The discovery of New Mexico dates from the 7th to the 10th of July, 1540, when General Francisco Vasquez de Coronado arrived from the south-west at the province of Cíbola, or the Zuñi towns, as related in the last chapter. On the 14th the general visited a peñol four leagues distant, where the natives were said to be fortifying their position, and returned the same day. During the absence of Cárdenas on his trip to the Moqui towns and Rio Colorado, there came to Cíbola a party of natives from the eastern province of Cicuye, with gifts of various leathern articles and offers of tribal friendship and alliance. Their chief and spokesman was Bigotes, so named by the Spaniards for his long mustaches, and he had much to say of the ‘cows’, that is, the buffaloes, of his country. Accordingly, Captain Alvarado was ordered with twenty men to accompany the natives on their return, and to report within eighty days respecting their country and its wonderful animals.

In a journey of five days Alvarado came to a town named Acuco, supposed to be Niza’s Acus, built like Granada of Cíbola on a rock, and accessible only by a narrow stairway, terminating in mere holes for the hands and feet. The inhabitants were hostile at first, but on threats of battle made peace and furnished food. Three days more brought the party, in a distance of twenty leagues toward the east, according to one of the narratives, to the province of Tiguex, with its twelve towns in a broad valley, on a large river flowing from north to south, said to be well settled for fifty leagues or more, and to have villages for fifteen or twenty leagues from the river on either side. This province became the centre of subsequent operations; and indeed, Alvarado at this time recognized its advantages, sending back a recommendation to the general to come on and establish here his winter quarters. Then he went on with Bigotes for five days to Cicuye, on the bonier of the plains. The natives in respect of friendliness fulfilled the promises that had been made by their ambassadors, and, besides their specialty of hides, their gifts included some cloth and even turquoises. But what particularly attracted the captain’s attention here was the statements of an Indian, who claimed to be a native of Hurall, or Harale, some 300 leagues farther east toward Florida. From something in his appearance this man was named by the Spaniards El Turco, or the Turk. He spoke, ‘tout autrement qu’il n’aurait dû le faire’, of great cities in his country, and of what was yet more enticing, gold and silver in large quantities; and his tales were sent back by special messengers to the general. After such news, buffaloes seemed of slight importance; yet Alvarado, in compliance with his instructions, made a trip out into the plains in search of them, with the Turk as a guide, and he found the animals in great numbers.

In this tour he followed a river for some 100 leagues south-eastward. Then he returned to Tiguex, where he found that Cárdenas had arrived from Cíbola to prepare winter quarters for the army, and where Alvarado now remained to await the general.

From the preceding narrative of Alvarado’s expedition, the reader familiar with the country, or having a map before him, will naturally identify Acuco with the since famous and still existing pueblo of Acoma, the province and river of Tiguex with the valley of New Mexico’s ‘great river’, the Río Grande del Norte, and Cicuye at the edge of the buffalo plains, from the vicinity of which a river flowed south-eastward, with the now ruined pueblo of Pecos. The record of subsequent happenings will, I think, confirm these first conclusions beyond all doubt; and I append some descriptive and other matter from the different narratives which point irresistibly in the same direction. So far as Acuco is concerned, the identity has never been questioned, I believe; yet there will be found in most of the early narratives, indications that the original Acoma may have been farther north than the modern peñol pueblo, and more nearly in a line between Zuñi and Tiguex. As to Tiguex and Cicuye, Gallatin, followed by Davis and Prince, has located the former on the Río Puerco, and the latter west of the Río Grande. These authors thus escape from a few slight difficulties, to become involved, as it seems to me, in many greater ones, ignoring several clear points in the testimony and the general tenor of the records. While Tiguex, however, was certainly in the Río Grande valley, there remains a slight doubt as to its latitude, such excellent authorities as Simpson and Bandelier differing in their conclusions. The latter puts the pueblo and province in the region of Bernalillo and Sandía, while the former prefers a site below the mouth of the Puerco. Although Simpson makes one or two strong points in favor of his position, yet the preponderance of evidence is overwhelming—amounting, I think, to proof—in support of the northern site of Tiguex. Much that may seem vague to the reader of this chapter will become perfectly clear from later records.

 

CORONADO IN NEW MEXICO

 

Meanwhile Coronado, having despatched Alvarado to the east, and having sent Cárdenas, after his return from the north-west, to prepare winter quarters at Tiguex as already related, awaited at Cíbola the arrival of the main army under Arellano, who came late in November or early in December, without having had any noteworthy adventures on the march from Sonora. Then the general, ordering the army to rest for twenty days before following him, started for Tiguex with thirty men. Instead of the direct route by way of Acuco, or Acoma, he went farther to the right, or south, bent on new discoveries, as he had heard of other towns in that direction. His party suffered severely on the way for want of water, which had to be sought in the mountains, where the intense cold was as oppressive as the thirst had been before; yet in eleven days they reached the Río Grande at the province of Tutahaco with its eight villages, hearing of others farther south, and then following the river for four leagues up to Tiguex.

Here Coronado found Cárdenas and Alvarado awaiting him, together with the Turk, to whose tales of eastern wealth he listened with the greatest pleasure and credulity, all his companions becoming presently most enthusiastic in their hopes of a grand conquest in the near future. These hopes doubtless made them less careful than they might otherwise have been to conciliate the natives of Tiguex. Unmindful of the viceroy’s instructions, and of the new Indian policy of which Coronado was to be the exponent, the invaders did not hesitate to take such houses as they desired for their own uses, turning out the inhabitants with­out ceremony, and otherwise disregarding the property rights of the people who had given them so kind a reception. The friendly folks of Cicuye received no better treatment, except that as yet they had not the army to support. Alvarado, being sent to obtain certain golden bracelets which the Turk falsely claimed to have left at that pueblo, arrested Bigotes and another chief because the ornaments were not produced, and brought his prisoners in chains back to Tiguex. The general called upon the natives for a large quantity of clothing for the army soon expected to arrive, refused them time to call a council to apportion the tax among the towns as was their custom, and sent soldiers to take the clothing by force, the Indians being obliged in many cases to take the garments off their backs. A Spanish officer, coolly calling to an Indian to hold his horse, ascended by a ladder to an upper apartment, where he violated the Indian’s wife, and the wronged husband could get no justice. One pueblo was burned for some offence of the inhabitants not clearly specified; and many other outrages were committed. It is fair, however, to state that Castañeda, on whom we have to depend for particulars of this winter’s bloody deeds, was not very friendly to Coronado; and in the other brief narrative it is implied that the troubles began with the killing of horses by the natives. Whatever may have been the truth—and I have no doubt that these haughty Caballeros were as usual utterly disregardful of the Indians’ rights—the result was, that civilization and Christianity were soon in bad odor; and when Arellano arrived with the main army from Cíbola in December, the whole province was in open revolt.

The winter was spent, so far as the heavy snow­fall and intense cold—to which neither men nor animals were accustomed—would permit, in efforts to conquer or conciliate the revolted pueblos. Captain Cárdenas marched against the town where the woman had been outraged, gained the roofs by assault, and there fought constantly for two days and one night. Meanwhile the Mexican allies, by introducing inflammable material through subterranean passages, forced the defenders to sue for peace. Captains Melgosa and López responded to their signs by crossing their arms, whereupon the Indians threw down their arms and surrendered. Being conducted to the tent of Captain Cárdenas, the latter ordered them to be burned alive; and on seeing the preparations the prisoners, about 100 in number, resisted desperately and were slaughtered. Cárdenas alleged that he had no knowledge of the capitulation, and had followed his general’s orders. A few escaped to tell their countrymen how the Spaniards kept their promises; and from this time to the final departure of the army the people of this province refused to listen to any propositions of peace from a race they could not trust. They defended themselves by barricading their towns, or ran away to the mountains, but to every offer of pardon and conciliation they simply pointed to past acts of bad faith. Captain Cárdenas going with thirty men to the pueblo of Tiguex to propose terms was required to advance alone and unarmed; and being knocked down, was with difficulty rescued, several others being seriously wounded. Nearly all the natives of the province had taken refuge in this pueblo and another three or four miles distant.

Then Coronado advanced with his army to attack Tiguex, but was repulsed in the first assault by the stones and arrows of the defenders with twenty men wounded, several of them fatally. Then followed a siege of 50 days, with many assaults and sorties, in which were killed some 200 of the natives and a number of Spaniards, including Captain Obando and a gentleman named Francisco de Pobares. The besieged, suffering for want of water, dug a well inside the town, which caved in and buried thirty of their number. A little later they were allowed to send away women and children, about 100 of whom departed; and after two weeks more of resistance they all attempted to escape by night. The movement being discovered, the fugitives bravely attacked the foe, and were either cut down or driven to perish in the icy waters of the Río Grande. A similar fate befell those who had taken refuge in the other town; and all the villages were taken and plundered, the inhabitants being killed, enslaved, or driven from the province. Not one submitted, or would accept the conquerors’ permission to return to his home.

The natives of some of the other provinces, however, proved more tractable. The pueblo of Chia, a large and populous one, four leagues west of the river, sent in its submission voluntarily, and was visited by a captain, the inhabitants being intrusted as a mark of especial confidence with the care of four useless bronze cannon. Another party was sent to the province of Quirix, or of the Queres, situated north of Tiguex, and including seven pueblos. The people of the first were timid and ran away, but being overtaken and reassured as to the strangers’ intentions, they not only became friendly, but aided in tranquillizing the whole province. During the winter, also, Coronado found occasion to visit Cicuye, or Pecos, where, to conciliate the people with a view to his proposed expedition eastward, he liberated one of the captive chieftains, and promised the early release of the other.

It was not until May 1541 that the ice in the Río Grande was sufficiently thawed to make the stream fordable; and on the 5th of that month the general marched with his entire force in search of the reported wealth of the regions beyond Tiguex, having previously sent Captain Tobar back to Sonora to bring up half the force left there. At Cicuye, Bigotes having been released in accordance with an earlier promise, the Spaniards were received as friends, and a guide was obtained, who claimed to be a native of Quivira. The Turk had before this time rendered himself liable to suspicion in respect of his veracity, being also detected in divers conversations with the devil; but as the new guide, named Xabe, confirmed to some extent his reports of gold and silver, the Spaniards were much elated at their prospective conquest. A march of three or four days over a mountainous country brought them to “a great and very deep river which flows also near Cicuye, and was therefore named Rio de Cicuye”, where it took them four days to construct a bridge. This river would seem to have been the Gallinas, the eastern and larger branch of the Pecos.

A little later they entered the great buffalo plains, and in ten days came to the first habitations of the wandering tribes. Details of Coronado’s long march over these vast plains have but little intrinsic interest, and still less importance so far as the history of New Mexico is concerned; moreover the records, as might naturally be expected, are far from being sufficiently minute to enable us to fix the exact route followed. About the expedition in general, however, there is little or nothing of mystery or confusion. According to Castañeda, the army marched in 37 days to a point 250 leagues from Tiguex, on a north-north-east course for the larger part of the way, and perhaps all, though the most enticing reports pointed to the east, and the statements respecting the direction are at the last not quite clear. Jaramillo implies that more than half the journey was directed eastward. I think it clear that east-north-east is nearer the general route followed than north-east. Two tribes of Indians, the Querechos and Teyas, both migratory, dwelling in skin tents and living chiefly on buffalo meat, were passed on the way; and their reports, though contradictory, seemed to confirm the idea of a rich country farther on. The explorers also visited a ranchería, where an old native explained by signs that he had seen Cabeza de Vaca’s party in the south.

Besides Xabe, there was another Quivira Indian named Sopete or Isopete, accompanying the army, who had declared the Turk a liar, without gaining much credit, as the Querechos had partially confirmed the latter’s testimony; but what the Teyas said favored Sopete’s version, and indicated that the Turk, perhaps from a desire to reach his own country, had led the Spaniards much too far east, Quivira being in the north. Finally, in a valley which formed the extreme eastern limit of the exploration, it was decided at a council of war held about the middle of June that the general should go with thirty-six picked men in search of Quivira, while the main army under Arellano should return to Tiguex. The chief reason for this decision was the lack of other food than buffalo meat; but Coronado states also that the guides had already confessed that they had deceived him respecting the buildings of Quivira, which were really of straw. Arellano’s force, after remaining fifteen days to hunt buffalo, returned in twenty-five days by a shorter and more southern route—in itself a proof that they had gone far to the east rather than the north—to Tiguex. On the way they passed many salt-marshes, noticed multitudes of prairie-dogs, reached the Rio Cicuye, or Pecos, thirty leagues below the former crossing, following it up to the pueblo, and learning that that river flowed into the Tiguex, or Rio Grande, some twenty days’ journey below. The arrival at Tiguex was before the end of July.

After leaving the main army Coronado went northward for about forty days over the plains till he reached Quivira late in July, remained there twenty-five days, and arrived at Tiguex on his return in August or September. Quivira proved to be one of several Indian villages of straw huts, or wigwams, on or near a large river. The inhabitants resembled the roving Querechos and Teyas in most respects, but were somewhat superior, raising a small quantity of maize. The country was an excellent one in respect of soil, climate, and natural productions; but the people had no knowledge of the precious metals; and even in their reports of large tribes beyond, there was but slight indication of either wealth or civilization. Moreover, El Turco now confessed that all his tales had been lies; but he claimed to have told them at the instigation of the people of Cicuye that the Spaniards might be led far out into the plains, to perish or to be so reduced in strength that on their return they might be easily vanquished. Having put the Turk to death, the general returned by a more direct route to Cicuye, where Arellano came to meet him, and thence to Tiguex.

Coronado and his associates believed Quivira to be in latitude 40°, and about 200 leagues north-east of Tiguex. There is nothing in the Spaniards’ descriptions of the region, or of the journey, to shake confidence in Simpson’s conclusion that it was in the modern Kansas, between the Arkansas and Missouri rivers; yet on the other hand, it is quite possible that, as Bandolier is inclined to think, Coronado travelled more in a circle, and did not go so far to the north; and elsewhere in recording Texan annals of the next century, I have said that “it is to the east and south­east of Santa Fé, to the Indian Territory and Texas of modern maps, that we must look for the scene of Spanish explorations in this century, and that there is no need of placing Quivira in the far north-east or beyond the Missouri, as many writers are fond of doing”. It is not, however, of much importance in connection with the history of New Mexico to fix definitely the location of this wigwam province, even if it were possible. Several writers, misled by the name—including rather strangely Davis, who was well acquainted with the geography of the country—have fallen into the blunder of identifying Quivira with the ruins of Gran Quivira of mixed Spanish and native origin at a much later date, and situated only two or three days’ journey south of east from Tiguex.

Meanwhile Captain Arellano made preparations for passing a second winter at Tiguex, meeting with many difficulties on account of the continued hostility of the people, who still refused to occupy their towns. Arellano also caused some further explorations to be made. Captain Barrionuevo was sent up the valley northward. First he visited the province of Hemes, or Jemes, with seven towns, one of which in the same region still retains the name. The inhabitants of this province submitted, and furnished supplies; but not so those of another province of Yuque-Yunque, who abandoned their two fine towns on the river and fled to the mountains, where they had four others strongly fortified in places difficult of access; yet a store of food was left in the deserted villages, with fine earthen-ware, and glazing that indicated the probable existence of silver mines. Twenty leagues farther up the river this party came to a large town built on both banks of the stream, with wooden bridges con­necting the two parts, and with the largest estufas yet seen. Its name was Braba; the Spaniards called it Valladolid; and its identity with Taos can hardly be questioned. Leaving the northern country in peace, Barrionuevo returned down the valley to Tiguex. Another officer was despatched down the river to ex­plore its lower branches, as mentioned by the people of Tutahaco. He advanced eighty leagues southward, to a place where the river disappeared underground, to appear again below, as the natives said, larger than ever. Somewhere on the way, but not necessarily at the southern limit of the exploration, they found four large villages, whose people offered no resistance. These were the southernmost pueblos, and may be identified with those of the Piros in the Socorro region, abandoned during the wars of the next century. This concludes the list of the New Mexican pueblos visited by Coronado or his officers, most of which, as we have seen, can be identified, in groups at least, with reasonable accuracy. It is noticeable, however, that the group between Zuñi and Tiguex, represented by Laguna, Cebolleta, Moquino, and Pujuaque, is not mentioned, and as a matter of fact, these pueblos did not exist till much later.

After these explorations had been accomplished, Captain Arellano set out with forty horsemen to meet the general on his return from Quivira, having a fight with the natives of Cicuye, where Coronado soon joined him. The report from Quivira was a bitter disappointment. For some unexplained reason, the guide Xabe had remained with the army, and he maintained to the last the truth of what had been said of gold and silver in his country, rejoicing at the approach of Coronado to confirm his statements, and correspondingly disappointed at the actual result. His words and manner had great influence on the army, which had unwillingly parted from the general in the east. Many of the officers and soldiers did not believe that he had made so long a march, or so thorough a search as he pretended; even the commander and his companions evidently still retained some hope of eventual success in the north-east; and these circumstances partially account for the grand rôle subsequently played by Quivira in the imagination of explorers, writers, and map-makers. The plan was to undertake a new expedition out into the plains in the spring of 1542, as the rainy season had already begun. Just as the army was going into winter quar­ters at Tiguex, Captain Tobar returned from Sonora with half the force that had been stationed at San Gerónimo. By this party Captain Cárdenas, who had broken an arm, received news that called him to Spain, and soon started with a few others, carrying Coronado’s letter of October 20th to the king.

The winter was for the most part an uneventful one; but there was considerable suffering, especially for want of clothing, as the natives were still hostile and refused to reoccupy their towns or to furnish supplies. Therefore the soldiers became discontented, and there was much disagreement between the general, officers, and gentlemen about the distribution of such food and clothing as remained. At the approach of spring, when preparations for a new expedition had been far advanced, Coronado, while engaged in a tournament on a day of festival, was thrown by the breaking of a girth, and received from Maldonado’s horse a kick on the head. He was seriously injured and long confined to his bed. After partial recovery he had a dangerous relapse, caused by the return of Cárdenas with news that the Sonoma colonists had been massacred by Indians. Superstition also had its influence on his weakened mind; for a necromancer in Spain had long ago predicted for him a brilliant career in a distant land, to be terminated by a fall that would cause his death. The prevailing discontent among officers and men tended greatly to increase the leader’s despon­dency and his desire to return that be might die near his wife and children. The soldiers at last presented, or were induced to present, a petition for return; it was decided in a council of officers to grant the petition, abandoning further attempts at conquest; and the corresponding orders were issued; some of the gentlemen officers opposed this resolution, and others soon repented of their vote; but apparently a majority, including the general, though willing to shirk responsibility, were not really desirous of remaining; and notwithstanding the alleged protests of many, and their demands to be allowed to continue the enterprise with a part of the army, Coronado refused to modify his plans, and even remained in his tent, pretending to be in worse health than he really was, in order to escape the importunities of his associates.

Fray Juan de Padilla and Padre Luis, a lay brother, resolved to remain in the country and make an attempt to convert the natives of Cicuye and Quivira. An escort was furnished as far as Cicuye, where Padre Luis remained; while Fray Juan, accompanied by a Portuguese named Campo, a negro, a mestizo, and a few Mexican Indians, pressed on to Quivira. Subsequently some sheep were sent to Brother Luis, and the messengers reported him as saying that he had been well received by the masses, though the old men hated him, and would probably bring about his death. After the departure of the army nothing was ever known respecting the fate of this pioneer missionary of Pecos. But the Portuguese, with some of his companions, is said to have found his way later by the gulf coast to Mexico, bringing the report that Padilla had received the crown of martyrdom at the hands of the Quivirans, who killed him because he insisted on going to attempt the conversion of a hostile tribe. This is substantially the version of Castañeda; but there are several others; and respecting the number, names, and nationality of the padres and their attendants, the place and manner of their death, or the circumstances of their escape, hardly two writers agree. This shows that little was really known on the subject.

The return march of Coronado’s army was begun in April 1542. All natives of Tiguex and other provinces of the north who had been enslaved were now released, for fear that if they were carried to Mexico their fate would be avenged on the friars who remained; but a number of Mexican Indians, besides those who went with the missionaries in Cicuye and Quivira, remained at Cíbola, where they were found, as we shall see, many years later. Between Tiguex and Cíbola over thirty horses died, though apparently in good condition. It should be noted that from horses left in the country during this expedition may have originated the immense droves that in later times ranged the plains northward, though I have found no positive evidence of so early an origin; also that sheep were introduced by Coronado. The march from Cíbola south-eastward was uneventful. At Chichilticale, on the Gila, they met Captain Gallegos with reinforcements and supplies. The members of this party were greatly disappointed at meeting a retreating army, instead of joining the conquerors in the enjoyment of Quiviran spoils. The gentlemen officers thus reinforced renewed their efforts for a renewal of the conquest, or at least for a halt until the viceroy could be consulted; but the soldiers would listen to nothing of the kind. Gallegos’ men and others were insubordinate, but Coronado had lost all control, his authority both as general and governor being disregarded. Most of the force disbanded at Culiacan in June; and Coro­nado finally reached Mexico with barely 100 men. Though at first coldly received by Mendoza, he gave explanations which were satisfactory, was honorably relieved of his command, and as soon as his health was restored resumed his duties as governor of Nueva Galicia.

Thus ended the grandest exploring expedition of the period, in which the Spaniards learned in a sense all that was to be known of Arizona and New Mexico, though they did not find the wonders they had sought, and though they neither remembered nor made any use of their discoveries. The great Mixton revolt prevented any immediate resumption of northern enterprises, which, however, would very likely not have been prosecuted in any event. Castañeda, writing twenty years later, expresses the opinion that in order to find any of the great things believed to be connected in some way with the Indies, they should have directed their course to the north-west instead of the north-east; and he suggests that Quivira and the adjoining regions might be reached by a better route through the interior, or from the gulf coast, with aid of the guides who had escaped in that direction after the friar’s death.

The narratives of Coronado’s expedition we have found remarkably accurate in a general sense, and quite as satisfactory as any records except an original detailed diary with maps could be expected to be. The general route has been easily traced, and several principal points on the journey have been identified with reasonable accuracy. There is a notable absence of exaggeration and mystery; indeed, the country, its people and its towns, are represented as they actually existed. Yet it is no less remarkable, after making allowance for the stories scattered broadcast in Mexico and Spain by the returning soldiers of Coronado’s army, how little effect this exploration had on geographical knowledge. For two centuries, though the narratives were extant and occasionally repeated with approximate accuracy, and though now and then an official report showed a fair knowledge of the facts in certain circles, no map within my knowledge—except Padre Kino’s and a few others on the regions of Pimería Alta up to the Gila—throws any light on the geography of Arizona and New Mexico, or makes any considerable approach to the general cartographic results that might have been reached by a fairly intelligent use of the Coronado narratives alone.

The historian Gomara before 1554 represented Coronado as having reached the coast, where he saw ships from Cathay with decorations in gold and silver; thus laying the foundation for endless confusion. Espejo, visiting New Mexico in 1582, as will be related in the next chapter, while he found traces of Coronado’s visit, had no definite idea of that officers explorations. Benavides, writing in 1630, though custodian of the Franciscans in New Mexico for years, giving a good account of the country, and even describing Coronado’s journey, seems not to have had the slightest idea that New Mexico had been the region explored. Mota Padilla about 1740 gravely tells us that if Coronado had gone farther north and somewhat westwardly he would probably have discovered what is now New Mexico. Many more accounts might be cited of similar nature, with others much more and much less inaccurate; and I may add that most modern writers—that is, those who allude in a general way without special investigation to this expedition—have evidently regarded it as mysterious in most of its geographic phases, and have had a vague idea that almost any place from California across to Florida may have been visited by Coronado, if indeed the exploration was not altogether mythical. I think it time that the mysterious elements of the subject should be eliminated.

And here I may suggest to the reader a perusal of the chapters devoted to the Northern Mystery, as already referred to. There will be found, besides the curious complication of inaccuracies, exaggerations, and falsehoods, current for two centuries or more and resting on the expeditions of Niza and Coronado as well as on others real and fictitious, a reproduction of many old maps, which, while including in a sense the territory now under consideration, cannot be repeated conveniently here, except one of 1597, which explains itself. On the others will be seen on the South Sea coast, or on tributaries of the gulf of California, between latitudes 35° and 45° for the most part, scattered with but slight regard to any kind of order, the names, variously spelled, of Seven Cities, Quivira, Sierra Nevada, Cicuic, Axa, Tiguex, Cucho, Cíbola, Tuchano, Totonteac, Granada, Marata, Chichuco, Rio Tizon, Laguna de Oro, New Mexico, Río del Norte, Río Bravo, Río Buena Guia, Moqui, Ameies, Zuñy, and finally after 1700 Santa Fé on a river flowing into the Mexican gulf. Of these, Quivira, Marata, New Mexico, and Granada transformed into New Granada are made prominent often as provinces, while the province or kingdom of Tolm is added. At last in 1752-68 the maps of De L’Isle and Jefferys, with all their absurdities in other parts, give a tolerably accurate idea of Arizona and New Mexico in their rivers and other general features, details being largely and wisely omitted.

 

Wytfliet-Ptolemy Map of 1597.

 

 

While Coronado’s was the last of the grand military expeditions for half a century, and while for much longer the far north was left almost exclusively to the theorists, yet toward the north there was a constant progress in the interior through the efforts of miners and missionaries in Nueva Galicia and Nueva Vizcaya, destined in time to cross the line of our territory. It was forty years before the line was again passed, unless there may have been one exception in the expeditions of Francisco de Ibarra in 1563-5. From a point not very definitely fixed in the sierra between Sinaloa and Durango, Ibarra marched for eight days to a point from which he saw a large town of several-storied buildings; and later, having gone to Sinaloa, he says he “went 300 leagues from Chametla, in which entrada he found large settlements of natives clothed and well provided with maize and other things for their support; and they also had many houses of several stones. But because it was so far from New Spain and the Spanish settlements, and because the governor had not people enough for settlement, and the natives were hostile, using poisoned arrows, he was obliged to return”. Beaumont, deriving his information from unknown sources, as I have written elsewhere, adds that Ibarra was accompanied by fifty soldiers, by Pedro de Tobar—of Coronado’s expedition—and by Padre Acebedo and other friars. His course was to the right of that followed by Coronado and nearer New Mexico. He reached some great plains adjoining those of the vacas—the buffalo plains—and there found an abandoned pueblo whose houses were of several stories, which was called Paguetni, and where there were traces of metals having been smelted. A few days later, as this waiter seems to say, Ibarra reached the great city of Pagme, a most beautiful city adorned with very sumptuous edifices, extending over three leagues, with houses of three stories, very grand, with various and extensive plazas, and the houses surrounded with walls that appear to be of masonry. This town was also abandoned, and the people were said to have gone eastward. It is difficult to determine what reliance should be placed on Beaumont’s narrative; and there appear to be no grounds for more than the vaguest conjecture as to what region was thus explored by Ibarra. He may have visited some of the abandoned pueblos of the Gila valley; or may, as Beaumont seems to think, have gone farther to the region of the Moqui towns; or perhaps he went more to the east and reached the Casas Grandes of Chihuahua.

 

There is nothing that can be added to throw new light on this subject, and I simply leave the record of what was possibly a new crossing of the Arizona line. It is perhaps worthy of notice, however, that in connection with Ibarra’s entrada of 1563 the province of Copala is mentioned, a name that—though here applied apparently to Topia or an adjoining region in the sierra—figured later in the mythic northern geography; and especially that on his return Governor Ibarra boasted that he had discovered a ‘new Mexico’ as well as a new Vizcaya. It is not unlikely that from this circumstance the name New Mexico came to be applied in later years to a country that Don Francisco had probably never seen. Another noteworthy circumstance in this connection was the discovery in 1568 by a party of mining prospectors from Mazapil, in northern Zacatecas, of a lake which was formally named Laguna del Nuevo Mexico. This lake was apparently one of those in the modern Coahuila, but the tendency to find a ‘new Mexico’ in the north is noticeable.