The Coronado expedition, 1540-1542/Translations
TRANSLATION OF THE LETTER FROM MENDOZA TO THE KING, APRIL 17, 1540,[1]
S.C.C.M.:
I wrote to Your Majesty from Compostela the last of February, giving you an account of my arrival there and of the departure of Francisco Vazquez with the force which I sent to pacify and settle in the newly discovered country, and of how the warden, Lope de Samaniego, was going as army-master, both because he was a responsible person and a very good Christian, and because he has had experience in matters of this sort; as Your Majesty had desired to know. And the news which I have received since then is to the effect that after they had passed the uninhabited region of Culuacan and were approaching Chiametla, the warden went off with some horsemen to find provisions, and one of the soldiers who was with him, who had strayed from the force, called out that they were killing him. The warden hastened to his assistance, and they wounded him in the eye with an arrow, from which he died. In regard to the fortress,[2] besides the fact that it is badly built and going to pieces, it seems to me that the cost of it is excessive, and that Your Majesty could do without the most of it, because there is one man who takes charge of the munitions and artillery, and an armorer to repair it, and a gunner, and as this is the way it was under the audiencia, before the fortresses were made conformable to what I have written to Your Majesty, we can get along without the rest, because that fortress was built on account of the brigantines, and not for any other purpose.[3] And as the lagoon is so dry that it can do no good in this way for the present, I think that, for this reason, the cost is superfluous. I believe that it will have fallen in before a reply can come from Your Majesty.
Some days ago I wrote to Your Majesty that I had ordered Melchior Diaz, who was in the town of San Miguel de Culuacan, to take some horsemen and see if the account given by the father. Friar Marcos, agreed with what he could discover. He set out from Culuacan with fifteen horsemen, the 17th of November last. The 20th of this present March I received a letter from him, which he sent me by Juan de Zaldyvar and three other horsemen. In this he says that after he left Culuacan and crossed the river of Petatlan he was everywhere very well received by the Indians. The way he did was to send a cross to the place where he was going to stop, because this was a sign which the Indians received with deep veneration, making a house out of mats in which to place it, and somewhat away from this they made a lodging for the Spaniards, and drove stakes where they could tie the horses, and supplied fodder for them, and abundance of corn wherever they had it. They say that they suffered from hunger in many places, because it had been a bad year. After going 100 leagues from Cnluacan, he began to find the country cold, with severe frosts, and the farther he went on the colder it became, until he reached a point where some Indians whom he had with him were frozen, and two Spaniards were in great danger. Seeing this, he decided not to go any farther until the winter was over, and to send back, by those whom I mentioned, an account of what he had learned concerning Cibola and the country beyond, which is as follows, taken literally from his letter:
"I have given Your Lordship an account of what happened to me along the way; and seeing that it is impossible to cross the uninhabited region which stretches from here to Cibola, on account of the heavy snows and the cold, I will give Your Lordship an account of what I have learned about Cibola, which I have ascertained by asking many persons who have been there fifteen and twenty years; and I have secured this in many different ways, taking some Indians together and others separately, and on comparison they all seem to agree in what they say. After crossing this large wilderness, there are seven places, being a short day's march from one to another, all of which are together called Cibola. The houses are of stone and mud, coarsely worked. They are made in this way: One large wall, and at each end of this wall some rooms are built, partitioned off 20 feet square, according to the description they give, which are planked with square beams. Most of the houses are reached from the flat roofs, using their ladders to go to the streets. The houses have three and fonr stories. They declare that there are few having two stories. The stories are mostly half as high again as a man, except the first one, which is low, and only a little more than a man's height. One ladder is used to communicate with ten or twelve houses together. They make use of the low ones and live in the highest ones. In the lowest ones of all they have some loopholes made sideways, as in the fortresses of Spain. The Indians say that when these people are attacked, they station themselves in their houses and fight from there; and that when they go to make war, they carry shields and wear leather jackets, which are made of cows' hide, colored, and that they fight with arrows and with a sort of stone maul and with some other weapons made of sticks, which I have not been able to make out. They eat human flesh, and they keep those whom they capture in war as slaves. There are many fowls in the country, tame. They have much corn and beans and melons [squashes). In their houses they keep some hairy animals, like the large Spanish hounds, which they shear, and they make long colored wigs from the hair, like this one which I send to Your Lordship, which they wear, and they also put this same stuff in the cloth which they make.[4] The men are of small stature (plate LXII]; the women are light colored and of good appearance, and they wear shirts or chemises which reach down to their feet. They wear their hair on each side done up in a sort of twist (plate lxii), which leaves the ears outside, in which they hang many turquoises, as well as on their necks and on the wrists of their arms. The clothing of the men is a cloak, and over this the skin of a cow, like the one which Cabeza de Vaca and Dorantes brought, which Your Lordship saw; they wear caps[5] on their heads; in summer they wear shoes made of painted or colored skin, and high buskins in winter.[6]
They were also unable to tell me of any metal, nor did they say that they had it. They have turquoises in quantity, although not so many as the father provincial said. They have some little stone crystals, like this which I send to Your Lordship, of which Your Lordship has seen many here in New Spain. They cultivate the ground in the same way as in New Spain. They carry things on their heads, as in Mexico. The men weave cloth and spin cotton. They have salt from a marshy lake, which is two days from the province of Cibola[7] The Indians have their dances and songs, with some flutes which have holes on which to put the fingers. They make much noise. They sing in unison with those who play, and those who sing clap their hands in our fashion. One of the Indians that accompanied the negro Esteban, who had been a captive there, saw the playing as they practiced it, and others singing as I have said, although not very vigorously. They say that five or six play together, and that some of the flutes are better than others.[8] They say the country is good for corn and beans, and that they do not have any fruit trees, nor do they know what such a thing is.[9] They have very good mountains. The country lacks water. They do not raise cotton, but bring it from Totonteac.[10] They eat out of flat bowls, like the Mexicans. They raise considerable corn and beans and other similar things.[11] They do not know what sea fish is, nor have they ever heard of it. I have not obtained any information about the cows, except that these are found beyond the province of Cibola. There is a great abundance of wild goats, of the color of bay horses; there are many of these here where I am, and although I have asked the Indians if those are like these, they tell me no. Of the seven settlements, they describe three of them as very large; four not so big. They describe them, as I understand, to be about three crossbow shots square for each place, and from what the Indians say, and their descriptions of the houses and their size, and as these are close together, and considering that there are people in each house, it ought to make a large multitude. Totonteac is declared to be seven short days from the province of Cibola, and of the same sort of houses and people, and they say that cotton grows there. I doubt this, because they tell me that it is a cold country. They say that there are twelve villages, every one of which is larger than the largest at Cibola. They also tell me that there is a village which is one day from Cibola, and that the two are at war.[12] They have the same sort of houses and people and customs. They declare this to be greater than any of those described; I take it that there is a great multitude of people there. They are very well known, on account of having these houses and abundance of food and turquoises. I have not been able to learn more than what I have 
The death of Esteban the negro took place in the way the father, Friar Marcos, described it to your lordship, and so I do not make a report of it here, except that the people at Cibola sent word to those of this village and in its neighborhood that if any Christians should come, they ought not to consider them as anything peculiar, and ought to kill them, because they were mortal — saying that they had learned this because they kept the bones of the one who had come there; and that, if they did not dare to do this, they should send word so that those (at Cibola) could come and do it. I can very easily believe that all this has taken place, and that there has been some communication between these places, because of the coolness with which they received us and the sour faces they have shown us."
Melchior Diaz says that the people whom he found along the way do not have any settlements at all, except in one valley which is 150 leagues from Culuacan, which is well settled and has houses with lofts, and that there are many people along the way, but that they are not good for anything except to make them Christians, as if this was of small account. May Your Majesty remember to provide for the service of God, and keep in mind the deaths and the loss of life and of provinces which has taken place in these Indies. And, moreover, up to this present day none of the things Your Majesty has commanded, which have been very holy and good, have been attended to, nor priests provided, either for that country or for this. For I assure Your Majesty that there is no trace of Christianity where they have not yet arrived, neither little nor much, and that the poor people are ready to receive the priests and come to them even when they flee from us like deer in the mountains. And I state this because I am an eyewitness, and I have seen it clearly during this trip. I have importuned Your Majesty for friars, and yet again I can not cease doing it much more, because unless this be done I can not accomplish that which I am bound to do.
After I reach Mexico, I will give Your Majesty an account of everything concerning these provinces, for while 1 should like to do it today, I can not, because I am very weak from a slow fever which I caught in Colima, which attacked me very severely, although it did not last more than six days. It has pleased Our Lord to make me well already, and I have traveled here to Jacona, where I am.
May Our Lord protect the Holy Catholic Cæsarian person of Your Majesty and aggrandize it with increase of better kingdoms and lordships, as we your servants desire.
From Jacona, April 17, 1540.
S. C. C. M.
Your Holy Majesty's humble servant, who salutes your royal feet and hands,
D. Antonio de Mendoza.
TRANSLATION OF THE LETTER FROM CORONADO TO MENDOZA, AUGUST 3, 1540.[13]
The Account given by Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, Captain-General of the Force which was sent in the name of His Majesty to the newly discovered country, of what happened to the expedition after April 22 of the year MDXL, when he started forward from Culiacan, and of what he found in the country through which he passed.
Francisco Vazquez starts from Culiacan with his army, and after suffering various inconveniences on account of the badness of the way, reaches the Valley of Hearts, where he failed to find any corn, to procure which he sends to the valley called Señora. He receives an account of the important Valley of Hearts and of the people there, and of some lands lying along that coast.
On the 22d of the month of April last, I set out from the province of Culiacan with a part of the army, having made the arrangements of which I wrote to Your Lordship. Judging by the outcome, I feel sure that it was fortunate that I did not start the whole of the army ou this undertaking, because the labors have been so very great and the lack of food such that I do not believe this undertaking could have been completed before the end of this year, and that there would be a great loss of life if it should be accomplished. For, as I wrote to Your Lordship, I spent eighty days in traveling to Culiacan,[14] during which time I and the gentlemen of my company, who were horsemen, carried on our backs and on our horses a little food, in such wise that after leaving this place none of us carried any necessary effects weighing more than a pound. For all this, and although we took all possible care and forethought of the small supply of provisions which we carried, it gave out. And this is not to be wondered at, because the road is rough and long, and what with our harquebuses, which had to be carried up the mountains and hills and in the passage of the rivers, the greater part of the corn was lost. And since I send Your Lordship a drawing of this route, I will say no more about it here.
Thirty leagues before reaching the place which the father provincial spoke so well of in his report,[15] I sent Melchior Diaz forward with fifteen horsemen, ordering him to make but one day's journey out of two, so that he could examine everything there before I arrived. He traveled through some very rough mountains for four days, and did not find anything to live on, nor people, nor information about anything, except that he found two or three poor villages, with twenty or thirty huts apiece. From the people here be learned that there was nothing to be found in the country beyond except the mountains, which continued very rough, entirely uninhabited by people. And, because this was labor lost, I did not want to send Your Lordship an account of it. The whole company felt disturbed at this, that a thing so much praised, and about which the father had said so many things, should be found so very different; and they began to think that all the rest would be of the same sort. When I noticed this, I tried to encourage them as well as I could, telling them that Your Lordship had always thought that this part of the trip would be a waste of effort, and that we ought to devote our attention to those Seven Cities and the other provinces about which we had information — that these should be the end of our enterprise. With this resolution and purpose, we all marched cheerfully along a very bad way, where it was impossible to pass without making a new road or repairing the one that was there, which troubled the soldiers not a little, considering that everything which the friar had said was found to be quite the reverse; because, among other things which the father had said and declared, he said that the way would be plain and good, and that there would be only one small hill of about halt a league. And the truth is, that there are mountains where, however well the path might be fixed, they could not be crossed without there being great danger of the horses falling over them. And it was so bad that a large number of the animals which Your Lordship sent as provision for the army were lost along this part of the way, on account of the roughness of the rocks. The lambs and wethers lost their hoofs along the way, and I left the greater part of those which I brought from Culiacan at the river of Lachimi,[16] because they were unable to travel, and so that they might proceed more slowly. Four horsemen remained with them, who have just arrived. They have not brought more than 24 lambs and 4 wethers; the rest died from the toil, although they did not travel more than two leagues daily. I reached the Valley of Hearts at last, on the 20th day of the month of May, and rested there a number of days. Between Culiacan and this place I could sustain myself only by means of a large supply of corn bread, because I had to leave all the corn, as it was not yet ripe. In this Valley of Hearts we found more people than in any part of the country which we had left behind, and a large extent of tilled ground. There was no corn for food among them, but as I heard that there was some in another valley called Señora, which I did not wish to disturb by force, I sent Melchior Diaz with goods to exchange for it, so as to give this to the friendly Indians whom we brought with us, and to some who had lost their animals along the way and had not been able to carry the food which they had taken from Culiacan. By the favor of Our Lord, some little corn was obtained by this trading, which relieved the friendly Indians and some Spaniards. Ten or twelve of the horses had died of overwork by the time that we reached this Valley of Hearts, because they were unable to stand the strain of carrying heavy burdens and eating little. Some of our negroes and some of the Indians also died here, which was not a slight loss for the rest of the expedition. They told me that the Valley of Hearts is a long five-days' journey from the western sea. I sent to summon Indians from the coast in order to learn about their condition, and while I was waiting for these the horses rested. I stayed there four days, during which the Indians came from the sea, who told me that there were seven or eight islands two days' journey from that seacoast, directly opposite, well populated with people, but poorly supplied with food, and the people were savages.[17] They told me they bad seen a ship pass not very far from the land. I do not know whether to think that it was the one which was sent to discover the country, or perhaps some Portuguese.[18]
They come to Chichilticale; after having taken two days' rest, they enter a country containing very little food and hard to travel for 30 leagues, beyond which the country becomes pleasant, and there is a river called the River of the Flax (del Lino); they fight against the Indians, being attacked by these; and having by their victory secured the city, they relieve themselves of the pangs of their hunger.
Of the situation and condition of the Seven Cities called the kingdom of Cevola, and the sort of people and their customs, and of the animals which are found there.
Of the nature and situation of the kingdoms of Totonteac, Marata, and Acus, wholly different from the account of Friar Marcos. The conference which they had with the Indians of the city of Granada, which they had captured, who had been forewarned of the coming of Christians into their country fifty years before. The account which was obtained from them concerning seven other cities, of which Tucano is the chief, and how he sent to discover them. A present sent to Mendoza of various things found in this country by Vazquez Coronado.
These Indians say that the kingdom of Totonteac, which the father provincial praised so much, saying that it was something marvelous, and of such a very great size, and that cloth was made there, is a hot lake, on the edge of which there are five or six houses.[30] There used to be some others, but these have been destroyed by war. The kingdom of Marata can not be found, nor do these Indians know any. thing about it. The kingdom of Acus is a single small city, where they raise cotton, and this is called Acucu.[31] I say that this is the country, because Acus, with or without the aspiration, is not a word in this region; and because it seems to me that Acucu may be derived from Acus, I say that it is this town which has been converted into the kingdom of Acus. They tell me that there are some other small ones not far from this settlement, which are situated on a river which I have seen and of which the Indians have told me. God knows that I wish I had better news to write to Your Lordship, but I must give you the truth, and, as I wrote you from Culiacan, I must advise you of the good as well as of the bad. But you may be assured that if there bad been all the riches and treasures of the world, I could not have done more in His Majesty's service and in that of Your Lordship than I have done, in coming here where you commanded me to go, carrying, both my companions and myself, our food on our backs for 300 leagues, and traveling on foot many days, making our way over hills and rough mountains, besides other labors which I refrain from mentioning. Nor do I think of stopping until my death, if it serves His Majesty or Your Lordship to have it so.
Three days after I captured this city, some of the Indians who lived here came to offer to make peace. They brought me some turquoises and poor mantles, and I received them in His Majesty's name with as good a speech as I could, making them understand the purpose of my coming to this country, which is, in the name of His Majesty and by the commands of Your Lordship. that they and all others in this province should become Christians and should know the true God for their Lord, and His Majesty for their king and earthly lord. After this they returned to their houses and suddenly, the next day, they packed up their goods and property, their women and children, and fled to the hills, leaving their towns deserted, with only some few remaining in them. Seeing this, I went to the town which I said was larger than this, eight or ten days later, when I had recovered from my wounds. I found a few of them there, whom I told that they ought not to feel any fear, and I asked them to summon their lord to me. By what I can find out or observe, however, none of these towns have any, since I have not seen any principal house by which any superiority over others could be shown.[32] Afterward, an old man, who said he was their lord, came with a mantle made of many pieces, with whom I argued as long as he stayed with me. He said that he would come to see me with the rest of the chiefs of the country, three days later, in order to arrange the relations which should exist between us. He did so, and they brought me some little ragged mantles and some turquoises. I said that they ought to come down from their strongholds and return to their houses with their wives and children, and that they should become Christians, and recognize His Majesty as their king and lord. But they still remain in their strongholds, with their wives and all their property. I commanded them to have a cloth painted for me, with all the animals that they know in that country, and although they are poor painters, they quietly painted two for me, one of the animals and the other of the birds and fishes. They say that they will bring their children so that our priests may instruct them, and that they desire to know our law. They declare that it was foretold among them more than fifty years ago that a people such as we are should come, and the direction they should come from, and that the whole country would be conquered. So far as I can find out, the water is what these Indians worship, because they say that it makes the corn grow and sustains their life, and that the only other reason they know is because their ancestors did so.[33] I have tried in every way to find out from the natives of these settlements whether they know of any other peoples or provinces or cities. They tell me about seveu cities which are at a considerable distance, which are like these, except that the houses there are not like these, but are made of earth [adobe, and small, and that they raise much cotton there. The first of these four places about which they know is called, they say, Tucano. They could not tell me much about the others. I do not believe that they tell me the truth, because they think that I shall soon have to depart from them and return home. But they will quickly find that they are deceived in this. I sent Don Pedro de Tobar there, with his company and some other horsemen; to see it. I would not have dispatched this packet to Your Lordship until I had learned what he fonnd there, if I thought that I should have any news from him within twelve or fifteen days. However, as he will remain away at least thirty, and, considering that this information is of little importance and that the cold and the rains are approaching, it seemed to me that I ought to do as Your Lordship commanded me in your instructions, which is, that as soon as I arrived here, I should advise you thereof, and this I do, by sending you the plain narrative of what I have seen, which is bad enough, as you may perceive. I have determined to send throughout all the surrounding regions, in order to find out whether there is anything, and to suffer every extremity before I give up this enterprise, and to serve His Majesty, if I can find any way in which to do it, and not to lack iu diligence until Your Lordship directs me as to what I ought to do. We have great need of pasture, and you should know, also, that among all those who are here there is not one pound cf raisins, nor sugar, nor oil, nor wine, except barely half a quart, which is saved to say mass, since everything is consumed, and part was lost on the way. Now, yon can provide us with what appears best; but if you are thinking of sending as cattle, you should know that it will be necessary for them to spend at least a year on the road, because they can not come in any other way, nor any quicker. I would have liked to send to Your Lordship, with this dispatch, many samples of the things which they have in this country, but the trip is so long and rough that it is difficult for me to do so. However, I send you twelve small mantles, such as the people of this country ordinarily wear, and a garment which seems to me to be very well made. I kept it because it seemed to me to be of very good workmanship, and because I do not think that anyone has ever seen in these Indies any work done with a needle, unless it were done since the Spaniards settled here. And I also send two cloths painted with the animals which they have in this country, although, as I said, the painting is very poorly done, because the artist did not spend more than one day in painting it. I have seen other paintings on the walls of these houses which have much better proportion and are done much better.
I send you a cow skin, some turquoises, and two earrings of the same, and fifteen of the Indian combs,[34] and some plates decorated with these turquoises, and two baskets made of wicker, of which the Indians have a large supply. I also send two rolls, such as the women usually wear on their heads when they bring water from the spring, the 
TRANSLATION OF THE TRASLADO DE LAS NUEVAS[36]
Copy of the reports and descriptions that have been received regarding the discovery of a city which is called Cibola, situated in the new country.
His grace left the larger part of his army in the valley of Culiacan, and with only 75 companions on horseback and 30 footmen, he set out for here Thursday, April 22. The army which remained there was to start about the end of the month of May, because they could not find any sort of sustenance for the whole of the way that they had to go, as far as this province of Cibola, which is 350 long leagues, and on this account he did not dare to put the whole army on the road. As for the men he took with him, he ordered them to make provision for eighty days, which was carried on horses, each having one for himself and his followers. With very great danger of suffering hunger, and not less labor, since they had to open the way, and every day discovered waterways and rivers with bad crossings, they stood it after a fashion, and on the whole journey as far as this province there was not a peck of corn.[37] He reached this province on Wednesday, the 7th of July last, with all the men whom he led from the valley very well, praise be to Our Lord, except one Spaniard who died of hunger four days from here and some negroes and Indians who also died of hunger and thirst. The Spaniard was one of those on foot, and was named Espinosa. In this way his grace spent seventy seven days on the road before reaching here, during which God knows in what sort of a way we lived, and whether we could have eaten much more than we ate the day that his grace reached this city of Granada, for so it has been named out of regard for the viceroy, and because they say it resembles the Albaicin.[38] The force he led was not received the way it should have been, because they all arrived very tired from the great labor of the journey. This, and the loading and unloading like so many muleteers, and not eating as much as they should have, left them more in need of resting several days than of fighting, although there was not a man in the army who would not have done his best in everything if the horses, who suffered the same as their masters, could have helped them.
The city was deserted by men over sixty years and under twenty, and by women and children. All who were there were the fighting men who remained to defend the city, and many of them came out, about a crossbow shot, uttering loud threats. The general himself went forward with two priests and the army-master, to urge them to surrender, as is the custom in new countries. The reply that he received was from many arrows which the; let fly, and they wounded Hernando Bermejo's horse and pierced the loose flap of the frock of father Friar Luis, the former companion of the Lord Bishop of Mexico. When this was seen, taking as their advocate the Holy Saint James,[39] he rushed upon them with all his force, which he had kept in very good order, and although the Indians turned their backs and tried to reach the city, they were overtaken and many of them killed before they could reach it. They killed three horses and wounded seven or eight.
When my lord the general reached the city, he saw that it was surrounded by stone walls, and the houses very high, four and five and even six stories apiece, with their flat roofs and balconies. As the Indians had made themselves secure within it, and would not let anyone come near without shooting arrows at him, and as we could not obtain anything to eat nnless we captured it, his grace decided to enter the city on foot and to surround it by men on horseback, so that the Indians who were inside could not get away. As he was distinguished among them all by his gilt arms and a plume on his headpiece, all the Indians aimed at him, because he was noticeable among all, and they knocked him down to the ground twice by chance stones thrown from the flat roofs, and stunned him in spite of his headpiece, and if this had not been so good, I doubt if he would have come out alive from that enterprise, and besides all this-praised be Our Lord that he came out on his own feet — they hit him many times with stones on his head and shoulders and legs, and he received two small wounds on his face and an arrow wound in the right foot; but despite all this his grace is as sound and well as the day he left that city. And you[40] may assure my lord of all this, and also that on the 19th of July last he went 4 leagues from this city to see a rock where they told him that the Indians of this province had fortified themselves,[41] and he returned the same day, so that he went 8 leagues in going and returning. I think I have given you an account of everything, for it is right that I should be the authority for you and his lordship, to assure you that everything is going well with the general my lord, and without any hesitation I can assure you that he is as well and sound as the day he left the city. He is located within the city, for when the Indians saw that his grace was determined to enter the city, then they abandoned it, since they let them go with their lives. We found in it what we needed more than gold and silver, and that was much corn and beans and fowls, better than those of New Spain, and salt, the best and whitest that I have seen in all my life. RELACIÓN POSTRERA DE SIVOLA[42]
Esta es la relación postrera de Sívola, y de más de cuatro-cientas leguas adelante.
Desde Culhuacáin á Sivola hay más de trescieutas leguas; poco del camino poblado: hay muy poca gente: es tierra estéril: hay muy malos caminos: la gente anda del todo desnuda, salvo las mujeres, que de la ciutura abajo traen cueros de venados adobados, blancos, á manera de faldillas liasta los pies. Las casas que tienen son de petlatles hecbos de cañas: son las casas redondas y pequeñas, que apenas cabe un hombre en pie dentro. Donde están congregados y donde siembran es tierra arenosa: cogen maiz, aunque poco, y frisoles y calabazas, y también se mantienen de caza, conejos, liebres y venados. No tienen sacriflcios. Esto es desde Culhuacan á Sibola.
Sivola es un pueblo de hasta ducientas casas: son á dos y tres y cuatro y cinco sobrados: tienen las paredes de un palmo de ancho: los palos de la maderación son tan gruesos como por la muñeca, y redondos; por tablazon tienen cañas muy menudas con sus bojas, y encima tierra presada: las paredes sou de tierra y barro: las puertas de las casas son de la manera de escotillones de navíos: están las casas juntas, asidas unas con otras: tienen delante de las casas unas estufas de barro de tierra donde se guarecen en el invierno del frio, porque le hace muy grande, que nieva seis meses del año. De esta gente algunos traen mautas de algodón y de maguey, y cueros de venados adobados, y traen zapatos de los mismos cueros, basta encima de las rodillas. También hacen mantas de pellejos de liebres y de conejos, con que se cubren. Andan las mujeres vestidas de mantas de maguey hasta los pies: andan ceñidas: traen los cabellos cogidos encima de las orejas, como rodajas: cogeu maíz y frisoles y calabazas, lo que les basta para su mantenimiento, porque es poca gente. La tierra donde siembran es toda arena; son las aguas salobres: es tierra muy seca: tienen algunas gallinas, aunque pocas; no saben qué cosa es pescado. Son siete pueblos en esta provincia de Sivola en espacio decinco leguas: el mayor será de ducientas casas, y otros dos, de á ducientas, y los otros á sesenta y á cincuenta y á treinta casas.
Desde Sivola al rio y provincia de Tibex hay sesenta leguas: el primer pueblo es cuarenta leguas de Sivola: llámase Acuco. Este pueblo está encima de un peñol muy fuerte: será de duzientas casas, asentado á la manera de Sívola que es otra lengua. Desde allí al rio de Tiguex hay veinte leguas. El rio es cuasi tan ancho como el de Sevilla, aunque no es tau hondo: va por tierra llana: es buen agua: tiene algún pescado: nace al norte. El que esto dice vió doce pneblos en cierto compás del rio: otros vieron más: dicen el río arriba: abajo todos son pueblos pequeños, salvo dos que ternán á ducientas casas: estas casas con las paredes como á manera de tapías de tierra é arena, muy recias: son tan anchas como nn palmo de una mano. Son las casas de á dos y tres. terrados: tienen la maderación como en Sivola. Es tierra muy fria: tiene sus estufas como en Sivola; y hiélase tanto el río, que pasan bestias cargadas por él, y pudieran pasar carretas. Cogen maiz lo que han menester, y frisoles y calabazas: tienen algnnas gallinas, las cuales gnardan para hacer mantas de la pluma. Cogen algodón, aunque poco: traen mantas de ello, y zapatos de cuero como en Sívola. Es gente que defiende bien su capa, y desde sus casas, que no curau de salir fnera. Es tierra toda arenosa.
Desde la provincía y río de Tiguex, á cuatro jornadas toparon cuatro pneblos. El primero terná treinta casas. El segundo es pueblo grande destruido de sus guerras: tenía hasta treinta y cinco casas pobladas: el tercero [sic] hasta Estos tres son de la manera de los del río en todo. El cuarto es nn pueblo grande, el cual está entre unos montes: llámase Cicuic: tenía hasta cincnenta casas con tantos terrados como los de Sívola: son las paredes de tierra y barro como las de Sívóla. Tienen harto maiz y frisoles y calabazas y algunas gallinas. A cuatro jornadas de este pueblo toparon nna tierra llaua como la mar, en los cuales llanos hay tanta multitnd de vacas, que no tienen número. Estas vacas son como las de Castilla, y algunas mayores que tienen en la cruz una corva pequeña, y son más bermejas, que tiran á negro: cuélgales una lana más larga que un palmo entre los cuernos y orejas y barba, y por la papada abajo y por las espaldas, como crines, y de las rodillas abajo todo lo más de lana muy pequeñita, á manera de merino: tienen muy buena carne y tierna, y mucho sebo. Andando muchos días por estos llanos, toparon con una ranchería de hasta dnzientas casas con gente: eran las casas de los cneros de las vacas adobados, blancas, á manera de pabellones ó tiendas de campo. EI mantenimiento ó sustentamiento de estos indios es todo de las vacas, porque ni siembran ni cogen maiz: de los cueros hacen sus casas, de los cueros visten y calzan, de los cueros hacen sogas y también de la lana: de los niervos hacen hilo con que cosen sus vestiduras y también las casas: de los huesos hacen alesnas: las boñigas les sirven de leña; porque no hay otra en aquella tierra: los buches les sirven de jarros y vasijas con que beben: de la carne se mantienen: cómenla medio asada é un poco caliente encima de las boñigas, la otra cruda, y tomándola con los dientes, tiran con la una mano, y en la otra tienen un navajon de pedernal y cortan el bocado; ansí lo tragan como aves melio mascado: comen el sebo crndo, sin calentallo: beben la sangre, ansí como sale de las vacas, y otras veces después de salida, fria y cruda: no tienen otro mantenimiento. Esta gente tiene perros como los de esta tierra, salvo que son algo mayores, los cuales perros cargan como á bestias, y las hacen sus enjalmas como albardillas, y las cinchan con sus correas, y andan matados como bestias, en las cruces. Cuando van á caza cárganlos de mautenimientos; y cuando se mueven estos indios, porque no están de asiento en una parte, que se andan donde andan las vacas para se mantener, estos perros les llevan las casas, y llevan los palos de las casas arrastrando, atados a las albardillas, allende de la carga que llevan encima: podrá ser la carga, según el perro, arroba y media y dos. Hay de este Síbola a estos llanos adonde llegaron, treinta leguas, y aun más. Los llanos proceden adelante, ni se sabe qué tanto. El capitán Francisco Vázquez fué por los llanos adelante con treinta de á caballo, y Fr. Juan de Padilla con él: toda la demás gente se volvieron á la población del río, para esperar á Francisco Vázquez, porque ansi se lo mandó: no se sabe si es vuelto &c.
Es la tierra tan llana, que se pierden los hombres apartándose media legua, como se perdió uno á caballo, que nunca más pareció, y dos caballos ensillados y enfrena los que nunca más parecieron. No queda rastro ninguno por donde van, y á esta causa teníau necesidad de amojonar el camino por donde iban, para volver, con boñigas de vacas, que no había piedras ni otra cosa.
Marco Polo, veneciano, en su tratado, en el cap. xv, trata y dice que [ha visto?] las mesmas vacas, y de la mesma manera en la corcova; y en el inesmo capitulo dice que también hay carneros tamaños como caballos.
Nicolás, veneciano, dió relación á Micer Pogio, florentiuo, en el libro segundo, cerca del fin, dice como en la Etiopia hay bueyes con corcova, como camellos, y tienen los cuernos largos de tres codos, y echan los cueruos encima sobre el espinazo, y hace un cuerno de estos un cantaro de vino.
Marco Polo, en el capítulo ciento y treinta y cuatro dice que en la tierra de los tártaros, hacia el norte, se hallan canes tan grandes ó poco menos que asnos; a los cuales echan uno como carro y entran con ellos en una tierra muy lodosa, toda cenagales, que otros animales no podrian entrar ni salir sini se anegar, y por eso llevan perros.
[Scripsi et contuli, México, Marzo 11, 1895.
Joaqn. Garcia Icazbalceta.
translation
This is the latest Account of Cibola, and of more than four hundred leagues beyond.
Cibola is a village of about 200 houses. They have two and three and four and five stories. The walls are about a hand-breadth thick; the sticks of timber are as large as the wrist, and round; for boards, they have very small bushes, with their leaves on, covered with a sort of greenish-colored mud; the walls are of dirt and mud, the doors of the houses are like the hatchways of ships. The houses are close together, each joined to the others. Outside of the houses they have some hothouses (or estufas) of dirt mud, where they take refuge from the cold in the winter — because this is very great, since it snows six months in the year. Some of these people wear cloaks of cotton and of the maguey (or Mexican aloe) and of tanned deer skin, and they wear shoes made of these skins, reaching up to the knees. They also make cloaks of the skins of hares and rabbits, with which they cover themselves. The women wear cloaks of the maguey, reaching down to the feet, with girdles; they wear their hair gathered about the ears like little wheels. They raise corn and beans and melons, which is all they need to live on, because it is a small tribe. The land where they plant is entirely sandy; the water is brackish; the country is very dry. They have some fowls, although not many. They do not know what sort of a thing fish is. There are seven villages in this province of Cibola within a space of 5 leagues; the largest may have about 200 houses and two others about 200, and the others somewhere between 60 or 50 and 30 houses.
It is 60 leagues from Cibola to the river and province of Tibex [Tiguex]. The first village is 40 leagues from Cibola, and is called Acuco. This village is on top of a very strong rock; it has about 200 houses, built in the same way as at Cibola, where they speak another language. It is 20 leagues from here to the river of Tignex. The river is almost as wide as that of Seville, although not so deep; it flows through a level country; the water is good; it contains some fish; it rises in the north. He who relates this, saw twelve villages within a certain distance of the river; others saw more, they say, up the river. Below, all the villages are small, except two that have about 200 houses. The walls of these houses are something like mud walls of dirt and sand, very rough; they are as thick as the breadth of a hand. The houses have two and three stories; the construction is like those at Cibola. The country is very cold. They have hot-houses, as in Cibola, and the river freezes so thick that loaded animals cross it, and it would be possible for carts to do so. They raise as much corn as they need, and beans and melons. They have some fowls, which they keep so as to make cloaks of their feathers. They raise cotton, although not much; they wear cloaks made of this, and shoes of hide, as at Cibola. These people defend themselves very well, and from within their houses, since they do not care to come out. The country is all sandy.
Four days' journey from the province and river of Tiguex four villages are found. The first has 30 houses; the second is a large village destroyed in their wars, and has about So houses occupied; the third about [?] These three are like those at the river in every way. The fourth is a large village which is among some mountains. It is called Cicuic, and has about 50 houses, with as many stories as those at Cibola. The walls are of dirt and mud like those at Cibola. It has plenty of corn, beans and melons, and some fowls. Four days from this village they came to a country as level as the sea, and in these plains there was such a multitude of cows that they are numberless. These cows are like those of Castile, and somewhat larger, as they have a little hump on the withers, and they are more reddish, approaching black; their hair, more than a span long, hangs down around their horns and ears and chin, and along the neck and shoulders like manes, and down from the knees; all the rest is a very fine wool, like merino; they have very good, tender meat, and much fat. Having proceeded many days through these plains, they came to a settlement of about 200 inhabited houses. The houses were made of the skins of the cows, tanned white, like pavilions or army tents. The maintenance or sustenance of these Indians comes entirely from the cows, because they neither sow nor reap corn. With the skins they make their houses, with the skins they clothe and shoe themselves, of the skins they make rope, and also of the wool; from the sinews they make thread, with which they sew their clothes and also their houses; from the bones they make awls; the dung serves them for wood, because there is nothing else in that country; the stomachs serve them for pitchers and vessels from which they drink; they live on the flesh; they sometimes eat it half roasted and warmed over the dung, at other times raw; seizing it with their fingers, they pull it out with one hand and with a flint knife in the other they cut off mouthfuls, and thus swallow it half chewed; they eat the fat raw, without warming it; they drink the blood just as it leaves the cows, and at other times after it has run out, cold and raw; they have no other means of livelihood. These people have dogs like those in this country, except that they are somewhat larger, and they load these dogs like beasts of burden, and make saddles for them like our pack saddles, and they fasten them with their leather thongs, and these make their backs sore on the withers like pack animals. When they go hunting, they load these with their necessities, and when they move — for these Indians are not settled in one place, since they travel wherever the cows move, to support themselves — these dogs carry their houses, and they have the sticks of their houses dragging along tied on to the
The Keres pueblo of Cochiti
pack-saddles, besides the load which they carry on top, and the load may be, according to the dog, from 35 to 50 pounds. It is 30 leagues, or even more, from Cibola to these plains where they went. The plains stretch away beyond, nobody knows how far. The captain, Francisco Vazquez, went farther across the plains, with 30 horsemen, and Friar Juan de Padilla with him; all the rest of the force returned to the settlement at the river to wait for Francisco Vazquez, because this was his command. It is not known whether he has returned.
The country is so level that men became lost when they went off half a league. One horseman was lost, who never reappeared, and two horses, all saddled and bridled, which they never saw again. No track was left of where they went, and on this account it was necessary to mark the road by which they went with cow dung, so as to return, since there were no stones or anything else.
Marco Polo, the Venetian, in his treatise, in chapter 15, relates and says that (he saw) the same cows, with the same sort of hump; and in the same chapter he says that there are sheep as big as horses.
Nicholas, the Venetian, gave an account to Micer Pogio, the Florentine, in his second book, toward the end, which says that in Ethiopia there are oxen with a hump, like camels, and they have horns 3 cubits long, and they carry their horns up over their backs, and one of these horns makes a wine pitcher.
Marco Polo, in chapter 134, says that in the country of the Tartars, toward the north, they have dogs as large or little smaller than asses. They harness these into a sort of cart and with these enter a very miry country, all a quagmire, where other animals can not enter and come out without getting submerged, and on this account they take dogs. TRANSLATION OF THE RELACION DEL SUCESO[43]
Account of what Happened on the Journey which Francisco Vazquez made to Discover Cibola.
When the army reached the valley of Culiacan, Francisco Vazquez divided the army ou account of the bad news which was received regarding Cibola, and because the food supply along the way was small, according to the report of Melchor Diaz, who had Just come back from seeing it. He himself took 80 horsemen and 25 foot soldiers, and a small part of the artillery, and set out from Culiacan, leaving Don Tristan de Arellano with the rest of the force, with orders to set out twenty days later, and when he reached the Valley of Hearts (Corazones) to wait there for a letter from him, which would be sent after he had reached Cibola, and had seen what was there; and this was done. The Valley of Hearts is 150 leagues from the valley of Culiacan, and the same distance from Cibola.[44]
This whole distance, up to about 50 leagues before reaching Cibola, is inhabited, although it is away from the road in some places. The population is all of the same sort of people, since the honses are all of palm mats, and some of them have low lofts. They all have corn, although not much, and in some places very little. They have melons and beaus. The best settlement of all is a valley called Señora, which is 10 leagues beyond the Hearts, where a town was afterward settled. There is some cotton among these, but deer skins are what most of them use for clothes.
Francisco Vazquez passed by all these on account of the small crops. There was no corn the whole way, except at this valley of Señora, where they collected a little, and besides this he had what he took from Culiacau, where he provided himself for eighty days. In seventy-three days we reached Cibola, although after hard labor and the loss of many horses and the death of several Indians, and after we saw it these were all doubled, although we did find corn enough. We found the natives peaceful for the whole way. 
Father Friar Marcos understood, or gave to understand, that the region and neighborhood in which there are seven villages was a single village which he called Cibola, but the whole of this settled region is called Cibola. The villages have from 150 to 200 and 300 houses; some have the houses of the village all together, although in some villages they are divided into two or three sections, but for the most part they are all together, and their courtyards are within, and in these are their hot rooms for winter, and they have their summer ones outside the villages. The houses have two or three stories, the walls of stone and mud, and some have mud walls. The villages have for the most part the walls of the houses; the houses are too good for Indians, especially for these, since they are brutish and have no decency in anything except in their houses.
For food they have much corn and beans and melons, and some fowls, like those of Mexico, and they keep these more for their feathers than to eat, because they make long robes of them, since they do not have any cotton; and they wear cloaks of heniquen (a fibrous plant), and of the skins of deer, and sometimes of cows.
Their rites and sacrifices are somewhat idolatrous, but water is what they worship most, to which they offer small painted sticks and feathers and yellow powder made of flowers, and usually this offering is maile to springs. Sometimes, also, they offer such turquoises as they have, although poor ones.
From the valley of Culiacan to Cibola it is 240 leagues in two directions. It is north to about the thirty-fourth-and-a-half degree, and from there to Cibola, which is nearly the thirty-seventh degree, toward the northeast.
Having talked with the uatives of Cibola about what was beyond, they said that there were settlements toward the west. Franeisco Vazquez then sent Don Pedro de Tobar to investigate, who found seven other villages, which were called the province of Tuzan;[45] this is 35 leagues to the west. The villages are somewhat larger than those of Cibola, and in other respects, in food and everything, they are of the same sort, except that these raise cotton. While Don Pedro de Tobar had gone to see these, Francisco Vazquez dispatched messengers to the viceroy, with an account of what had happened up to this point.[46] He also prepared instructions for these to take to Don Tristan, who as I have said, was at Hearts, for him to proceed to Cibola, and to leave a town established in the valley of Señora, which he did, and in it he left 80 horsemen of the men who had but one horse and the weakest men, and Melchor Diaz with them as captain and leader, because Francisco Vazquez had so arranged for it. He ordered him to go from there with half the force to explore toward the west; and he did so, and traveled 150 leagues, to the river which Hernando de Alarcon entered from the sea, which he called the Buenaguia. The settlements and people that are in this direction are mostly like those at the Hearts, except at the river and around it, where the people have much better figures and have more corn, although the houses iu which they live are hovels, like pig pens, almost under ground, with a covering of straw, and made without any skill whatever. This river is reported to be large. They reached it 30 leagues from the coast, where, and as far again above, Alarcon bad come up with his boats two months before they reached it. This river runs north and south there. Melchor Diaz passed on toward the west five or six days, from which he returned for the reason that he did not find any water or vegetation, but only mauy stretches of sand; and he had some fighting on his return to the river and its vicinity, because they wanted to take advantage of him while crossing the river. While returning Melchor Diaz died from an accident, by which he killed himself, throwing a lance at a dog.
After Don Pedro de Tobar returned and had given an account of those villages, he then dispatched Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, the army-master, by the same road Don Pedro had followed, to go beyond that province of Tuzan to the west, and he allowed him eighty days in which to go and retnrn, for the journey and to make the discoveries. He was conducted beyond Tuzan by native guides, who said there were settlements beyond, although at a distance. Having gone 50 leagues west of Tuzan, and 80 from Cibola, he found the edge of a river down which it was impossible to find a path for a horse in any direction, or even for a man on foot, except in one very difficult place, where there was a descent for almost 2 leagues. The sides were such a steep rocky precipice that it was scarcely possible to see the river, which looks like a brook from above, although it is half as large again as that of Seville, according to what they say, so that although they sought for a passage with great diligence, none was found for a loug distance, during which they were for several days in great need of water, which could not be found, and they could not approach that of the river, although they could see it, and on this account Don Garcia Lopez was forced to return. This river comes from the northeast and turns toward the south-southwest at the place where they found it, so that it is without any doubt the one that Melchor Diaz reached.
Four days after Francisco Vazquez had dispatched Don Garcia Lopez to make this discovery, he dispatched Hernando de Alvarado to explore the route toward the east. He started off, and 30 leagues from Cibola found a rock with a village on top, the strongest position that ever was seen in the world, which was called Acuco[47] in their language, and father Friar Marcos called it the kingdom of Hacus. They came out to meet us peacefully, although it would have been easy to decline to do this and to have stayed on their rock, where we would not have been able to trouble them. They gave us cloaks of cotton, skins of deer and of cows, and turquoises, and fowls and other food which they had, which is the same as in Cibola.
Twenty leagues to the east of this rock we found a river which runs north and south,[48] well settled; there are in all, small and large, 70 villages near it, a few more or less, the same sort as those at Cibola, except that they are almost all of well-made mud walls. The food is neither more nor less. They raise cotton — I mean those who live near the river — the others not. There is much corn here. These people do not have markets. They are settled for 50 leagues along this river, north and south, and some villages are 15 or 20 leagues distant, in one direction and the other. This river rises where these settlements end at the north, on the slope of the mountains there, where there is a larger village different from the others, called Yuraba.[49] It is settled in this fashion: It has 18 divisions; each one has a situation as if for two ground plots;[50] the houses are very close together, and have five or six stories, three of them with mud walls and two or three with thin wooden walls, which become smaller as they go up, and each one has its little balcony outside of the mud walls, one above the other, all around, of wood. In this village, as it is in the mountains, they do not raise cotton nor breed fowls; they wear the skins of deer and cows entirely. It is the most populous village of all that country; we estimated there were 15,000 souls in it. There is one of the other kind of villages larger than all the rest, and very strong, which is called Cicuique.[51] It has four and five stories, has eight large courtyards, each one with its balcony, and there are fine houses in it. They do not raise cotton nor keep fowls, because it is 15 leagues away from the river to the east, toward the plains where the cows are. After Alvarado bad sent an account of this river to Francisco Vazquez, he proceeded forward to these plains, and at the borders of these he found a little river which flows to the southwest, and after four days' march he found the cows, which are the most monstrous thing in the way of animals which has ever been seen or read about. He followed this river for 100 leagues, finding more cows every day. We provided ourselves with some of these, although at first, until we had had experience, at the risk of the horses. There is such a quantity of them that I do not know what to compare them with, except with the fish in the sea, because on this journey, as also on that which the whole army afterward made when it was going to Quivira, there were so many that many times when we started to pass through the midst of them and wanted to go throngh to the other side of them, we were not able to, because the country was covered with them. The flesh of these is as good as that of Castile, and some said it was even better.
The bulls are large and brave, although they do not attack very much; but they have wicked horns, and in a fight use them well, attacking fiercely; they killed several of our horses and wounded many. We found the pike to be the best weapon to use against them, and the musket for use when this misses.
When Hernando de Alvarado returned from these plains to the river which was called Tiguex, he found the army-master Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas getting ready for the whole army, which was coming there. When it arrived, although all these people had met Hernando de Alvarado peacefully, part of them rebelled when all the force came. There were 12 villages near together, and one night they killed 40 of our horses and innles which were loose in the camp. They fortified themselves in their villages, and war was then declared against them. Don Garcia Lopez went to the first and took it and executed justice on many of them. When the rest saw this, they abandoned all except two of the villages, one of these the strongest one of all, around which the army was kept for two months. And although after we invested it, we entered it one day and occupied a part of the flat roof, we were forced to abandon this on account of the many wounds that were received and because it was so dangerous to maintain ourselves there, and althongh we again entered it soon afterward, in the end it was not possible to get it all, and so it was surrounded all this time. We finally captured it because of their thirst, and they held out so long because it snowed twice when they were just about to give themselves up. In the end we captured it, and many of them were killed because they tried to get away at night.
Francisco Vazquez obtained an account from some Indians who were found in this village of Cicuique, which, if it had been trne, was of the richest thing that has been found in the Indies. The Indian who gave the news and the acconnt came from a village called Harale, 300 leagues east of this river. He gave such a clear account of what he told, as if it was true and he had seen it, that it seemed plain afterward that it was the devil who was speaking in him. Francisco Vazquez and all of 
Francisco Vazquez set out across these plains in search of Quivira, more on account of the story which had been told us at the river than from the confidence which was placed in the guide here, and after proceeding many days by the needle (i. e., to the north) it pleased God that after thirty days' march we found the river Quivira, which is 30 leagues below the settlement. While going up the valley, we found people who were going hunting, who were natives of Quivira.
All that there is at Quivira is a very brutish people, without any deeency whatever in their houses nor in anything. These are of straw, like the Tarascan settlements; in some villages there are as many as 200 houses; they have corn and beans and melons; they do not have cotton nor fowls, nor do they make bread which is cooked, except under the ashes. Francisco Vazquez went 25 leagues through these settlements, to where he obtained an account of what was beyond, and they said that the plains come to an end, and that down the river there are people who do not plant, but live wholly by hunting. They also gave an account of two other large villages, one of which was called Tareque[53] and the other Arae, with straw houses at Tareque, and at Arae some of straw and some of skins. Copper was found here, and they said it came from a distance. From what the Indian had said, it is possible that this village of Arae contains more,[54] from the clear description of it which he gave. We did not find any trace or news of it here. Francisco Vazquez returned from here to the river of Tiguex, where he found the army. We went back by a more direct route, because in going by the way we went we traveled 330 leagues, and it is not more than 200 by that by which we returned. Quivira is in the fortieth degree and the river in the thirty-sixth. It was so dangerous to travel or to go away from the camp in these plains, that it is as if one was traveling on the sea, since the only roads are those of the cows, and they are so level and have no mountain or prominent landmark, that if one went out of sight of it, lie was lost, and in this way we lost one man, and others who went hunting wandered around two or three days, lost. Two kinds of people travel around these plains with the cows; one is called Querechos and the others Teyas; they are very well built, and painted, and are enemies of each other. They have no other settlement or location than comes from traveling around with the cows. They kill all of these they wish, and tan the bides, with which they clothe themselves and make their tents, and they eat the flesh, sometimes even raw, and they also even drink the blood when thirsty. The tents they make are like field tents, and they set them up over some poles they have made for this purpose, which come together and are tied at the top, and when they go from one place to another they carry them on some dogs they have, of which they have many, and they load them with the tents and poles and other things, for the country is so level, as I said, that they can make use of these, because they carry the poles dragging along on the ground. The sun is what they worship most. The skin for the tents is cured on both sides, without the hair, and they have the skins of deer and cows left over.[55] They exchange some cloaks with the natives of the river for corn.
After Francisco Vazquez reached the river, where he found the army, Don Pedro de Tobar came with half the people from the Hearts, and Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas started off for Mexico, who, besides the fact that his arm was very bad, had permission from the viceroy on account of the death of his brother. Ten or twelve who were sick went with him, and not a man among them all who could fight. He reached the town of the Spaniards and found it burned and two Spaniards and many Indians and horses dead, and he returned to the river on this account, escaping from them by good fortune and great exertions. The cause of this misfortune was that after Don Pedro started and left 40 men there, half of these raised a mutiny and fled, and the Indians, who remembered the bad treatment they had received, attacked them one night and overpowered them because of their carelessness and weakness, and they fled to Culiacan. Francisco Vazquez fell while running 
TRANSLATION OF A LETTER FROM CORONADO TO THE KING, OCTOBER 20, 1541[56]
Letter from Francisco Vazquez Coronado to His Majesty, in which he gives an account of the discovery of the Province of Tiguex.
Holy Catholic Cæsarian Majesty: On April 20 of this year I wrote to Your Majesty from this province of Tiguex, in reply to a letter from Your Majesty dated in Madrid, June 11 a year ago. I gave a detailed account of this expedition, which the viceroy of New Spain ordered me to undertake in Your Majesty's name to this country which was discovered by Friar Marcos of Nice, the provincial of the order of Holy Saint Francis. I described it all, and the sort of force I have, as Your Majesty had ordered me to relate in my letters; and stated that while I was engaged in the conquest and pacification of the natives of this province, some Indians who were natives of other provinces beyond these had told me that in their country there were much larger villages and better houses than those of the natives of this country, and that they had lords who ruled them, who were served with dishes of gold, and other very magnificent things; and although, as I wrote Your Majesty, I did not believe it before I had set eyes on it, because it was the report of Indians and given for the most part by means of signs, yet as the report appeared to me to be very fine and that it was important that it should be investigated for Your Majesty's service, I determined to go and see it with the men I have here. I started from this province on the 23d of last April, for the place where the Indians wanted to guide me. After nine days' march I reached some plains, so vast that I did not find their limit anywhere that I went, although I traveled over them for more than 300 leagues. And I found such a quantity of cows in these, of the kind that I wrote Your Majesty about, which they have in this country, that it is impossible to number them, for while I was journeying through these plains, until I returned to where I first found them, there was not a day that I lost sight of them. And after seventeen days' march I came to a settlement of Indians who are called Querechos, who travel around with these cows, who do not plant, and who eat the raw flesh and drink the blood of the cows they kill, and they tan the skins of the cows, with which all the people of this country dress themselves here. They have little field tents made of the hides of the cows, tanned and greased, very well made, in which they live while they travel around near the cows, moving with these. They have dogs which they load, which carry their tents and poles and belongings. These people have the best figures of any that I have seen in the Indies. They could not give me any account of the country where the guides were taking me. I traveled five days more as the guides wished to lead me, until I reached some plains, with no more landmarks than as if we had been swallowed up in the sea, where they strayed about, because there was not a stone, nor a bit of rising ground, nor a tree, nor a shrub, nor anything to go by. There is much very fine pasture land, with good grass. And while we were lost in these plains, some horsemen who went off to hunt cows fell in with some Indians who also were out hunting, who are enemies of those that I had seen in the last settlement, and of another sort of people who are called Teyas; they have their bodies and faces all painted, are a large people like the others, of a very good build; they eat the raw flesh just like the Querechos, and live and travel round with the cows in the same way as these. I obtained from these an account of the country where the guides were taking me, which was not like what they had told me, because these made out that the houses there were not built of stones, with stories, as my guides had described it, but of straw and skins, and a small supply of corn there. This news troubled me greatly, to find myself on these limitless plains, where I was in great need of water, and often had to drink 'it so poor that it was more mud than water. Here the guides confessed to me that they had not told the truth in regard to the size of the houses, because these were of straw, but that they had done so regarding the large number of inhabitants and the other things about their habits. The Teyas disagreed with this, and on account of this division between some of the Indians and the others, and also because many of the men I had with me had not eaten anything except meat for some day's, because we had reached the end of the corn which we carried from this province, and because they made it out more than forty days' journey from where I fell in with the Teyas to the country where the guides were taking me, although I appreciated the trouble and danger there would be in the journey owing to the lack of water and corn, it seemed to me best, in order to see if there was anything there of service to Your Majesty, to go forward with only 30 horsemen until I should be able to see the country, so as to give Your Majesty a true account of what was to be found in it. I sent all the rest of the force I had with me to this province, with Don Tristan de Arellano in command, because it would have been impossible to prevent the loss of many men, if all had gone on, owing to the lack of water and because they also had to kill bulls and cows on which to sustain themselves. And with only the 30 horsemen whom I took for my escort, I traveled forty-two days after I left the force, living all this while solely on the flesh of the bulls and cows which we killed, at the cost of several of our horses which they killed, because, as I wrote Your Majesty, they are very brave and fierce animals; and going many days without water, and cooking the food with cow dung, because there is not any kind of wood in all these plains, away from the gullies and rivers, which are very few.
It was the Lord's pleasure that, after having journeyed across these deserts seventy-seven days, I arrived at the province they call Quivira, to which the guides were conducting me, and where they had described to me houses of stone, with many stories; and not only are they not of stone, but of straw, but the people in them are as barbarous as all those whom I have seen and passed before this; they do not have cloaks, nor cotton of which to make these, but use the skins of the cattle they kill, which they tan, because they are settled among these on a very large river. They eat the raw flesh like the Querechos and Teyas; they are enemies of one another, but are all of the same sort of people, and these at Quivira have the advantage in the houses they build and in planting corn. In this province of which the guides who brought me are natives, they received me peaceably, and although they told me when I set out for it that I could not succeed in seeing it all in two months, there are not more than 25 villages of straw houses there and in all the rest of the country that I saw and learned about, which gave their obedience to Your Majesty and placed themselves under your royal overlordship. The people here are large. I had several Indians measured, and found that they were 10 palms in height; the women are well proportioned and their features are more like Moorish women than Indians. The natives here gave me a piece of copper which a chief Indian wore hung around his neck; I sent it to the viceroy of New Spain, because I have not seen any other metal in these parts except this and some little copper bells which I sent him, and a bit of metal which looks like gold. I do not know where this came from, although I believe that the Indians who gave it to me obtained it from those whom I brought here in my service, because I can not find any other origin for it nor where it came from. The diversity of languages which exists in this country and my not having anyone who understood them, because they speak their own language in each village, has hindered me, because I have been forced to send captains and men in many directions to find out whether there was any. thing in this country which could be of service to Your Majesty. And although I have searched with all diligence I have not found or heard of anything, unless it be these provinces, which are a very small affair. The province of Quivira is 930 leagues from Mexico. Where I reached it, it is in the fortieth degree. The country itself is the best I have ever seen for producing all the products of Spain, for besides the land itself being very fat and black and being very well watered by the rivulets and springs and rivers, I found prunes like those of Spain [or I found everything they have in Spain] and nuts and very good sweet grapes and mulberries. I have treated the natives of this province, and all the others whom I found wherever I went, as well as was possible, 
Francisoo Vazquez Coronado.
TRANSLATION OF THE NARRATIVE OF JARAMILLO
Account given by Captain Juan Jaramillo of the Journey which he made to the New country, on which Francisco Vazquez Coronado was the General.[58]
We started from Mexico, going directly to Compostela, the whole way populated and at peace, the direction being west, and the distance 112 leagues. From there we went to Culiacan, perhaps about 80 leagues; the road is well known and much used, because there is a town inhabited by Spaniards in the said valley of Culiacan, under the government of Compostela. The 70 horsemen who went with the general went in a northwesterly direction from this town. He left his army here, because information had been obtained that the way was uninhabited and almost the whole of it without food. He went with the said horsemen to explore the route and prepare the way for those who were to follow. He pursued this direction, though with some twisting, until we crossed a mountain chain, where they knew about New Spain, more than 300 leagues distant. To this pass we gave the name of Chichilte Calli, because we learned that this was what it was called, from some Indians whom we left behind.
Leaving the said valley of Culiacan, he crossed a river called Pateatlan (or Peteatlan), which was about four days distant. We found these Indians peaceful, and they gave us some few things to eat. From here we went to another river called Cinaloa, which was about three days from the other. From here the general ordered ten of us horsemen to make double marches, lightly equipped, until we reached the stream of the Cedars (arroyo de los Cedros), and from there we were to enter a break in the mountains on the right of the road and see what there was in and about this. If more time should be needed for this than we gained on him, he would wait for us at the said Cedros stream. This was done, and all that we saw there was a few poor Indians in some settled valleys like farms or estates, with sterile soil. It was about five more days from the river to this stream. From there we went to the river called Yaquemi, which took about three days. We proceeded along a dry stream, and after three days more of marching, although the dry stream lasted only for a league, we reached another stream where there were some settled Indians, who had straw huts and storehouses of corn and beans and melons. Leaving here, we went to 
All the waterways we found as far as this one at Cibola — and I do not know but what for a day or two beyond the rivers and streams run into the South sea, and those from here on into the North sea.
From this first village of Cibola, as I have said, we went to another in the same province, which was about a short day's journey off, on the way to Tihuex. It is nine days, of such marches as we made, from this settlement of Cibola to the river of Tihuex. Halfway between, I do not know but it may be a day more or less, there is a village of earth and dressed stone, in a very strong position, which is called Tutahaco.[63] All these Indians, except the first in the first village of Cibola, received us well. At the river of Tihuex there are 15 villages within a distance of about 20 leagues, all with fiat-roof houses of earth, instead of stone, after the fashion of mud walls. There are other villages besides these on other streams which flow into this, and three of these are, for Indians, well worth seeing, especially one that is called Chia,[64] and another Uraba,[65] and another Cicuique.[66] Uraba and Cicuique have many houses two stories high. All the rest, and these also, have corn and beans and melons, skins, and some long robes of feathers which they braid, joining the feathers with a sort of thread; and they also make them of a sort of plain weaving with which they make the cloaks with which they protect themselves. They all have hot rooms underground, which, although not very clean, are very warm.[67] They raise and have a very little cotton, of which they make the cloaks which I have spoken of above. This river comes from the north west and flows about southeast, which shows that it certainly flows into the North seal. Leaving this settlement[68] and the said river, we passed two other villages whose names I do not know,[69] and in four days came to Cicuique, which I have already mentioned. The direction of this is toward the northeast. From there we cane to another river, which the Spaniards named after Cicuique, in three days; if I remember rightly, it seems to me that we went rather toward the northeast to reach this river where we crossed it, and after crossing this, we turned more to the left hand, which would be more to the northeast, and began to enter the plains where the cows are, although we did not find them for some four or five days, after which we began to come across bulls, of which there are great numbers, and after going on in the same direction and meeting the bulls for two or three days, we began to find ourselves in the midst of very great numbers of cows, yearlings and bulls all in together. We found Indians among these first cows, who were, on this account, called Querechos by those in the flat roof houses. They do not live in houses, but have some sots of poles which they carry with them to make some huts at the places where they stop, which serve them for houses. They tie these poles together at the top and stick the bottoms into the ground, covering them with some cowskins which they carry around, and which, as I have said, serve them for houses. From what was learned of these Indians, all their human needs are supplied by these cows, for they are fed and clothed and shod from these. They are a people who wander around here and there, wherever seems to them best. We went on for eight or ten days in the same direction, along those streams which are among the cows. The Indian who guided us from here was the one that had given us the news about Quevira and Arache (or Arahei) and about its being a very rich country with much gold and other things, and he and the other one were from that country I mentioned, to which we were going, and we found these two Indians in the flat-roof villages. It seems that, as the said Indian wanted to go to his own country, le proceeded to tell us what we found was not true, and I do not know whether it was on this account or because he was counseled to take us into other regions by confusing us on the road, although there are none in all this region except those of the cows. We understood, however, that he was leading us away from the route we ought to follow and that he wanted to lead us on to those plains where he had led us, so that we would eat up the food, and both ourselves and our horses would become weak from the lack of this, because if we should go either backward or forward in this condition we could not make any resistance to whatever they might wish to do to us. From the time when, as I said, we entered the plains and from this settlement of Querechos, he led us off more to the east, until we came to be in extreme need from the lack of food, and as the other Indian, who was his companion and also from his country, saw that he was not taking us where we ought to go, since we had always followed the guidance of the Turk, for so he was called, instead of his, he threw himself down in the way, making a sign that although we cut off his head he ought not to go that way, nor was that our direction. I believe we had been traveling twenty days or more in this direction, at the end of which we found another settlement of Indians of the same sort and way of living as those behind, among whom there was an old blind man with a beard, who gave us to understand, by signs which he made, 
TRANSLATION OF THE REPORT OF HERNANDO DE ALVARADO
Account of what Hernando de Alvarado and Friar Juan de Padilla Discovered going in Search of the South Sea.[74]
We set out from Granada on Sunday, the day of the beheading of Saint John the Baptist, the 29th of August, in the year 1540, on the way to Coco.[75] After ^ye had gone 2 leagues, we came to an ancient building like a fortress, and a league beyond this we found another, and yet another a little farther on, and beyond these we found an ancient city, very large, entirely destroyed, although a large part of the wall was standing, which was six times as tall as a man, the wall well made of good worked stone, with gates and gutters like a city in Castile. Half a league or more beyond this, we found another ruined city, the walls of which must have been very fine, built of very large granite blocks, as high as a man and from there up of very good quarried stone. Here two roads separate, one to Chia and the other to Coco; we took this latter, and reached that place, which is one of the strongest places that we have seen, because the city is on a very high rock, with such a rough ascent that we repented having gone up to the place. The houses have three or four stories; the people are the same sort as those of the province of Cibola; they have plenty of food, of corn and beans and fowls like those of New Spain. From here we went to a very good lake or marsh, where there are trees like those of Castile, and from there we went to a river, which we named Our Lady (Nuestra Señora), because we reached it the evening before her day in the month of September.[76] We sent the cross by a guide to the villages in advance, and the next day people came from twelve villages, the chief men and the people in order, those of one village behind those of another, and they approached the tent to the sound of a pipe, and with an old man for spokesman. In this fashion they came into the tent and gave me the food and clothes and skins they had brought, and I gave them some trinkets, and with this they went off.
This river of Our Lady flows through a very wide open plain sowed with corn plants; there are several groves, and there are twelve villages. The houses are of earth, two stories high; the people have a good appearance, more like laborers than a warlike race; they have a large food supply of corn, beans, melons, and fowl in great plenty; they clothe themselves with cotton and the skins of cows and dresses of the feathers of the fowls; they wear their hair short. Those who have the most authority among them are the old men; we regarded them as witches, because they say that they go up into the sky and other things of the same sort. In this province there are seven other villages, depopulated and destroyed by those Indians who paint their eyes, of whom the guides will tell Your Grace; they say that these live in the same region as the cows, and that they have corn and houses of straw.
Here the people from the outlying provinces came to make peace with me, and as Your Grace may see in this memorandum, there are 80 villages there of the same sort as I have described, and among them one which is located on some streams; it is divided into twenty divisions, which is something remarkable; the houses have three stories of mud walls and three others made of small wooden boards, and on the outside of the three stories with the mud wall they have three balconies; it seemed to us that there were nearly 15,000 persons in this village. The country is very cold; they do not raise fowls nor cotton; they worship the sun.and water. We found mounds of dirt outside of the place, where they are buried.
In the places where crosses were raised, we saw them worship these. They made offerings to these of their powder and feathers, and some left the blankets they had on. They showed so much zeal that some climbed up on the others to grasp the arms of the cross, to place feathers and flowers there; and others bringing ladders, while some held them, went up to tie strings, so as to fasten the flowers and the feathers.
TESTIMONY CONCERNING THOSE WHO WENT ON THE EXPEDITION WITH FRANCISCO VAZQUEZ CORONADO[77]
At Compostela, on February 21, 1540, Coronado presented a petition to the viceroy Mendoza, declaring that he had observed that certain persons who were not well disposed toward the expedition which was about to start for the newly discovered country had said that many of the inhabitants of the City of Mexico and of the other cities and towns of New Spain, and also of Compostela and other places in this province of New Galicia were going on the expedition at his request or because of inducements offered by him, as a result of which the City of Mexico and New Spain were left deserted, or almost so. Therefore, be asked the viceroy to order that information be obtained, in order that the truth might be known about the citizens of New Spain and of this province who were going to accompany him. He declared that there were very few of these, and that they were not going on account of any attraction or inducement offered by him, but of their own free will, and as there were few of them, there would not be any lack of people in New Spain. And as Gonzalo de Salazar, the factor or royal agent, and Pero Almidez Cherino, the veedor or royal inspector of His Majesty for New Spain, and other citizens of Mexico who knew all the facts and had the necessary information, were present there, Coronado asked His Grace to provide and order that which would best serve His Majesty's interests and the welfare and security of New Spain.
The viceroy instructed the licenciate Maldonado, oidor of the royal audiencia,[78] to procure this information. To facilitate the hearing he provided that the said factor and veedor and the regidores, and others who were there, should attend the review of the army, which was to be held on the following day. Nine of the desired witnesses were also commanded by Maldonado to attend the review and observe those whom they knew in the army.
On February 26[79] the licentiate Maldonado took the oaths of the witnesses in proper form, and they testified to the following effect: Hernand Perez de Bocanegra, a citizen of Mexico, stated that he had been present on the preceding Sunday, at the review of the force which the viceroy was sending for the pacification of the country recently discovered by the father provincial, Fray Marcos de Niza, and that he 
Antonio Serrano de Cardona, one of the magistrates of Mexico, who was present from beginning to end of the review of the preceding Sunday, testified in similar form. He said that Alonso Sanchez had formerly been a citizen of Mexico, but that for a long time bis house had been empty and he had traveled as a trader, and that he was going in search of something to live on; and one Domingo Martin was also going, who formerly lived in Mexico, and whose residence he had not known likewise for a long time, nor did he think that he had one, because he had not seen him living in Mexico. He did not think it would have been possible for any citizens of Mexico to have been there whom he did not know, because he had lived in Mexico during the twenty years since he came to Mexico, and ever since the city was established by Christians, and besides, he had been a magistrate for fifteen years. And besides, all those whom he did see who were going, were the most contented of any men he had ever seen in this country starting off for conquests. After the force left the City of Mexico, he had been there, and had noticed that it was full of people and that there did not seem to be any scarcity on account of those who had started ou this expedition.
Gonzalo de Salazar, His Majesty's factor for New Spain, and also a magistrate of the City of Mexico, declared that the only person on the expedition who possessed a repartimiento or estate in New Spain was the captain-general, Vazquez de Coronado, and that he had noticed one other citizen who did not have a repartimiento. He had not seen any other citizen of Mexico, nor of New Spain, although one of the greatest benefits that could have been done New Spain would have been to draw off the young and vicious people who were in that city and all over New Spain. Pedro Almidez Cherino, His Majesty's veedor in New Spain, had, among other things, noted the horses and arms of those who were going, during the review. He bad noticed Coronado and Samaniego, and Alonso Sanchez and his wife, whom he did not know to be a citizen, and Domingo Martin, who was away from Mexico during most of the year. All the rest of the force were people without settled residences, who had recently come to the country in search of a living. It seemed to him that it was a very fortunate thing for Mexico that the people who were going were about to do so because they had been injuring the citizens there. They had been for the most part vicious young gentlemen, who did not have anything to do in the city nor in the country. They were all going of their own free will, and were very ready to help pacify the new country, and it seemed to him that if the said country had not been discovered, almost all of these people would have gone back to Castile, or would have gone to Peru or other places in search of a living.
Servan Bejarano, who had been in business among the inhabitants of Mexico ever since he came to that city, added the information that be knew Alonso Sanchez to be a provision dealer, buying at wholesale and selling at retail, and that he was in very great need, having nothing on which to live, and that he was going to that country in search of a living. He was also very sure that it was a great advantage to Mexico and to its citizens to have many of the unmarried men go away, because they had no occupation there and were bad characters, and were for the most part gentlemen and persons who did not hold any property, nor any repartimientos of Indians, without any income, and lazy, and who would have been obliged to go to Peru or some other region.
Cristobal de Oñate had been in the country about sixteen years, a trifle more or less, and was now His Majesty's veedor for New Galicia. He knew the citizens of Mexico, and also declared that not a citizen of Compostela was going on the expedition. Two citizens of Guadalajara were going, one of whom was married to an Indian, and the other was single. As for the many young gentlemen and the others who were going, who lived in Mexico and in other parts of New Spain, it seemed to him that their departure was a benefit rather than a disadvantage, because they were leading vicious lives and had nothing with which to support themselves.
When these statements and depositions had all been duly received, signed, and attested, and had been shown to his most illustrious lordship, the viceroy, he ordered an authorized copy to be taken, which was made by Joan de Leon, clerk of Their Majesties' court and of the royal audiencia of New Spain, the 27th of February, 1540, witnessed by the secretary, Antonio de Almaguer, and sent to His Majesty, to be laid before the lords of the council, that they might provide and order that which should be most serviceable to their interests.
- ↑ From the Spanish text in Pacheco y Cardenas, Documentos de Indlas. vol. ii, p. 356. The letter mentioned in the opening sentence in nut known to exist.
- ↑ Presumably the fortress of which Samaniego was warden.
- ↑ Buckingham Smith s Florida gives many documents relating to the damage done by French brigantines to the Spanish West Indies during 1540-41.
- ↑ In his paper on the Human Bones of the Hemenway Collection (Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, VI, p. 158 et seq.), Dr Washington Matthews discusses the possible former existence of a variety of the llama in certain parts of the southwest.
- ↑ The headbands are doubtless here referred to.
- ↑ The Spanish text for the foregoing paragraph is as follows: "Salidos deste despoblado grande, están siete lugares y habrá una jornada pequeña del uno al otro, á los quales todos jnntos llaman Civola; tienen las casas de piedra y harro, toscamente labradas, son desta manera hechas: una pared larga y desta pared á nn cabo y á otro salen unas cámaras atajadas de veinte piés en cuadra, segund señalan, las cuales están maderadas de vigas por labrar; las más casas be mandan por las azoteas con sus escaleras á las calles; son las casas de tres y de cuatro altos; afirman haber pocas de dos altos, los altos son demás de estado y medio en alto, ecehto el primero ques bajo, que no terná sino algo más que un estado; mandánse diez ó doce casas juntas por una escalera, de los bajos se sirven y en los más altos habitan; en el más bajo de todos tienen unas saeteras hechas al soslayo como en fortalezas en España. Dicen los indios que coando los vienen á dar guerra, que se meten en sus casas todos y de alli pelean, y que cuando ellos. van á hacer guerra, que llevan rodelas y nnas cueras vestidas que son de vacas de colores, y que pelean con flechas y con unas macetas de piedra y con otras armas de palo qne no he podido entender. Comen carne humana y los que prenden en la guerra tiénenlos por esclavos. Hay muchas gallinas en la tierra, mansas, tienen mucho maiz y frisoles y melones, tienen en sus casas nnos animales bedijudos como grandes podencos de Castilla, los quales tresquilan, y del pelo hacen cabelleraa de colores que se ponen, como esa que envio á V.S., y tambien en la ropa que hacen echan de lo mismo. Los hombres son de pequena estatura; las mujeres son blancas y de huenos gestos, andan vestidas con nnas camisas que les llegan hasta los piés, y los cabellos parténelos á manera de lndos con ciertas vueltas, que les quedan las orejas do fuera, en las cuales se cuelgan muchas turquesas y al cuello y en las muñecas de los brazos. El vestido de los hombres son mantan y encima cneros de vaca, como el qne V. S. veria que llevó Cabeza de Vaca y Dorantes; en las cabezas se ponen unas tocas; traen en verano zapatos de cuero pintados ó de color, y en el invierno borceguíes altos.
"De la misma manera, no me saben dar razon de metal ninguno, ni dicen qne lo tengan; turqnesas tienon en cantidad, aunque no tantas como el padre provincial dice; tienen unas pedrezuelas de christal como esa que euvio á V.8., de las cnales V.S. habia visto hartas en esa Nueva España; labran las tierras á uso de la Nueva España; cárganse en la cabeza como en México: los liorubres tejen la ropa ó hilan el algodon; comen sal de una laguna questá a dos jornadas de la provincia de Civola. Los indios hacen sus bailes y cantos con nnas flantas que tienen sus puntos do ponen los dedos, hacen muchos sones, cantan juntamente con los que tañen, y los que cantan dan palmas á nuestro modo. Aún indio de los que llevó Estéban el Negro, questuvo allá cantivo, le vi tañer, que selo mostraron allá. y otros cantaban como digo, aunqne no muy desenvueltos; dicen que se juntan cinco ó seis á tañer, y que son las fiautas unas mayores que otras."
- ↑ The same salt lake from which the Zuñis obtain their salt supply today.
- ↑ Compare with this hearsay description of something almost unknown to the Spaniards, the thoroughly scientific descriptions of the Hopi dances and ceremonials recorded by Dr J. Walter Fewkes.
- ↑ The peaches, watermelons, cantaloupes, and grapes, now 80 extensively cultivated by the Pueblos, were introduced early in the seventeenth century by the Spanish missionaries.
- ↑ At first glance it seems somewhat strange that although Zuñi is considerably more than 100 miles south of Totonteac, or Tusayan, the people of the former villages did not cultivate cotton, but in this I am reminded by Mr Hodge that part of the Tnsayan people are undoubtedly of southern origin and that in all probability they introduced cotton into that group of villages. The Pimas raised cotton as late as 1850. None of the Pueblos now cultivate the plant, the introduction of cheap fabrics by traders having doubtless brought the industry to an end. See page 574.
- ↑ "Y otras simillas como chia" is the Spanish text.
- ↑ Doubtless the pueblo of Marata (Makyata) mentioned by Marcos de Niza. This village was situated near the salt lake and had been destroyed by the Zuñis some years before Niza visited New Mexico.
- ↑ Translated from the Italian version, in Ramusio's Viaggi,vol.iii, fol. 359 (ed. 1556). There is another English translation in Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. iii, p. 373 (ed. 1600). Hakluyt's translation is reprinted in Old South Leaflet, general series, No. 20. Mr Irving Babbitt, of the French department in Harvard University, has assisted in correcting some of the errors and omissions in Hakluyt's version. The proper names, excepting such as are properly translated, are spelled as in the Italian text.
- ↑ This statement is probably not correct. It may be due to a blunder hy Ramusio in translating from the original text. See note on page 382. Eighty days (see pp. 584, 572) would be nearly the time which Coronado probably spent on the journey from Culiacan to Cibola, and this interpretation would render the rest of the sentence muoh more intelligible.
- ↑ The valley into which Friar Marcos did not dare to enter. See the Historical Introduction, p. 362.
- ↑ Doubtless the Yaquim or Yaqui river.
- ↑ These were doubtless the Seri, of Yuman stock, who occupied a strip of the Gulf coast between latitude 280 and 29° and the islands Angel de la Guardia and Tiburon. The latter island, as well as the coast of the adjacent mainland, is still inhabited by this tribe.
- ↑ As Indian news goes, there is no reason why this may not have been one of Ulloa's ships, which Bailed along this coast during the previous summer. It can hardly have been a ship of Alarcon's fleet.
- ↑ Ramusio: "mi ritrouano lunge dal mare quindici giornate." Hakluyt (ed. 1600): "I found my selfe tenne dayes journey from the Sea."
- ↑ "It is possible that this is a blunder, in Ramusio's text, for "His Majesty." The Marquis, in New Spain, is always Cortes, for whom neither Mendoza nor Coronado bad any especial regard.
- ↑ Hakluyt: . . . "very excellent good houses of three or foure or fiue lofts high, wherein are good lodgings and faire chambers with lathers in stead of staires."
- ↑ The kivas or ceremonial chambers.
- ↑ See the footnote on page 564 in regard to the similarity of names. The note was written without reference to the above passage.
- ↑ Many garnets are found on the ant-hills throughout the region, especially in the Navajo country.
- ↑ The natives doubtless told the truth. Eagle and turkey feathers are still highly prized by them for use in their ceremonies.
- ↑ It should be noted that Coronado clearly distinguishes between hills or mesas and mountains. Zuñi valley is hemmed in by heights varying from 500 to 1,000 feet.
- ↑ This accords perfectly with the conditiou of the vegetation in Zuñi valley at the present time.
- ↑ See the translation of Castañeda's narrative, p. 487.
- ↑ Doubtless a slip of Ramusio's pen for cows, i.e., buffalos.
- ↑ Coronado doubtless misinterpreted what the natives intended to communicate. The "hot lake" was in all probability the salt lake alluded to on page 550, near which Marata was situated. Totonteac was of course Tusayan, or "Tucano."
- ↑ This is a form of the Zuñi name for Acoma-Hakukia.
- ↑ As clear a description of the form of tribal government among the Pueblo Indians as is anywhere to be found is in Bandelier's story, The Delight Makers. Mr Bandelier has been most successful in his effort to picture the actions and spirit of Indian life.
- ↑ Dr J. Walter Fewkes has conclusively shown that the snake dance, probably the most dramatic of Indian ceremonials, is essentially a prayer for rain. Coming as it does just as the natural rainy season approaches, the prayer is almost invariably answered.
- ↑ Possibly those used in weaving.
- ↑ This whole sentence is omitted hy Hakluyt. The conquerors, in the literature of New Spain, are almost always those who shared with Cortes in the labors and the glory of the Spanish conquest of Mexico.
- ↑ Translated from Pacheco y Cardenas, Documentos de Indias, vol. xix, p. 529. This document is anonymous, but it is evidently a copy of a letter from some trusted companion, written from Granada-Hawikuh, about the time of Coronado's letter of August 3, 1540. In the title to the document as printed, the date is given as 1531, but there can be no doubt that it is an account of Coronado's journey.
- ↑ The printed Spanish text reads; "que como venian abriendo y descobriendo, cada dia, camino, los arcabucos y rios, y malos pasos, se llevaban en parte.". . .
- ↑ A part of Granada, near the Alhambra. There is a curious similarity in the names Albaicin and Hawikuh, the latter being the native name of Coronado's Granada.
- ↑ Uttering the war cry of Santiago.
- ↑ The printed manuscript is V. M., which signifies Your Majesty.
- ↑ Doubtless Thunder mountain.
- ↑ The source of this document is stated in the bibliographic note, p. 413. This appears to be a transcript from letters written, probably at Tiguex on the Rio Grande, during the late summer or early fall of 1541.
- ↑ The Spanish text of this document is printed in Buckingham Smith's Florida, p. 147, from a copy made by Muñoz, and also in Pacheco y Cardenas. Documentos do Indias, vol. xiv, p. 318, from a copy found in the Archives of the Indies at Seville. The important variations in the texts are noted in the footnotes. See page 398 iu regard to the value of this anonymous document. No date is given in the document, but there can be no doubt that it refers to Coronado's expedition. In the heading to the document in the Pacheco y Cardenas Coleccion, the date is given as 1531, and it is placed under that year in the chronologic index of the Coleccion. This translation. as well as that of the letter to Charles V, which follows, has already been printed in American History Leaflet, No. 13.
- ↑ The spelling of Cibola and Culiacan is that of the Pacheco y Cardenas copy. Buckingham Smith prints Civola and Cnluacan.
- ↑ Buckingham Smith prints Tovar and Tuçan.
- ↑ See the letter of August 3, 1540, p. 562.
- ↑ The Acoma people call their pueblo Áko, while the name for themselves is Akómë, signifying "people of the white rock." The Zuñi name of Acoms, as previously stated, ia Hákukia; of the Acoma people, Háku-kwe. Hacus was applied by Niza to Hawikuh, not to Acoma — Hodge.
- ↑ The Rio Grande.
- ↑ Evidently Taos, the native name of which is Tữatá, the Picuris name being Tuopá, according to Hodge.
- ↑ "The Spanish text (p. 323) is: "Tiene diez é ocho barrios; cada uno tiene tanto sitio como des solares, las casas muy juntas."
- ↑ Identical with Castañeda's Cicuyc or Cicuye — the pueblo of Pecos.
- ↑ Southeast, in Buckingham Smith's Muñoz copy.
- ↑ Tuxeque, in the Muñoz copy.
- ↑ Or mines, As Muñoz guesses.
- ↑ And jerked beef dried in the sun, in the Muñoz copy only.
- ↑ The text of this letter is printed in Pacheco y Cardenas, Documentos de Indias, vol. iii, p. 363, from a copy made by Muñoz, and also in the same collection, vol. xiii, p. 261, from a copy in the Archives of the Indies at Seville. There is a French translation in Ternaux, Cibola volume, p. 355. See the footnote to the preceding document.
- ↑ Coronado had apparently forgotten the atrocities committed by the Spaniards at Tiguex.
- ↑ The text of this narrative is found in Buckingham Smith's Florida, p. 154, from a copy made hy Muñoz, and in Pacheco y Cardenas, Documentos do Indias, vol. xiv, p. 304, from the copy in the Archives of the Indies. A French translation is given in Ternaux-Compans' Cibola volume, p. 364.
- ↑ The Spanish text reads: "Habrá como dos jornades (:) en este pueblo de los Corazones. (es) Es un arroyo de riego y de tierra caliente, y tienen sus viviendas de unos ranchos que despues de armados los pelos, casi á manera de hornos, aunque muy mayores, los cubren con unos petates. Tienen maiz y frisoles y calabazas para su comer, que creo que no lo falta. Vistense de cueros de venados, y aqui por ser este pnesto al parecer cosa decente, se mandó pohlar aquí una villa de los españoles que iban traseros donde vivieron hasta casi que la jornada peresció. Aquí hay yerba y seguro (segund) In que della se vió, y la operacion que hace es la más mala que se puede hallar, y de lo que tuvimos entendido ser, era de la leche de un árbol pequeño, á manera de lantisco en cuasci, (, E Nsace) ou pizarrillas y tierra estéril." This quotation follows the Pacheco y Cardenas text. The important variations of Buckingham Smith's copy are inclosed within parentheses. The spelling of the two, in such matters as the use of b and v, x and j, and the punctuation, differ greatly.
- ↑ See Bandelier's Gilded Man, p. 175. This is Castañeda's "Gungarispa" as mistakenly interpreted by Ternaux-Compans, the present Arispe, or, in the Indian dialect, Huc-aritz-pa. The words "Ispa, que" are not in the Pacheco y Cardenas copy.
- ↑ The Spanish text is either "ino mui salada de yerva" (B. Smith), or "y no muy solada de yerva" (Pacheco y Cardenas). Doubtless the reference is to the alkali soil and vegetation.
- ↑ The Spanish text (p. 308) is: "el vestido de los indios es de cueros de venados, estrenadísimo el edobo, alcanzan ya algunos cueros de vacas adobado con que se cobijan, que son á manera de bernias y de mucho abrigo; tienen mautas de algodon cuadradas; unas mayores que otras, como de vara y media en largo; las indias las traen puestus por el hombro á manera de gitanas y ceñidas una vuelta sobre otra por su cintura con una cinta del mismo algodon: estando en este pueblo primero de Cibola, el rostro el Nordeste; un poquito ménos está á la mano izquierda de él, cinco jornadas, una provincia que se dice Tucayan."
- ↑ Acoma. See note on page 492.
- ↑ Sia.
- ↑ Identical with Taos — the Braba of Castañeda and the Yuraba of the Relacion del Suceso.
- ↑ Pecos. In Pacheco y Cardenas this is spelled Tienique.
- ↑ All references to hot rooms or estufas are of course to be construed to mean the kivas or ceremonial chambers.
- ↑ Tiguex is here doubtless referred to.
- ↑ One of the villages whose names Jaramillo did not know was probably the Ximena (Galisteo) of Castañeda.
- ↑ In Buckingham Smith's copy occurs the phrase, "que decian ellos para significarnoslo Teucarea." This is not in Pacheco y Cardenas.
- ↑ The pueblos of the Rio Grande.
- ↑ The Spanish text (p.315) of this description of the Kansas-Nebraska plains is: "Esta tierra tiene muy linda la apariencia, tal que no la he visto yo mejor. . . porque no es tierra muy doblada sino de lo más (de lomas) y llanos, y rios de nay linda apariencia y aguas, que cierto nie contento y tengo presuncion que será nay fructifera y de todos frutos. En los ganados ya está la esperencia (inspiriencia) en la mano por la muchedumbreque hay, que es tauta cuanto quieren pensar: jallanos cirguclas de Castilla, mu género dellas que ni son del todo coloradas, sino entre coloradas y algo negras y verdes. (,) El árbol y el fruto es cierto de Castilla, de gentil sabor: jallamos entre las vacas. lino, que produce la tierra, é brecitas (hebrecitas) arredradas unas de otras, que como el ganado no las come se quedan por allí con sus cabeznelas y flor azul, y aunque pequeño muy perfecto, natural del de nuestra España (perfecto; zumaque natural. . .). En algunos arroyos. uvas de razonablo yahor para no beneficiadas: las casas que estos indios tenian, eran de paxa y muchas dellas redondas, y la paxa llegaba hasta el suelo como pared que no tenia la proporcion y manera de las de acá: por do fuera y encima desto, tenian una manera como capilla ó garita, con una entrada donde se pronaban los indios Bentados ó echados."
- ↑ This is the spelling of Panuco in both texts.
- ↑ The text of this report is printed in Buckingham Smith's Florida, p. 65, from the Muñoz copy, and in Pacheco y Cardenas, Documentos de Indias, vol. iii. p. 511, See note on page 391. A translation of this document was printed in the Boston Transcript for October 14, 1893.
- ↑ Acuco or Acoma. The route taken by Alvarado was not the same as that followed by Coronado, who went by way of Matsaki. Alvarado's course was the old Acoma trail which led directly eastward from Hawikuh or Ojo Caliente.
- ↑ Day of the nativity of the Blessed Virgin, September 8. This was the Tiguex or present Rio Grande.
- ↑ Translated freely and abridged from the depositions as printed in Pacheco y Cardenas, Documentos de Indias, vol. xiv, p. 373. See note on page 377. The statements of the preceding witnesses are usually repeated, in effect, in the testimony of those who follow.
- ↑ Judge of the highest court of the province.
- ↑ Thursday.