USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Vol. I > Part 3
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As every report, however improbable, which pointed the way to the discovery of precious metals and stones, was certain to enlist the eager attention of Spaniards from time immemorial, and is as true of the present as of any other period, Guzman, placing im- plicit confidence in the tales of his bondman, proceeded to organize an expedition. It consisted of four hundred Spaniards, and twenty thousand Indian allies, who in due time set out in search of the "Seven Wonderful Cities of Cibola." Naturally enough they en- countered unexpected difficulties, and were subjected to innumerable hardships in traversing a trackless region wholly unknown to them. Possessing neither the courage nor the enduring qualities of their coun- trymen who surmounted the obstructions which beset de Soto's forces from Florida to the Mississippi, and thence to the Rocky Mountains, nor leaders calculated to enforce the requisite discipline, in a short time all became discouraged, and the greater part returned to the point of departure. Guzman established himself at Culiacan and proceeded to colonize the country. He remained as Governor for eight years. Meanwhile the Indian who had been the moving impulse of the unfort- unate expedition, died. Guzman was removed from his position, and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, a native of Salamanca, succeeded him. Coronado was a man of great wealth, high character, and widely es- teemed. Soon after his elevation, about the year 1538, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and his companions appeared upon the scene. Their
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adventures excited universal interest, and having been communicated to the viceroy in an elaborate detailed report describing the Pueblo towns, and their inhabitants, telling of powerful cities where there were houses four and five stories in height, with other particulars, and by him to Coronado, he quickly decided to send out what, in these days, would be called a committee of investigation, at the same time changing his headquarters to Culiacan. He took with him the negro Estevanico, the companion, and to a large extent the interpreter of Cabeza de Vaca, and three Franciscan friars, Marcos de Niza, and Daniel and Antonio de Santa Maria, who were sent forward to explore the country. The reverend fathers were soon shocked by the very unexemplary conduct of their dusky guide, who possessed an un- quenchable passion for appropriating to his own use the native women and such movable plunder as chanced to come in his way, but as he knew the country and they did not, they tolerated him, but kept him well in advance of their slower movements. By certain signs, usually crosses of different sizes, sent back by Indian runners, he apprised them of his discoveries from time to time. At length Estevanico suc- ceeded in reaching the Seven Cities, and taking advantage of his oppor- tunity, robbed the natives of their most valuable goods, and captured and maltreated a number of their women. The last overstrained their patience, and they rose up and killed him.
All along the route Friar Marcos received from the natives whom he met, glowing accounts of the wealth and power of the great cities to the north. He was duly apprised also while yet afar off, of the catas- trophe which had overtaken his avant courier. Believing the same fate would be meted out to him, should he venture into Cibola, yet deter- mined to see for himself, though at a safe distance, something of the marvels revealed to him, he proceeded to a high point from which the towns could be reconnoitered. In his report to Coronado, he says : " The houses are builded in order, according, as the Indians told me, all made of stone with divers stories and flat roofs, as far as I could discern from the mountain. The people are somewhat white; they
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wear apparel, and lie in beds; their weapons are bows; they have emeralds and other jewels, though they esteem none so much as tur- quoises wherewith they adorn the walls of the porches of their houses, and their apparel and vessels, and they use them instead of money through all the country. They use vessels of gold and silver, for they have no other metal, whereof there is greater use and more abundance than in Peru." It will appear by subsequent events that Friar Marcos, like many another pioneer of modern civilization, drew mainly upon his imagination for his facts, and trusted rather too implicitly the natives vho accompanied him.
After delivering his highly-colored account to the Governor, Marcos and his associates proceeded to retail to the populace on the streets at great length and with monstrous exaggerations, the story of their discoveries. A short time afterward Coronado set out at the head of an army composed of three hundred Spaniards and eight hun- dred Indians, resolved to see for himself what the country contained. The historian of the expedition was Pedro de Castañeda de Nagera, who kept a diary of the marches, and subsequently elaborated his daily minutes into a detailed narrative, from which all accounts from that day to the present have been drawn. Friar Marcos accompanied the army as guide. At Culiacan he left the main body of his troops with orders to follow a fortnight later, and selecting a small detachment of picked men, departed for Chichilticale on the border of the desert. After a disheartening march of fifteen days he succeeded in crossing the desert, and then found himself to be within eight leagues of Cibola, located on the banks of a river which they called Vermijo (Little Colo- rado). It was here that the first Indians were encountered, who, when they saw the Spaniards advancing upon them, fled and alarmed the villages. Next day Coronado entered Cibola, the first of the Seven Cities. "On beholding it the army broke forth in maledictions upon the friars," who, by their false representations of its treasures of silver and gold, had fired the hearts of the Spaniards with zeal to undertake the long and perilous journey. Castañeda writes, "Cibola is
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built upon a rock, and is so small that in truth there are many farms in New Spain that make a better appearance. It may contain two hundred warriors. The houses are built in three or four stories; they are small, not spacious, and have no courts, as a single court serves for a whole quarter. It is composed of seven towns, some of which are larger and better fortified than Cibola. The Indians, ranged in good order, awaited us at some distance from the village." As they were unwilling to accept the terms of peace offered, a struggle ensued; the troops charged upon, and, after a sharp skirmish, dispersed them. Neverthe- less, it was necessary to get possession of Cibola, which was no easy achievement, 'for the road leading to it was both narrow and winding. The General was knocked down by the blow of a stone as he mounted in the assault. Large numbers were unhorsed and stricken down with stones hurled at them from above, still in the course of an hour the citadel was taken. "It was found filled with provisions, which were most needed, and in a short time the whole province was forced to accept peace."
Here the remainder of the army, which had been left at Culiacan, rejoined Coronado. It is needless for the purpose of this work to trace the various branch expeditions by sea, land and river, which are described at length in the several reports. Returning to Coronado at Cibola, we find that, like a true pioneer, he began from this advanced post a series of expeditions into the surrounding country, still in quest of the promised land, glittering with gems and precious metals. His attention was next directed to a distant province said to possess seven towns similar to those of Cibola, and at once sent a part of his force under Don Pedro de Tobar, in that direction. "The rumor had spread among its inhabitants that Cibola was captured by a very ferocious race of people, who bestrode horses that devoured men; and as they knew nothing of horses, this information filled them with the greatest astonishment." Here, as at Cibola, some resistance was made, but the natives were speedily overcome, and compelled by the vigor of the on- slaughts to sue for peace, "offering, as inducements, presents of cotton
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stuff, tanned hides, flour, pine nuts, native fowls and some turquoises." They told the conquerors of "a great river on which there were In- dians living, who were very tall." This being repeated to Coronado, he dispatched Don Pedro de Tobar with a small force in the direction indicated. According to the narrative, "The party passed through Tusayan again on its way to the river, and obtained supplies and guides from the natives. After a journey of twenty days through a desert they reached a river whose banks were so high that they thought themselves elevated three or four leagues in the air." They had discovered the great Canon of the Colorado River. With- out further result of importance Tobar returned to Cibola.
We now pass to the consideration of Coronado's subsequent ex- ploration from Cibola to the eastward. Says our chronicler: "While the discoveries mentioned above were being made, some Indians living seventy leagues toward the east in a province called Cicuye, arrived at Cibola. There was with them a cacique surnamed Bigotes (Mus-
taches). They had heard of the Spaniards, and came to offer their
services and their friendship. They offered gifts of tanned skins, shields and helmets, which the General reciprocated by giving them necklaces of glass beads and bells, which they had never before be- held." They informed him of animals which existed in great numbers in their country (the buffalo), and exhibited one of their number, upon whose body a rude effigy of a buffalo cow had been painted. Coro- nado directed Captain Hernando d'Alvarado to take twenty men and accompany these savages to their country, with instructions to return in eighty days. Five days later they arrived at Acuco (the present Pueblo of Acoma) which was built upon a rocky promontory. "The inhabitants, who are able to send about two hundred warriors into the field, are the most formidable brigands in the province. This village was very strongly posted, inasmuch as it was reached by only one path and was built upon a rock precipitous on all its other sides, and at such a height that the ball from an arquebuse could scarcely reach its summit. It was entered by a stairway, cut by the hand of man, which
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began at the bottom of the declivitous rock, and led up to the village. * * * On the summit there was a great arsenal of huge stones which the defenders, without exposing themselves, could roll down on the assailants, so that no army, no matter what its strength might be, could force this passage. There was on the top a sufficient space of ground to cultivate and store a large supply of corn, as well as cisterns (reservoirs) to contain water and snow."
This part of the narrative is especially interesting in view of the many speculations by modern writers and explorers concerning the manner in which the dwellers in these lofty heights obtained their sup- plies of food and water, many of the ruins being at this date remote from cultivated fields, springs, or running streams.
Nothwithstanding the difficulties presented, and the resistance offered, these apparently impregnable positions were taken, and their defenders reduced to abject submission. Three days later Alvarado entered a province called Tiguex, where, on accountof his guide Bigotes, whom the people knew, he was kindly welcomed. The country and the climate being extremely inviting, Coronado was advised to come and winter in the region. After a short period in camp, Alvarado next invaded Cicuye, "a village very strongly fortified, and whose houses had four stories." While here he fell in with "an Indian slave who was a native of the country adjacent to Florida, the interior of which Fernando De Soto had lately explored." This Indian, whom the Span- iards christened il Turco (The Turk) on account of his resemblance to the natives of Turkey, was a true representative of the grand army of liars incident to every country and every age, drawing freely upon his fertile imagination for florid descriptions of great towns and boundless stores of gold and silver which filled the land of Quivira, to which he belonged. While this mysterious region has never been definitely located, the Turk placed it adjacent to the Floridas, in other words, at some point between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi. Alva- rado's guide defined it in general terms as "the country of the bison." The commander, in the course of his expedition, found the bison in
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great numbers, but neither cities nor towns. Meanwhile Coronado had received accounts of still another province, composed of eight towns, which he visited. The eight villages were found to be not like those of Cibola, built of stone, but of earth. They discovered also, "houses of seven stories, which were seen nowhere else. These belonged to private individuals, and served as fortresses. They rise so far above the others that they have the appearance of towns. There are embra- sures and loopholes, from which lances may be thrown, and the place defended. As all these villages have no streets, all the roofs are flat and common for all the inhabitants; it is therefore necessary to take possession, first of all, of those large houses which serve as defences." Finally the army reached Tiguex only to find the entire province in revolt over the destruction of their villages by some of Coronado's troops, who in his absence had been perpetrating various atrocities upon the natives. The place was besieged, and, after a struggle of fifty days, captured. In due course all the others were brought under submission.
The army appears to have wintered upon the Rio Grande in 1540, and in May following resumed its march eastward toward the country of Quivira. They crossed a range of mountains, and, as nearly as can be ascertained, came down upon the plains of Colorado about the valley of the Arkansas, where they discovered vast herds of buffalo and other animals. At the place called Quivira they found nothing worthy of mention, and here their guide confessed that by instigation of the Indians he had purposely decoyed the Spaniards into this wil- derness to kill the horses, and thus render the soldiers helpless, that they might be delivered into the hands of their enemies. Coronado strangled him and retreated at once to Tiguex, and thence back to the seat of his government in Mexico.
It is generally conceded that his march in the vain search for Quivira extended through a portion of Southern Colorado, and a long distance into Kansas ; just how far cannot be determined. Castañeda says Quivira was situated "in the midst of the countries which ad-
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joined the mountains that skirt the sea," which challenges research beyond the skill of the present author. The following is more definite, yet leaves the locality as obscure as before : " It is in this country that the great River of Espirito Santo (Mississippi) which Fernando De Soto discovered in Florida, takes its rise ; it afterward passes through a province called Arache. Its sources were not seen ; they are very distant, and on the slope of the mountain range which borders the plains. It traverses them entirely as well as the Atlantic range, and its mouth is three hundred leagues from the place where De Soto and his comrades embarked." It is at least probable that the Missouri was seen and mistaken for the Mississippi, and its source located in our mountains instead of those of the North.
Jaramillo, one of Coronado's captains, describes the villages of the country thus : " The houses are of straw, very many being circular in shape. The straw reaches almost to the ground like walls; on the outside on top is a kind of chapel or cupola, having an entrance where the Indians sit or lie down." Nowhere else in any of the narratives are such houses mentioned.
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Judge Prince of Santa Fé, who in 1883 published one of the most interesting histories of New Mexico ever written, in referring to this subject-the eastern terminus of Coronado's march-says Jaramillo's description of the houses, "together with the direction taken, and the distance traveled, make it almost beyond question that it was the same city of Quivira which Peñalosa crossed the plains to visit one hundred and twenty years later, and the route followed cannot have been far different. Forty-eight days' march from the cañons of the Canadian," (which were undoubtedly visited) " would carry Coronado to the Mis- souri without difficulty, and all things considered, we can well believe that he traversed parts of the Indian Territory and Kansas, and finally stopped on the borders of Missouri, somewhere between Kansas City and Council Bluffs." We think very few students of Castañeda will agree with him.
Returning to the Pueblo towns discovered and conquered in New
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Mexico, which were unquestionably inhabited by like people with those on the Chaco, the Chelley, the Dolores, the San Juan and the Rio Mancos of our own State, we cannot refrain from adding some further accounts of their domestic life given by Castañeda. Of those in the province of Tiguex, he says: "The houses are built in common. The women mix the mortar and build the walls. The men bring the wood and construct the frames. They have no lime, but they make a mix- ture of ashes, earth and charcoal, which takes its place very well ; for although they build their houses four stories high, the walls are not more than three feet thick. The young men who are not yet married, serve the public in general. They go after firewood, and pile it up in the court or plaza, where the women go to get it for the use of their houses. They live in the estufas, which are underground in the plazas of the villages, and of which some are square, and some are round. The roofs are supported by pillars made of the trunks of pine trees. I have seen some witli twelve pillars, each of twelve feet in circum- ference ; but usually they have only four pillars. They are paved with large, polished stones like the baths of Europe. In the center is a fire- place, with a fire burning therein, on which they throw from time to time a handful of sage, which suffices to keep up the heat, so that one is kept as if in a bath. The roof is on a level with the ground. Some of these estufas are as large as a tennis court. When a young man marries, it is by order of the aged men who govern. He has to spin and weave a mantle; they then bring the young girl to him, he covers her shoulders with it, and she becomes his wife. The houses belong to the women, and the estufas to the men. The women are forbidden to sleep in them, or even to enter, except to bring food to their husbands or sons. The men spin and weave, the women take care of the chil- dren, and cook the food. The soil is so fertile that it does not need to be worked when they sow; the snow falling covers the seed, and the corn starts underneath. The harvest of one year is sufficient for seven. When they begin to sow, the fields are still covered with corn that has not yet been gathered. Their villages are very neat ; the houses are
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well distributed and kept in good order ; one room is devoted to cook- ing, and another to grinding grain. The latter is apart, and contains a fireplace and three stones set in masonry; three women sit down be- fore the stones; the first breaks the grain, the second crushes it, and the third grinds it to powder. In all the province glazed pottery abounded, and the vases were of really curious form and workman- ship." He describes all the people of the pueblos as mild and gentle, and received the Spaniards hospitably. They wore garments of dressed skins and cotton cloth, subsisted upon maize, beans, pumpkins and other products of the soil. It is also established that they raised cotton, the original plant having been brought to them from the South and in some way unexplained, acquired knowledge of its manufacture into cloth. The invaders of the Sixteenth Century, as well as the ex- plorers of our own time, discovered vast quantities of pottery in various forms, much of it crudely though neatly decorated. Their forms of government, religious rites, manners and customs, differed but little from those of the present generation of the same race ; though the primitive missionaries reinforced by the sword, too frequently with bar- baric zeal attempted to uproot the ancient faith and plant the seeds of the church in this virgin soil, it is only with the present generation under moderate counsels that material success has been attained. Even now it is at the best only a partial acceptance of the Catholic religion, con- fined chiefly to the forms and ceremonies. Certain rites of the old worship are still retained, and secretly, if not openly, practiced. Since the preparation of this work began, the writer has inspected some of the pueblos in the valley of the Rio Grande, conversed with their patriarchs, and observed their condition closely. One of the principal men, a venerable Cacique, was found possessed of superior intelligence, with a disposition to talk of his people and their ancient grandeur. A church stood in one corner of the plaza, constructed of adobe, like all their dwellings, but the roof had fallen in, and all about it were evi- dences of neglect and decay, not witnessed in their homes or fields. The old man who had long been the honored Governor of the pueblo,
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dwelt with impassioned earnestness upon the history of his race, refer- ring to the battles of his forefathers with the invaders on horseback ; pointed out the spot where a fierce contest had been waged, and seemed to feel as acutely as they the loss of liberty which their sub- jugation entailed. He had been to Washington (1850) and visited President Fillmore, who gave him one of the ponderous silver medals then issued to visiting chiefs. In one corner of the room hung a silver mounted ebony cane, presented by President Lincoln in 1863, during his second and last visit. Of these mementoes of his acquaintance with the Great Fathers, he was very proud. At length he produced a collection of manuscripts neatly engrossed in Spanish, containing an account of the wars of his tribe with the Spaniards, from which he read in a distinct yet plaintive tone the incidents narrated. When asked his name he replied with stately dignity, "I will write it for you," and did so in a perfectly legible, though somewhat tremulous hand, thus : "Carlos Vigil Tunga, aged 80." The priests taught him to read, and probably the rudiments of penmanship, though he insisted that the latter accomplishment had been acquired by patiently copying the manuscripts, and exhibited with evident pride several scraps of paper on which these efforts had been laboriously traced.
The women grind the corn and bake the tortillas upon heated stones, precisely as their ancestors did in prehistoric times. The men and women still retain the cotton garments, adding the modern blankets for cool weather. In all New Mexico no lands are better tilled, or orch- ards more extensive and fruitful than theirs ; none that are more intel- ligently cared for or preserved. They are well clothed, comfortably housed, are temperate, sturdily industrious, honest, truthful and thrifty. Though rejecting modern implements of husbandry, the soil is none the less effectively plowed with the crooked stick, carefully planted, properly irrigated, and watched from seedtime to harvest. There are no beggars, and apparently no destitute among them ; some are com- paratively wealthy, and all independent of their neighbors of different blood. The chief engineer of one of the railways recently constructed
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in the Rio Grande Valley, informed me of his unbounded confidence in the integrity and truthfulness of these Indians. Said he: "I have intrusted them with tens of thousands in gold and silver, sent them with great packages of money,-telling them of their contents,-many miles to different stations on the line for the payment of my working forces, and in every instance the mission was faithfully executed. One might leave hundreds of thousands in these pueblos for any length of time with perfect assurance that not a dollar would be taken. Treat them kindly, and they will protect you and your property from harm."
Lieutenant J. H. Simpson, of the United States Army, who visited some of the more prominent pueblos in New Mexico and Arizona in 1849, writes of their religious belief, "The tribes differ somewhat in their religious customs. In relation to Montezuma, however, the different pueblo Indians, although speaking different languages, have the same belief." He asked a Jemez Indian whether they now looked upon God and the sun as the same being, and was answered that they did. "The question was then put, whether they still worshiped the sun as God, with contrition of heart. His reply was, 'Why not? He governs the world.' From this Indian I also learned that they worship the sun with most pleasure in the morning, and that they have priests to administer their own religion which they like better than the Roman Catholic, which he says has been forced upon them, and which they do not understand. He said they were all children of Montezuma, and a tradition had been current among them that they were to be delivered by a people who would come from the East; that in consequence of the good treatment they were receiving from the Americans, they were beginning to believe that that people had come."
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