.

[Sidenote: April]

The army is entertained by the citizens of Culiacan.

Mendoza receives the report of Melchior Diaz’ exploration, perhaps at Jacona.

Coronado writes to Mendoza, giving an account of what has already happened, and of the arrangements which he has made for the rest of the journey. This letter has been lost.

[Sidenote: April 17]

Mendoza writes to the Emperor Charles V.

[Sidenote: April 22]

Coronado departs from Culiacan with about seventy-five horsemen and a few footmen.

[Sidenote: April]

Coronado passes through Petatlan, Cinaloa, Los Cedros, [Sidenote: May] Yaquemi, and other places mentioned by Jaramillo.

[Sidenote: May 9]

Alarcon sails from Acapulco to cooperate with Coronado.

The army starts from Culiacan and marches toward the Corazones or Hearts valley.

[Sidenote: May 26]

Coronado leaves the valley of Corazones. He proceeds to Chichilticalli, [Sidenote: June] passing Senora or Sonora and Ispa, and thence crosses the Arizona wilderness, fording many rivers.

The army builds the town of San Hieronimo in Corazones valley.

[Sidenote: July 7]

Coronado reaches Cibola and captures the first city, the pueblo of Hawikuh, which he calls Granada.

[Sidenote: July 11]

The Indians retire to their stronghold on Thunder mountain.

[Sidenote: July 15]

Pedro de Tovar goes to Tusayan or Moki, returning within thirty days.

[Sidenote: July 19]

Coronado goes to Thunder mountain and returns the same day.

[Sidenote: Aug. 3]

Coronado writes to Mendoza. He sends Juan Gallego to Mexico, and Melchior Diaz to Corazones with orders for the army. Friar Marcos accompanies them.

[Sidenote: Aug. 25 (?)]

Lopez de Cardenas starts to find the canyons of Colorado river, and is gone about eighty days.

[Sidenote: Aug. 26]

Alarcon enters the mouth of Colorado river.

[Sidenote: Aug. 29]

Hernando de Alvarado goes eastward to Tiguex, on the Rio Grande, and to the buffalo plains.

Pedro de Alvarado arrives in New Spain.

[Sidenote: Sept. 7]

Hernando de Alvarado reaches Tiguex.

Diaz and Gallego reach Corazones about the middle of September, and the army starts for Cibola.

Coronado visits Tutahaco.

[Sidenote: September to January]

The army reaches Cibola, and goes thence to Tiguex for its winter quarters. The natives in the Rio Grande pueblos revolt and are subjugated. The Turk tells the Spaniards about Quivira.

[Sidenote: October]

Diaz starts from Corazones before the end of September, with twenty-five men, and explores the country along the Gulf of California, going beyond Colorado river.

Diego de Alcaraz is left in command of the town of San Hieronimo.

[Sidenote: Nov. 29]

Mendoza and Pedro de Alvarado sign an agreement in regard to common explorations and conquests.

1541

[Sidenote: Jan. 8]

Diaz dies on the return from the mouth of the Colorado, and his companions return to Corazones valley.

[Sidenote: March]

Alcaraz, during the spring, moves the village of San Hieronimo from Corazones valley to the valley of Suya river.

[Sidenote: April 20]

Beginning of the Mixton war in New Galicia.

Coronado writes a letter to the King from Tiguex, which has been lost.

Tovar and perhaps Gallego return to Mexico.

[Sidenote: April 23]

Coronado starts with all his force from Tiguex to cross the buffalo plains to Quivira.

[Sidenote: May]

The army is divided somewhere on the great plains, perhaps on Canadian river. The main body returns to Tiguex, arriving there by the middle or last of June.

De Soto crosses the Mississippi.

[Sidenote: June]

Coronado, with, thirty horsemen, rides north to Quivira, where he arrives forty-two (?) days later.

[Sidenote: June 24]

Pedro de Alvarado is killed at Nochistlan, in New Galicia.

[Sidenote: August]

Coronado spends about twenty-five days in the country of Quivira, leaving “the middle or last of August.”

[Sidenote: Sept. 28]

The Indians in New Galicia attack the town of Guadalajara, but are repulsed.

[Sidenote: Oct. 2]

Coronado returns from Quivira to Tiguex and writes a letter to the King.

[Sidenote: November]

Cardenas starts to return to Mexico with some other invalids from the army. He finds the village of Suya in ruins and hastily returns to Tiguex.

[Sidenote: December]

Coronado falls from his horse and is seriously injured.

The Mixton peñol is surrendered by the revolted Indians during holiday week.

1542

Coronado and his soldiers determine to return to New Spain. They start in the spring, and reach Mexico probably late in the autumn. The general makes his report to the viceroy, who receives him coldly. Coronado not long after resigns his position as governor of New Galicia and retires to his estates.

[Sidenote: April 17]

De Soto reaches the mouth of Red river, where he dies, May 21.

[Sidenote: June 27]

Cabrillo starts on his voyage up the California coast. He dies in January, 1543, and the vessels return to New Spain by April, 1544.

[Sidenote: Nov. 1]

Villalobos starts across the Pacific. His fleet meets with many misfortunes and losses. The survivors, five years or more later, return to Spain.

[Sidenote: Nov. 25]

Friar Juan de la Cruz is killed at Tiguex, where he remained when the army departed for New Spain. Friar Luis also remained in the new country, at Cicuye, and Friar Juan de Padilla, at Quivira, where he is killed. The companions of Friar Juan de Padilla make their way back to Mexico, arriving before 1552.

1544

[Sidenote: Nov. 30]

Promulgation of the New Laws for the Indies.

Sebastian Cabot publishes his map of the New World.

1547

Mendoza, before he leaves New Spain to become viceroy of Peru, answers the charges preferred against him by the officials appointed to investigate his administration.

[p345]

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

THE CAUSES OF THE CORONADO EXPEDITION, 1528–1539

ALVAR NUÑEZ CABEZA DE VACA

The American Indians are always on the move. Tribes shift the location of their homes from season to season and from year to year, while individuals wander at will, hunting, trading or gossiping. This is very largely true today, and when the Europeans first came in contact with the American aborigines, it was a characteristic feature of Indian life. The Shawnees, for example, have drifted from Georgia to the great lakes, and part of the way back, during the period since their peregrinations can first be traced. Traders from tribe to tribe, in the days when European commercial ideas were unknown in North America, carried bits of copper dug from the mines in which the aboriginal implements are still found, on the shores of Lake Superior, to the Atlantic coast on the one side and to the Rocky mountains on the other. The Indian gossips of central Mexico, in 1535, described to the Spaniards the villages of New Mexico and Arizona, with their many-storied houses of stone and adobe. The Spanish colonists were always eager to learn about unexplored regions lying outside the limits of the white settlements, and their Indian neighbors and servants in the valley of Mexico told them many tales of the people who lived beyond the mountains which hemmed in New Spain on the north. One of these stories may be found in another part of this memoir, where it is preserved in the narrative of Pedro Castañeda, the historian of the Coronado expedition. Castañeda’s hearsay report of the Indian story, which was related by an adventurous trader who had penetrated the country far to the north, compares not unfavorably with the somewhat similar stories which Marco Polo told to entertain his Venetian friends.[1] But whatever may have been known before, the information which led to the expedition of Friar Marcos de Niza and to that of Francisco Vazquez Coronado was brought to New Spain late in the spring of 1536 by Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca.

In 1520, before Cortes, the conqueror of Motecuhzoma, had made his peace with the Emperor Charles V and with the authorities at Cuba, Panfilo de Narvaez was dispatched to the Mexican mainland, at the [p346] head of a considerable force. He was sent to subdue and supersede the conqueror of Mexico, but when they met, Cortes quickly proved that he was a better general than his opponent, and a skillful politician as well. Narvaez was deserted by his soldiers and became a prisoner in the City of Mexico, where he was detained during the two years which followed. Cortes was at the height of his power, and Narvaez must have felt a longing to rival the successes of the conqueror, who had won the wealth of the Mexican empire. After Cortes resumed his dutiful obedience to the Spanish crown, friends at home obtained a royal order which effected the release of Narvaez, who returned to Spain at the earliest opportunity. Almost as soon as he had established himself anew in the favor of the court, he petitioned the King for a license which should permit him to conduct explorations in the New World. After some delay, the desired patent was granted. It authorized Narvaez to explore, conquer, and colonize the country between Florida and the Rio de Palmas, a grant comprising all that portion of North America bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, which is now included within the limits of the United States. Preparations were at once begun for the complete organization of an expedition suitable to the extent of this territory and to the power and dignity of its governor.

On June 17, 1527, Narvaez, governor of Florida, Rio de Palmas and Espiritu Santo—the Rio Grande and the Mississippi on our modern maps—sailed from Spain. He went first to Cuba, where he refitted his fleet and replaced one vessel which had been lost in a hurricane during the voyage. When everything was ready to start for the unexplored mainland, he ordered the pilots to conduct his fleet to the western limits of his jurisdiction—our Texas. They landed him, April 15, 1528, on the coast of the present Florida, at a bay which the Spaniards called Bahia de la Cruz, and which the map of Sebastian Cabot enables us to identify with Apalache bay. The pilots knew that a storm had driven them out of their course toward the east, but they could not calculate on the strong current of the gulf stream. They assured the commander that he was not far from the Rio de Palmas, the desired destination, and so he landed his force of 50 horses and 300 men—just half the number of the soldiers, mechanics, laborers, and priests who had started with, him from Spain ten months before. He sent one of his vessels back to Cuba for recruits, and ordered the remaining three to sail along the coast toward the west and to wait for the army at the fine harbor of Panuco, which was reported to be near the mouth of Palmas river. The fate of these vessels is not known.

Narvaez, having completed these arrangements, made ready to lead his army overland to Panuco. The march began April 19. For a while, the Spaniards took a northerly direction, and then they turned toward the west. Progress was slow, for the men knew nothing of the country, and the forests and morasses presented many difficulties to the soldiers [p347] unused to woodcraft. Little help could be procured from the Indians, who soon became openly hostile wherever the Spaniards encountered them. Food grew scarce, and no persuasion could induce the natives to reveal hidden stores of corn, or of gold. On May 15, tired and discouraged, the Spaniards reached a large river with a strong current flowing toward the south. They rested here, while Cabeza de Vaca, the royal treasurer accompanying the expedition, took a small party of soldiers and followed the banks of the river down to the sea. The fleet was not waiting for them at the mouth of this stream, nor could anything be learned of the fine harbor for which they were searching. Disappointed anew by the report which Cabeza de Vaca made on his return to the main camp, the Spanish soldiers crossed the river and continued their march toward the west. They plodded on and on, and after awhile turned southward, to follow down the course of another large river which blocked their westward march. On the last day of July they reached a bay of considerable size, at the mouth of the river. They named this Bahia de los Cavallos, perhaps, as has been surmised, because it was here that they killed the last of their horses for food. The Spaniards, long before this, had become thoroughly disheartened. Neither food nor gold could be found. The capital cities, toward which the Indian captives had directed the wandering strangers, when reached, were mere groups of huts, situated in some cases on mounds of earth. Not a sign of anything which would reward their search, and hardly a thing to eat, had been discovered during the months of toilsome marching. The Spaniards determined to leave the country. They constructed forges in their camp near the seashore, and hammered their spurs, stirrups, and other iron implements of warfare into nails and saws and axes, with which to build the boats necessary for their escape from the country. Ropes were made of the tails and manes of the horses, whose hides, pieced out with the shirts of the men, were fashioned into sails. By September 22, five boats were ready, each large enough to hold between 45 and 50 men. In these the soldiers embarked. Scarcely a man among them knew anything of navigation, and they certainly knew nothing about the navigation of this coast. They steered westward, keeping near the land, and stopping occasionally for fresh water. Sometimes they obtained a little food.

Toward the end of October they came to the mouth of a large river which poured forth so strong a current that it drove the boats out to sea. Two, those which contained Narvaez and the friars, were lost. The men in the other three boats were driven ashore by a storm, somewhere on the coast of western Louisiana or eastern Texas.[2] This was [p348] in the winter of 1528–29. Toward the end of April, 1536, Cabeza de Vaca, Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, Andres Dorantes, and a negro named Estevan, met some Spanish slave catchers near the Rio de Petatlan, in Sinaloa, west of the mountains which border the Gulf of California. These four men, with a single exception,[3] were the only survivors of the three hundred who had entered the continent with Narvaez eight years before.

Cabeza de Vaca and his companions stayed in Mexico for several months, as the guests of the viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza. At first, it was probably the intention of the three Spaniards to return to Spain, in order to claim the due reward for their manifold sufferings. Mendoza says, in a letter dated December 10, 1537,[4] that he purchased the negro Estevan from Dorantes, so that there might be someone left in New Spain who could guide an expedition back into the countries about which the wanderers had heard. An earlier letter from the viceroy, dated February 11, 1537, commends Cabeza de Vaca and _Francisco_ Dorantes—he must have meant Andres, and perhaps wrote it so in his original manuscript—as deserving the favor of the Empress. Maldonado is not mentioned in this letter, and no trace of him has been found after the arrival of the four survivors in Mexico. All that we know about him is that his home was in Salamanca.[5]

in Possession of the New York Historical Society]

Cabeza de Vaca and Dorantes started from Vera Cruz for Spain in October, 1536, but their vessel was stranded before it got out of the harbor. This accident obliged them to postpone their departure until the following spring, when Cabeza de Vaca returned home alone. He told the story of his wanderings to the court and the King, and was rewarded, by 1540, with an appointment as adelantado, giving him the command over the recently occupied regions about the Rio de la Plata. The position was one for which he was unfitted, and his subordinates [p349] sent him back to Spain. The complaints against him were investigated by the Council for the Indies, but the judgment, if any was given, has never been published. He certainly was not punished, and soon settled down in Seville, where he was still living, apparently, twenty years later.[6]

While Dorantes was stopping at Vera Cruz during the winter of 1536–37, he received a letter from Mendoza, asking him to return to the City of Mexico. After several interviews, the viceroy induced Dorantes to remain in New Spain, agreeing to provide him with a party of horsemen and friars, in order to explore more thoroughly the country through which he had wandered. Mendoza explains the details of his plans in the letter written in December, 1537, and declares that he expected many advantages would be derived from this expedition which would redound to the glory of God and to the profit of His Majesty the King. The viceroy was prepared to expend a large sum—3,500 or 4,000 pesos—to insure a successful undertaking, but he promised to raise the whole amount, without taking a single maravedi from the royal treasury, by means of a more careful collection of dues, and especially by enforcing the payment of overdue sums, the collection of which hitherto had been considered impossible. This reform in the collection of rents and other royal exactions and the careful attention to all the details of the fiscal administration were among the most valuable of the many services rendered by Mendoza as viceroy. The expedition under Dorantes never started, though why nothing came of all the preparations, wrote Mendoza in his next letter to the King, “I never could find out.”[7]

The three Spaniards wrote several narratives of their experiences on the expedition of Narvaez, and of their adventurous journey from the gulf coast of Texas to the Pacific coast of Mexico.[8] These travelers, who had lived a savage life for so long that they could wear no clothes, and were unable to sleep except upon the bare ground, had a strange tale to tell. The story of their eight years of wandering must have been often repeated—of their slavery, their buffalo-hunting expeditions, of the escape from their Indian masters, and their career as traders and as medicine men. These were wonderful and strange [p350] experiences, but the story contained little to arouse the eager interest of the colonists in New Spain, whose minds had been stirred by the accounts which came from Peru telling of the untold wealth of the Incas. A few things, however, had been seen and heard by the wanderers which suggested the possibility of lands worth conquering. “A copper hawks-bell, thick and large, figured with a face,” had been given to Cabeza de Vaca, soon after he started on his journey toward Mexico. The natives who gave this to him said that they had received it from other Indians, “who had brought it from the north, where there was much copper, which was highly esteemed.” After the travelers had crossed the Rio Grande, they showed this bell to some other Indians, who said that “there were many plates of this same metal buried in the ground in the place whence it had come, and that it was a thing which they esteemed highly, and that there were fixed habitations where it came from.”[9] This was all the treasure which Cabeza de Vaca could say that he had seen. He had heard, however, of a better region than any he saw, for the Indians told him “that there are pearls and great riches on the coast of the South sea (the Pacific), and all the best and most opulent countries are near there.” We may be sure that none of this was omitted whenever he told the Spanish colonists the story of the years of his residence in Texas and of the months of his journey across northern Mexico.[10]

THE GOVERNORS OF NEW SPAIN, 1530–1537

Don Antonio de Mendoza, “the good viceroy,” had been at the head of the government of New Spain for two years when Cabeza de Vaca arrived in Mexico. The effects of his careful and intelligent administration were already beginning to appear in the increasing prosperity of the province and the improved condition of the colonists and of their lands. The authority of the viceroy was ample and extensive, although he was limited to some extent by the audiencia, the members of which had administered the government of the province since the retirement of Cortes. The viceroy was the president of this court, which had resumed more strictly judicial functions after his arrival, and he was officially advised by his instructions from the King to consult with his fellow members on all matters of importance.

Nuño de Guzman departed for New Spain in 1528, and became the head of the first audiencia. Within a year he had made himself so deservedly unpopular that when he heard that Cortes was coming back to Mexico from Spain, with the new title of marquis and fresh grants of power from the King, he thought it best to get out of the way of his rival. Without relinquishing the title to his position in the capital [p351] city, Guzman collected a considerable force and marched away toward the west and north, determined to win honor and security by new conquests. He explored and subdued the country for a considerable distance along the eastern shores of the Gulf of California, but he could find nothing there to rival the Mexico of Motecuhzoma. Meanwhile reports reached Charles V of the manner in which Guzman had been treating the Indians and the Spanish settlers, and so, March 17, 1536,[11] the King appointed the Licentiate Diego Perez de la Torre to take the residencia[12] of Guzman. At the same time Torre was commissioned to replace Guzman as governor of New Galicia, as this northwestern province had been named. The latter had already determined to return to Spain, leaving Don Christobal de Oñate, a model executive and administrative official, in charge of his province. Guzman almost succeeded in escaping, but his judge, who had landed at Vera Cruz by the end of 1536, met him at the viceroy’s palace in Mexico city, and secured his arrest before he could depart. After his trial he was detained in Mexico until June 30, 1538, when he was enabled to leave New Spain by an order which directed him to surrender his person to the officers of the Casa de Contratacion,[13] at Seville. Guzman lost no time in going to Spain, where he spent the next four years in urging his claims to a right to participate in the northern conquests.

Torre, the licentiate, had barely begun to reform the abuses of Guzman’s government when he was killed in a conflict with some revolted Indian tribes. Oñate again took charge of affairs until Mendoza appointed Luis Galindo chief justice for New Galicia. This was merely a temporary appointment, however, until a new governor could be selected. The viceroy’s nomination for the position was confirmed by the King, in a cedula dated April 18, 1539, which commissioned Francisco Vazquez Coronado as governor.[14]

Cortes had been engaged, ever since his return from Spain, in fitting out expeditions which came to nothing,[15] but by which he hoped to accomplish his schemes for completing the exploration of the South sea. His leisure was more than occupied by his efforts to outwit the agents of the viceroy and the audiencia, who had received orders from the King to investigate the extent and condition of the estates held by Cortes. In the spring of 1535, Cortes established a colony on the opposite coast of California, the supposed Island of the Marquis, at Santa [p352] Cruz,[16] near the modern La Paz. Storms and shipwreck, hunger and surfeiting, reduced the numbers and the enthusiasm of the men whom he had conducted thither, and when his vessels returned from the mainland with the news that Mendoza had arrived in Mexico, and bringing letters from his wife urging him to return at once, Cortes went back to Mexico. A few months later he recalled the settlers whom he had left at Santa Cruz, in accordance, it may be, with the command or advice of Mendoza.[17] When the stories of Cabeza de Vaca suggested the possibility of making desirable conquests toward the north, Cortes possessed a better outfit for undertaking this work than any of the others who were likely to be rivals for the privilege of exploring and occupying that region.

Pedro de Alvarado was the least known of these rival claimants. He had been a lieutenant of Cortes until he secured an independent command in Guatemala, Yucatan and Honduras, where he subdued the natives, but discovered nothing except that there was nowhere in these regions any store of gold or treasures. Abandoning this field, he tried to win a share in the conquests of Pizarro and Almagro. He approached Peru from the north, and conducted his army across the mountains. This march, one of the most disastrous in colonial history, so completely destroyed the efficiency of his force that the conquerors of Peru easily compelled him to sell them what was left of his expedition. They paid a considerable sum, weighed out in bars of silver which he found, after his return to Panama, to be made of lead with a silver veneering.[18] Alvarado was ready to abandon the work of conquering America, and had forwarded a petition to the King, asking that he might be allowed to return to Spain, when Mendoza, or the audiencia which was controlled by the enemies of Alvarado, furthered his desires by ordering him to go to the mother country and present himself before the throne. This was in 1536. While at court Alvarado must have met Cabeza de Vaca. He changed his plans for making a voyage to the South seas, and secured from the King, whose favor he had easily regained, a commission which allowed him to build a fleet in Central America and explore the South sea—the Pacific—toward the west or the north. He returned to America early in 1539, bringing with him everything needed in the equipment of a large fleet.

After Kretschmer]

Mendoza, meanwhile, 1536–1539, had been making plans and preparations. He had not come to the New World as an adventurer, and he lacked the spirit of eager, reckless, hopeful expectation of wealth and fame, which accomplished so much for the geographical unfolding of the two Americas. Mendoza appears to have arranged his plans as carefully as if he had been about to engage in some intrigue at court. He [p353] recognized his rivals and their strength. Nuño de Guzman was in disgrace and awaiting a trial, but he was at the court, where he could urge his claims persistently in person. Cortes was active, but he was where Mendoza could watch everything that he tried to do. He might succeed in anticipating the viceroy’s plans, but his sea ventures heretofore had all been failures. So long as he kept to the water there seemed to be little danger. Mendoza’s chief concern appears to have been to make sure that his rivals should have no chance of uniting their claims against him. Representing the Crown and its interests, he felt sure of everything else. The viceroy had no ambition to take the field in person as an explorer, and he selected Alvarado as the most available leader for the expedition which he had in mind, probably about the time that the latter came back to the New World. He wrote to Alvarado, suggesting an arrangement between them, and after due consideration on both sides, terms and conditions mutually satisfactory were agreed on. Mendoza succeeded in uniting Alvarado to his interests, and engaged that he should conduct an expedition into the country north of Mexico. This arrangement was completed, apparently, before the return of Friar Marcos from his reconnoissance, which added so largely to the probabilities of success.

THE RECONNOISSANCE OF FRIAR MARCOS DE NIZA

Mendoza did not confine himself to diplomatic measures for bringing about the exploration and conquest which he had in mind. In his undated “première lettre” the viceroy wrote that he was prepared to send Dorantes with forty or fifty horses and everything needed for an expedition into the interior; but nothing was done.

About this time, 1537–38, Friar Juan de la Asuncion seems to have visited the inland tribes north of the Spanish settlements. Mr Bandelier has presented all the evidence obtainable regarding the labors of this friar.[19] The most probable interpretation of the statements which refer to his wanderings is that Friar Juan went alone and without official assistance, and that he may have traveled as far north as the river Gila. The details of his journey are hopelessly confused. It is more than probable that there were a number of friars at work among the outlying Indian tribes, and there is no reason why one or more of them may not have wandered north for a considerable distance. During the same year the viceroy made an attempt, possibly in person, to penetrate into the country of Topira or Topia, in northwestern Durango,[20] but the mountains and the absence of provisions forced the party to return. It may be that this fruitless expedition was the same as that in which, according to Castañeda, Coronado took part, while Friar Marcos was on his way to Cibola. It is not unlikely, also, [p354] that Friar Marcos may have made a preliminary trip toward the north, during the same year, although this is hardly more than a guess to explain statements, made by the old chroniclers, which we can not understand.

As yet nothing had been found to verify the reports brought by Cabeza de Vaca, which, by themselves, were hardly sufficient to justify the equipment of an expedition on a large scale. But Mendoza was bent on discovering what lay beyond the northern mountains. He still had the negro Estevan, whom he had purchased of Dorantes, besides a number of Indians who had followed Cabeza de Vaca to Mexico and had been trained there to serve as interpreters. The experience which the negro had gained during the years he lived among the savages made him invaluable as a guide. He was used to dealing with the Indians, knew something of their languages, and was practiced in the all-important sign manual.

Friar Marcos de Niza was selected as the leader of the little party which was to find out what the viceroy wanted to know. Aside from his reconnoitering trip to Cibola, very little is known about this friar. Born in Nice, then a part of Savoy, he was called by his contemporaries a Frenchman. He had been with Pizarro in Peru, and had witnessed the death of Atahualpa. Returning to Central America, very likely with Pedro de Alvarado, he had walked from there barefooted, as was his custom, up to Mexico. He seems to have been somewhere in the northwestern provinces of New Spain, when Cabeza de Vaca appeared there after his wanderings. A member of the Franciscan brotherhood, he had already attained to some standing in the order, for he signs his report or personal narration of his explorations, as vice-commissary of the Franciscans. The father provincial of the order, Friar Antonio de Ciudad-Rodrigo, on August 26, 1539,[21] certified to the high esteem in which Friar Marcos was held, and stated that he was skilled in cosmography and in the arts of the sea, as well as in theology.

This choice of a leader was beyond question an excellent one, and Mendoza had every reason to feel confidence in the success of his undertaking. The viceroy drew up a set of instructions for Friar Marcos, which directed that the Indians whom he met on the way should receive the best of treatment, and provided for the scientific observations which all Spanish explorers were expected to record. Letters were to be left wherever it seemed advisable, in order to communicate with a possible sea expedition, and information of the progress of the party was to be sent back to the viceroy at convenient intervals. These instructions are a model of careful and explicit directions, and show the characteristic interest taken by Mendoza in the details of everything with which he was concerned. They supply to some extent, [p355] also, the loss of the similar instructions which Coronado must have received when he started on his journey in the following February.[22]

Friar Marcos, accompanied by a lay brother, Friar Onorato, according to Mendoza’s “première lettre,” left Culiacan on March 7, 1539. Coronado, now acting as governor of New Galicia, had escorted them as far as this town and had assured a quiet journey for a part of the way beyond by sending in advance six Indians, natives of this region, who had been “kept at Mexico to become proficient in the Spanish language and attached to the ways of the Christians.”[23] The friars proceeded to Petatlan, where Friar Onorato fell sick, so that it was necessary to leave him behind. During the rest of the journey, Friar Marcos was the only white man in the party, which consisted of the negro Estevan, the Indian interpreters, and a large body of natives who followed him from the different villages near which he passed. The friar continued his journey to “Vacapa,” which Mr Bandelier identifies with the Eudeve settlement of Matapa in central Sonora, where he arrived two days before Passion Sunday, which in 1539 fell on March 23.[24] At this place he waited until April 6, in order to send to the seacoast and summon some Indians, from whom he hoped to secure further information about the pearl islands of which Cabeza de Vaca had heard.

The negro Estevan had been ordered by the viceroy to obey Friar Marcos in everything, under pain of serious punishment. While the friar was waiting at Vacapa, he sent the negro toward the north, instructing him to proceed 50 or 60 leagues and see if he could find anything which might help them in their search. If he found any signs of a rich and populous country, it was agreed that he was not to advance farther, but should return to meet the friar, or else wait where he heard the good news, sending some Indian messengers back to the friar, with a white cross the size of the palm of his hand. If the news was very promising, the cross was to be twice this size, and if the country about which he heard promised to be larger and better than New Spain, a cross still larger than this was to be sent back. Castañeda preserves a story that Estevan was sent ahead, not only to explore and pacify the country, but also because he did not get on well with his superior, who objected to his eagerness in collecting the turquoises and other things which the natives prized and to the moral effect of his relations with the women who followed him from the tribes which they met on their way. Friar Marcos says nothing about this in his narrative, but he had different and much more important ends to accomplish by his report, compared with those of Castañeda, who may easily have gathered the gossip from some native. [p356]

Estevan started on Passion Sunday, after dinner. Four days later messengers sent by him brought to the friar “a very large cross, as tall as a man.” One of the Indians who had given the negro his information accompanied the messengers. This man said and affirmed, as the friar carefully recorded, “that there are seven very large cities in the first province, all under one lord, with large houses of stone and lime; the smallest one-story high, with a flat roof above, and others two and three stories high, and the house of the lord four stories high. They are all united under his rule. And on the portals of the principal houses there are many designs of turquoise stones, of which he says they have a great abundance. And the people in these cities are very well clothed. . . . Concerning other provinces farther on, he said that each one of them amounted to much more than these seven cities.” All this which the Indian told Friar Marcos was true; and, what is more, the Spanish friar seems to have correctly understood what the Indian meant, except that the Indian idea of several villages having a common allied form of government was interpreted as meaning the rule of a single lord, who lived in what was to the Indians the chief, because the most populous, village. These villages of stone and lime—or rather of stone and rolls or balls of adobe laid in mud mortar and sometimes whitened with a wash of gypsum[25]—were very large and wondrous affairs when compared with the huts and shelters of the Seri and some of the Piman Indians of Sonora.[26] The priest can hardly be blamed for translating a house entrance into a doorway instead of picturing it as a bulkhead or as the hatchway of a ship. The Spaniards—those who had seen service in the Indies—had outgrown their earlier custom of reading into the Indian stories the ideas of government and of civilization to which they were accustomed in Europe. But Friar Marcos was at a disadvantage hardly less than that of the companions of Cortes, when they first heard of Moctecuhzoma, because his experience with the wealth of the New World had been in the realm of the Incas. He interpreted what he did not understand, of necessity, by what he had seen in Peru.

The story of this Indian did not convince the friar that what he heard about the grandeur of these seven cities was all true, and he decided not to believe anything until he had seen it for himself, or had at least received additional proof. The friar did not start immediately for the seven cities, as the negro had advised him to do, but waited until he could see the Indians who had been summoned from the seacoast. These told him about pearls, which were found near their homes. Some “painted” Indians, living to the eastward, having their faces, chests, and arms tattooed or decorated with pigments, who were perhaps the Pima or Sobaipuri Indians, also visited him while he was staying at Vacapa and gave him an extended account of the seven cities, very similar to that of the Indian sent by Estevan. [p357]

Friar Marcos started on the second day following Pascua Florida, or Easter, which came on April 6, 1539. He expected to find Estevan waiting at the village where he had first heard about the cities. A second cross, as big as the first, had been received from the negro, and the messengers who brought this gave a fuller and much more specific account of the cities, agreeing in every respect with what had previously been related. When the friar reached the village where the negro had obtained the first information about the cities, he secured many new details. He was told that it was thirty days’ journey from this village to the city of Cibola, which was the first of the seven. Not one person alone, but many, described the houses very particularly and showed him the way in which they were built, just as the messengers had done. Besides these seven cities, he learned that there were other kingdoms, called Marata, Acus, and Totonteac. The linguistic students, and especially Mr Frank Hamilton Cushing, have identified the first of these with Matyata or Makyata, a cluster of pueblos about the salt lakes southeast of Zuñi, which were in ruins when Alvarado saw them in 1540, although they appeared to have been despoiled not very long before. Acus is the Acoma pueblo and Totonteac was in all probability the province of Tusayan, northwestward from Zuñi. The friar asked these people why they went so far away from their homes, and was told that they went to get turquoises and cow skins, besides other valuable things, of all of which he saw a considerable store in the village.

Friar Marcos tried to find out how these Indians bartered for the things they brought from the northern country, but all he could understand was that “with the sweat and service of their persons they went to the first city, which is called Cibola, and that they labored there by digging the earth and other services, and that for what they did they received turquoises and the skins of cows, such as those people had.” We now know, whatever Friar Marcos may have thought, that they doubtless obtained their turquoises by digging them out of the rocky ground in which they are still found in New Mexico, and this may easily have seemed to them perspiring labor. It is not clear just how they obtained the buffalo skins, although it was doubtless by barter. The friar noticed fine turquoises suspended in the ears and noses of many of the people whom he saw,[27] and he was again informed that the principal doorways of Cibola were ceremonially ornamented with designs made of these stones. Mr Cushing has since learned, through tradition, that this was their custom. The dress of these people of Cibola, including the belts of turquoises about the waist, as it was described to the friar, seemed to him to resemble that of the Bohemians, or gypsies. The cow skins, some of which were given to him, were tanned and finished so well that he thought it was evident that they had been prepared by men who were skilled in this work. [p358]

At this point in his narrative Friar Marcos first uses the word _pueblo_, village, in referring to the seven cities, a point which would be of some interest if only we could be sure that the report was written from notes made as he went along. He certainly implies that he kept some such record when he speaks of taking down the statements of the Indian who first told him about the seven cities. It looks as if the additional details which he was obtaining gradually dimmed his vision of cities comparable to those into which he had seen Pizarro gather the golden ransom of Atahualpa.

Friar Marcos had not heard from Estevan since leaving Vacapa, but the natives told him that the negro was advancing toward Cibola, and that he had been gone four or five days. The friar started at once to follow the negro, who had proceeded up Sonora valley, as Mr Bandelier traces the route. Estevan had planted several large crosses along the way, and soon began to send messengers to the friar, urging the latter to hasten, and promising to wait for him at the edge of the wilderness which lay between them and the country of Cibola. The friar followed as fast as he could, although constantly hindered by the natives, who were always ready to verify the stories he had already heard concerning Cibola. They pressed him to accept their offers of turquoises and of cow skins in spite of his persistent refusals. At one village, the lord of the place and his two brothers greeted the friar, having collars of turquoises about their necks, while the rest of the people were all _encaconados_, as they called it, with turquoises, which hung from their ears and noses. Here they supplied their visitor with deer, rabbits, and quail, besides a great abundance of corn and piñon seed. They also continued to offer him turquoises, skins, fine gourds, and other things which they valued. The Sobaipuri Indians, who were a branch of the Papago, among whom the friar was now traveling, according to Bandelier, seemed to be as well acquainted with Cibola as the natives of New Spain were with Mexico, or those of Peru with Cuzco. They had visited the place many times, and whatever they possessed which was made with any skill or neatness had been brought, so they told him, from that country.