the night following the next day, about 2 leagues from the village, some Indians in a safe place yelled so that, although the men were ready for anything, some were so excited that they put their saddles on hind-side before; but these were the new fellows. When the veterans had mounted and ridden round the camp, the Indians fled. None of them could be caught because they knew the country.
The next day they entered the settled country in good order, and when they saw the first village, which was Cibola, such were the curses that some hurled at Friar Marcos that I pray God may protect him from them.
It is a little, unattractive village, looking as if had been crumpled all up together. There are mansions in New Spain which make a better appearance at a distance.[1] It is a village of about 200 warriors, is three and four stories high, with the houses small and having only a few rooms, and without a courtyard. One yard serves for each section. The people of the whole district had collected here, for there are seven villages in the province, and some of the others are even larger and stronger than Cibola. These folks waited for the army, drawn up by divisions in front of the village. When they refused to have peace on the terms the interpreters extended to them, but appeared defiant, the Santiago[2] was given, and they were at once put to flight. The Spaniards then attacked the village, which was taken with not a little difficulty, since they held the narrow and crooked entrance. During the attack they knocked the general down with a large stone, and would have killed him but for Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas and Hernando de Alvarado, who threw themselves above him and drew "him away, receiving the blows of the stones, which were not few. But the first fury of the Spaniards could not be resisted, and in less than an hour they entered the village and captured it. They discovered food there, which was the thing they were most in need of.[3] After this the whole province was at peace.[4]
- ↑ Mota Padilla, p. 113; "They reached Tzibola, which was a village divided into two parts, which were encircled in such a way as to make the village round, and the houses adjoining three and four stories high, with doors opening on a great court or plaza, leaving one or two doors in the wall, so as to go in and out. In the middle of the plaza there is a hatchway or trapdoor, by which they go down to a subterranean hall, the roof of which was of large pine beams, and a little hearth in the floor, and the walls plastered. The Indian men stayed there days and nights playing (or gaming) and the women brought them food; and this was the way the Indians of the neighboring villages lived."
- ↑ The war cry or "loud invocation addressed to Saint James before engaging in battle with the Infidels."—Captain John Stevens' Dictionary.
- ↑ Compare the translation of the Traslado do las Nuevas herein. There are some striking resemblances between that account and Castañeda's narrative.
- ↑ Gomara, Hist. Indias, cap. ccxiii, ed. 1554: "Llegando a Sibola reqnirieron a loa del pueblo que los recibiessen de paz; ca no yuan a les hazer mal, sino muy gran bien, y prouecho, y que les diessen comida, ca lleuauan falta de ella. Ellos respondieron que no querian, pues yuan armados. y en son de les dr guerra: que tal semblante mostrauan. Assi que cõbatieron el pueblo los nuestros, defendieron lo gran rate ochocientos hombres, que dentro estauan; descalabraron a Francisco Vazquez, capitan general del exercito, y a otros muchos Españoles; mas al cabo se salieron huyendo. Entraron los nuestros y nombraron la Granada, por amor del virrey. q ei natural dela de España. Es Sibola de hasta doziẽtas casas de tierra y madera tosca, altas quatro y cinco sobrados, y las puertas como escotillones de nao, suben a ellos con escaleras de palo, que quitan de noche y en tiempos de guerra. Tiene delante cada casa una cuena, donde como en estufa, se recogen los inuiernos, que son largas, y de muchas
