USA > Arizona > Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern; the nation's youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture, Vol. I > Part 8
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Hodge identifies the city seen by de Niza, at the foot of the hill, with Hawikuh, now a heap of ruins. Tontonteac was the land of the Hopis, later known as Tusayan. Cushing located Marata in the ruined Matyata group of pueblos, near the salt lake, southeast of Zuñi. Acus probably was Acoma, to the eastward, the name possibly embracing also the other pueblos beyond, in the valleys of the Rio Grande and its tributaries. Incidentally, Chas. F. Lummis tells that within New Mexico are the ruins of about 1,500 pueblos.
Frank Hamilton Cushing, who lived among the Zunis for years and who well knew their tongue, their history and their priestly secrets, learned from the Indians that, many years ago, there had come from the south a black man, whom they thought the devil. Therefore they had met him at the outskirts of the city and warned him away. When he refused to depart and had demanded women, they had beaten him to death and over his body they piled a cairn of stones, which they exhibited in proof of their story.
Among all the Indians of the Southwest it is probable that the Zuñi relatively
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were the best developed and had the highest degree of civilization, abiding in industry and in a state of peace that seems rarely to have been disturbed by other tribes. They lived then as they do now, in adobe-built houses often of several stories, the upper stories then reached by ladders, as is the case now with the Hopi and with other pueblo dwellers. Their garments of "ox hides" must be construed to mean tanned deer skin, for it is not likely there could have been much importation of buffalo hides. Of sheep there were none, save "bighorn." Doubtless Padre de Niza's unicorn was a mountain sheep. Cotton cloth there was, but hardly woolen, and it is very doubtful indeed if of gold or silver, more than occasional specimens could have been found in the villages, though turquoise was general and highly esteemed for ornament in practically all southwestern tribes.
It is odd that, after passing through the land of the Apache, the fiercest of southwestern Indians, the traveler at last should have been driven back by the most gentle aboriginal people of the region.
CORONADO'S MARCH TO THE SEVEN CITIES
Coronado considered de Niza's report of such tremendous significance that, keeping it in greatest secrecy, he set forth at once with the reverend traveler for the City of Mexico, there to confer with his friend the Viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza, declaring that at last had been found the Seven Cities, a quest in which Nuño de Guzman had failed. On request of the Viceroy, Friar Marco at once was made Father Provincial of the Franciscan Order, and from the pulpits was spread the news of a great land to the northward that awaited the coming of the Cross and its supporters.
Possibly the best historian of the journey of Coronado was Pedro de Cas- tañeda of Najera, who seems to have been relatively unknown before but whose narrative is most interesting. Castañeda seems to have been a man of enough standing to make publie his own estimates of things and people. In the preface to the text of a manuscript later published by a French translator, he sagely wrote : "I do not blame those inquisitive persons, who, perchance, with good inten- tions, have many times troubled me not a little with their requests that I clear up for them some doubt which they have had about different things that have com- monly been related concerning events and occurrences that took place during the expedition to Cíbola or the new land, which the good Viceroy-may he be with God in His glory-Don Antonio de Mendoza, ordered and arranged, and on which he sent Francisco Vasquez de Coronado as Captain General. In truth, they have reason for wishing to know the truth, because most people very often make things of which they have heard and about which they have perchance no knowledge, appear either greater or less than they are. They make nothing of those things that amount to something and those that do not they make so remarkable that they appear to be something impossible to believe."
The story was written about twenty years after the expedition took place. The original manuscript does not seem to be in existence in any of the Spanish libraries. An excellent copy, which is held in the Lenox Library in New York City, was translated from the original in 1895 by George Parker Winship of the Department of American History of Harvard University.
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It would appear there was something close to a riot around the court of Spain when the story of de Niza was presented, together with the petition of the Vice- roy for permission to send an expedition into the northern land. There were a number of objections by adverse claimants to the honor. Especially active was de Soto, who had a grant of authority as successor to Narvaez, extending westward to the Rio de las Palmas and whose adherents wanted to extend it still farther westward, claiming, with some logical basis, that the explorer already was on the ground, ready for the journey, with a large force of Spaniards. Hernando de Cortéz, conqueror of Mexico, also had a claim to consideration under a royal license giving authority northwardly along the sea coast. At that time he was very much at outs with Mendoza. Cortéz, in June, 1540, in a memorial to the King, presented personally, claimed that de Niza's account of discoveries was fraudulent, based upon information given by Cortéz himself and received by the soldier from Indians of Santa Cruz, "because everything which the said friar says he discovered is just the same these said Indians had told me; and in enlarg- ing upon this and in pretending to report what he neither saw nor learned, the said Friar Marco does nothing new, because he has done this many other times and this was his regular habit, as is notorious in the provinces of Peru and Guatemala."
Other claimants were Nuño de Guzman and Pedro de Alvarado, but the Council for the Indies seems still to have been considering the fine points of the dispute when Viceroy Mendoza finally started the expedition of Coronado.
This expedition was utilized by the Viceroy very acceptably to himself in ridding Mexico of the burden of maintaining several hundred useless young members of the Spanish aristocracy, who, with no ability in the arts of peace, had come to New Spain to seek their fortunes. Mendoza was a diplomat of the first order, granting most graciously the petitions of scores of young wastrels that they be permitted an opportunity in the extension northward of the Faith and of the power of the Crown. He appears to have done Coronado a service also in choosing all sorts of officials for the expedition, officers who had resounding titles but with little power attached.
The expedition was reviewed by the Viceroy before it started from Cam- postela. There were about 300 horsemen, according to Castañeda, and a consid- erable force of footmen, together with possibly a thousand Indian bearers and servants. The review must have been a gorgeous affair, though held in a wild land remote from the refinements of Spain. The horses, of true Barbary stock, generally were from the ranchos of the Viceroy. Many of the riders were iu armor or at least wore coats of mail, while the footmen carried cross bows and arquebuses and some of them sword and shield. The natives were in full war panoply, generally armed with club or bow. Behind were herds of cattle and bands of sheep to assure food, and there were extra horses and mules loaded with camp supplies, as well as with a number of swivel guns in the way of artillery. Coronado was described as having been a truly gorgeous figure, leading the van in a suit of golden armor.
The start was made February 23, 1540. Culiacan was reached March 28. There was delay of a fortnight, for the expedition already had proven unwieldy and its members needed rest and re-equipment. At Chiametla the expedition nearly suffered disaster, due to the arrival of Melchior Diaz and Juan de Saldivar,
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returning from an expedition northward directed by the Viceroy to check up the testimony of Friar Marco.
Diaz had left Culiacan the previous November with fifteen horsemen and had traveled as far as the mountains just to the southward of Cibola, taking the same route that de Niza had followed. He turned back at Chichilticalli, which appears to have been at a point in the San Pedro valley, not far from the junction of the San Pedro with the Gila. Diaz joined Coronado, sending Saldivar on to report to the Viceroy. Though Coronado forbade Diaz to make public the result of his investigation, it soon became noised around that he had failed to sub- stantiate the friar's story. De Niza, with the courage of his convictions, had elected to go with the Coronado expedition and pluckily stood his ground against the charges, preaching a special sermon in which he seems to have persuaded ' Coronado and soldiers alike that their quest would not be in vain. Diaz appears to have been a man of substantial character and of rare integrity. Before his expedition he had been placed in charge of the Culiacan district, where the resi- dents received Coronade and his officers with especial cordiality.
A naval annex under command of Hernando de Alarcon hugged the western shore of Mexico northward, but at no time got into touch with the land forces.
Probably on the advice of Melchior Diaz, Coronado took about 100 picked men, both horse and foot, the latter including three friars, and himself led this force in advance, picking out a way for the main body. He left Culiacan April 22. There is more or less dispute over his route in general, but it would appear that he struck the valley of the Sonora river and followed the stream to its source, thence crossing a broad divide and following down another river valley until he reached Chichilticalli, where there was an ancient house, in ruins.
There has been a supposition, based upon the apparently erroneous con- nection of Chichilticalli with Casa Grande, that this northern river valley was that of the Santa Cruz, but the tabulations of distance and many other col- lateral features indicate that the valley was that of the much larger San Pedro River. The month of the San Pedro is in an extremely rocky country and the journey thence northward would have been through a region almost impassable. It is more logical that Indian guides indicated the far easier route through the Aravaipa Cañon eastward from a point not far from the site of the modern mining camp of Mammoth. This route would have been the more direct and would have been favored by an ample water supply. Chichilticalli, meaning "Red House" in the Aztec tongue, does not at all describe Casa Grande, which was built of caliche, with no suggestion of redness about it. Though the early summer season might have been wet, Casa Grande plain usually is arid in the extreme and even an advance party would have found difficulty in passing through to the Gila, and still more difficulty in traveling through the high moun- tains beyond. There is an additional detail that pine nuts were found near Chichilticalli. And ancient ruins are everywhere in Arizona.
From Chichilticalli, Coronado and his advance party undoubtedly followed the line of present day roads from the Gila River to Fort Apache, and thence over a fairly level country. This section of the journey is described as having been most trying, with horses and Indian carriers both tiring and dying, with poor provision and little grass, but, probably, in the upper valleys of the Little
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Colorado watershed, "were found fresh grass and many nut and mulberry trees. "'
Unlike de Niza's journey, the party appears to have found few Indians and to have been met with no great showing of hospitality. After passing the wilderness north of the Gila River, four Indians were found, who seemed to have signaled the coming of the Spaniards. Cibola was reached July 7, 1540, when Coronado and his advanee guard were halted by violent resistance before the first of the "eities," the mud-and-stone-built communal village of Hawikuh, which later was rechristened by the Spaniards after Granada, the beautiful Spanish birthplace of the Vieeroy Mendoza.
The Indians, with their saered meal, drew lines on the ground beyond whieh they forbade the Spaniards to pass. A shower of arrows was the answer re- turned a summons to surrender given by Hernando Vermizzo, who was sent for- ward as herald and ambassador. Finally, in spite of the paeifie instructions of their leader, the soldiers shouted the saered war ery of "Santiago" and put the Indians to flight, driving them into the shelter of their own defenses. Coronado marshaled his men again and advaneed his forees against the town. It was found that little could be accomplished by the erossbow men or those who handled the arquebuses, but the main position of the defenders was taken by a charge, led by Coronado himself, whose golden armor hardly proved adequate to protect him from roeks thrown by the defenders. Twiee he was knocked to the ground, receiving bruises that confined him to the camp for days there- after. A number of the attacking party were severely wounded by arrows, but none seem to have been killed. That night the soldiers fortified themselves and rested, after gorging with food found in the houses and most sorely needed. The same night the Indians abandoned the place. The first of the fabled Cities of Cíbola at last was in Spanish possession. But of the gold and precious stones, of the doors whose lintels were studded with turquoise, nothing could be found. It was simply a mud-built pueblo village, inhabited by Indians whose needs were few, and rarely satisfied at that, and who would appear to have had noth- ing to exeite the eupidity of any European.
Castañeda rather severely remarks in his narrative, "When they (Coronado's advanee guard) saw the first village, which was Cíbola, sneh were the eurses hurled at Friar Marco that I prayed God may proteet him from them. It is a little unattractive village, looking as if it had been erumpled all up together. There are mansions in New Spain which make a better appearanee at a distance. It is a village of 200 warriors, with houses small and having only a few rooms and without a court yard. One yard serves for each seetion."
Friar Mareo seemed to have remained confident through all the long and arduous journey and to have exhorted the soldiers in all hopefulness whenever the prospect appeared poor or when the stories he had heard were proven falla- cious. Bandelier says, however, that the Friar was not the liar he would appear at first sight, and that the things he told he really saw were so, and that the tales of gold and precious stones brought baek by him all were qualified as having only been heard. There seems no doubt, however, that he became persona non grata with Coronado and his soldiers just as soon as the loot of Cíbola developed the fact that it was merely a poverty-strieken Indian village.
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Possibly broken in spirit, but giving ill health as his reason, he left Zuñi about August 3 on his return to Mexico, accompanying Juan de Gallego. He remained in southern Mexico till his death in Jalapa seventeen years later.
Gallego carried back to the main body, which had accomplished about half the distance to Cíbola, an order to march on. It appears to have been under capable leadership, that of Don Tristan de Arellano, and to have had no mis- haps in its journey, which was completed about the beginning of the winter.
CORONADO'S EXPLORATIONS AND RETURN
It was not until the July following the capture of Zuni that a westward ex- pedition was undertaken, Don Pedro de Tovar being sent with about twenty men and Friar Juan de Padilla, a Franciscan, to verify the report that at twenty-five leagues distant there were high villages, with warlike people in the province of Tucano or Tusayan. The Spaniards met with only slight oppo- sition, though, led by the militant priest, they charged the Indians when the latter hesitated over submission. Little of value was learned from these people, the Hopi of to-day, save information concerning a large river still farther to the westward.
The report brought back by de Tovar led to the sending of a second expedi- tion, under Garcia Lopez de Cárdenas, with about twelve soldiers. The start was made from Cíbola late in August, with instructions to return within eighty days. At Tusayan Cárdenas was well received by the Indians, who gave him gnides for the journey. His way thence was over one of the most ancient roads of the continent, the great Moqui trail, which still is visible and is used, run- ning straightway to the lip of the Grand Canon of the Colorado River, first touching its rim at a point a few miles west of the present Grand View trail into the cañon, within about a dozen miles of Bright Angel trail, where has been established a hotel that to-day bears the name of Tovar.
From the cañon the same trail bends a little to the southward and, generally paralleling the canon at a distance of about twelve miles, finally drops through. the gorge of Tope Kobe into the wonderful canon of Cataract Creek, where lived and still live the Havasupai tribe. This trail was one commonly used by the Navajo, Hopi, Havasupai, Hualpai and other Indians of northern Arizona, a commercial highway over which were taken for exchange the special products of the tribes.
But Cárdenas, who had taken twenty days to reach the cañon, a seemingly unnecessarily long time, was satisfied to return when once he had made an attempt to cross the gorge. His report told that the river seemed to be three or four leagues below them. In reality they were about 5,000 feet above the bed of the river and about eight miles from it by the present trails. It was told that the country was elevated and so cold that, save in the warm season, no one could live there. Three days were spent looking for a passage down to the river, "which looked from above as if the water was six feet across, though the Indians said it was a half a league wide." Captain Melgosa and two com- panions, light and agile men, chose what appeared to be the least difficult place and went down until those who were above them were unable to keep sight of them, but they returned in the afternoon saying that they had gone only a third of the way and that rocks that seemed from the top to be about as tall as a
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man in reality were bigger than the great tower of Sevilla. The Indian guides incorrectly told them that the western way beyond, presumably along the same Moqui trail, had no water within three or four days' travel. Cárdenas returned with the information that the upper reaches of the Rio Tison had been encoun- tered and that the canon was impassable. Without doubt he was the first European who ever feasted his eye upon the glories of the gorge.
Coronado soon led his men into the Rio Grande Valley, where he explored diligently, ever hoping to find the wealth of the Indies. His principal quest later was the golden kingdom of Quivira, the journey leading across the buffalo plains till finally Quivira was found, a large settlement of semi-nomadic Indians, reached in August of 1541 by a party of thirty horsemen, led by himself. He had sent his main force back to the Rio Grande pueblos. The farthermost point reached probably was in northeastern Kansas, beyond the Arkansas River.
Having absolutely failed to develop any riches, the expedition of Coronado, by himself and his followers, seems to have been considered a failure, for their explorations, however important to future generations, had brought them nothing but travail. So, early in 1542, the greater part of the army was marshaled and started back to Mexico. A few Mexican Indians were left in several pueblos. Three friars, led by Juan de Padilla, refused to depart, having found ample treasure in the souls of the natives. Padilla, who had been with Coronado to Quivira, returned to the plains with a Portuguese companion and several Indian and negro servants to meet martyrdom, which probably had been expected by him. Docampo, the Portuguese, managed to escape with several others of the party and eventually reached Tampico on the Mexican Gulf, with a story that they had been captured by Indians en route and had been held as slaves for ten months. Friar Juan de la Cruz was left at Teguex, where, in November, 1543, he met death at the hands of those he sought to serve. The third of the clergy was Friar Luis de Escalona, who stayed behind at Pecos, and of whom nothing further ever was heard.
Coronado, though meeting reinforcements and supplies at Chichilticalli, re- turned to Mexico, early in the winter of 1542, with only a ragged remnant of the magnificent force with which he had set out two years before, his ranks thinning rapidly after the command reached Mexico as the wearied men dropped out in each successive settlement. It was a sad homecoming, for many had been left behind dead, many slaves had been lost and scores of unfortunates had been sacrificed. The situation bore heaviest of all upon the Viceroy himself. for Mendoza had not only risked his personal fortune in outfitting the expedition, but, without authority, he had drawn upon the royal revenues for the unlucky enterprise. Still, it is told so firmly had he established himself in the govern- ment of Mexico, by reason of honesty of character and rare ability of adminis- tration, even this failure did not cause the ruin expected to his political standing.
Of Coronado there seems to have been no further political record. He re- signed his governorship of Nueva Galicia and retired to his Mexican estate. That he was an honest man and an able commander there seems no reason to doubt. His failure was not one of administration, but was due wholly to a belief in stories which had been shared with him by practically all the people of New Spain.
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A commentator of the times piously observes: "It was most likewise chas- tisement of God that riches were not found on this expedition, because, when this ought to have been the secondary object of the expedition and the conver- sion of all those heathen their first aim, they bartered with fate and struggled for the secondary; and thus the misfortune is not so much that all of those labors were withont fruit, but the worst is that such a number of souls have remained in their blindness."
ALARCON, FIRST TO SAIL THE COLORADO .
The Colorado River first was navigated by Hernando de Alarcon, who had been sent in command of several vessels to explore the northwest coast of Mexico at the same time that Coronado was heading for Cibola, which then by geographers was placed on or near a large body of water.
Alarcon started from Acapulco May 9, 1540. At the port of Culiacan he added the ship San Gabriel to his fleet and sailed several weeks after the de- parture of the land expedition. He skirted the desert shores of the west coast till he reached sand bars at the head of the Gulf of California, the same obstruc- tion that had turned back Ulloa, who had been sent north by Cortéz the previous summer. Despite the protest of his pilots, the Spanish captain found a way around the shoals into the mouth of a large river, with so strong a current that his sailing vessels were unable to make any headway. With twenty men and two boats he started upstream Angust 26, 1540. A number of natives were met and were won over with gifts of trinkets. They made possible further progress by dragging the boats by ropes, relays of different tribesmen being readily found for the service at need. It may be worthy of note that in later days the Cocopahs, Yumas and Mojaves rendered like service to flat boats aud small steamers, on which they were found especially valuable as deck hands, owing to their amphibious nature.
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