USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume I > Part 15
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On the following day an embassy arrived from the cacique of Capaha. With great ceremony this embassy bowed to the sun, the
II2
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
moon, and the adelantado, but took no notice of the cacique of the Casquins, who was present, treating him with contempt and disdain. They asked for oblivion of the past, amity for the future, and declared their chieftain was ready to come in person and do homage. De Soto received them with the utmost affability and assured them of his friendship, and sent them away well pleased with their reception. He issued orders forbidding any one to injure the natives of the province or their possessions. The cacique of the Casquins, in order to appease De Soto for the flight of his warriors, made him a present of fish, together with mantles and skins of various kinds; and also brought him one of his daughters as a handmaid. But the adelan- tado was not thoroughly reconciled. He allowed the cacique to remain with him with a number of vassals, but obliged him to send his warriors home. That is to say, he held the cacique and his principal men as hostages or prisoners.
The next morning, the cacique of the Capahas came. attended by a train of one hundred warriors, adorned with gay and beautiful plumes and with mantles of skins. He was about twenty-six years old, of fine person and noble demeanor. When he came to the village his first care before waiting on the adelantado was to visit the sepulchres of his ancestors, and, "gathering up the scattered bones in silence, he kissed them and returned them reverently to their cof- fins; and, having arranged the sepulchre," he proceeded to the quar- ters of De Soto. He was graciously received and offered himself as a vassal; but, took no notice of his old adversary, the cacique of the Casquins, who was present. The cacique answered the numer- ous questions about his territories with great clearness and intelli- gence, and when the governor had ceased his interrogatories he turned suddenly to his rival cacique and said: "Doubtless, Casquin, you exult in having revenged your past defeats, a thing you could never have hoped or effected through your own forces. You may thank these strangers for it. They will go; but we shall remain in our country, as we were before. Pray to the sun and moon to send us good weather, then -" De Soto interposed and endeavored to produce a reconciliation, and, in deference to him, the cacique of Capaha repressed his wrath and embraced his adversary. But it was evident from the occasional glances between them that a future storm was certain. The two wives who had been captured were also brought to be restored, but he offered them as a present to the
II3
SEND SOLDIERS NORTH
adelantado. De Soto declining them, he begged him to accept them and give them to some of his officers. In the Portuguese narrative, it is said that these beautiful females were sisters of the Capaha, and that one was called Macanoche and the other Machifa, both handsome and well shaped, especially the former, whose fea- tures were beautiful, countenance pleasing, and air majestic.
It is evident, from this account, that the historian attributes to · these aborigines many European ideas and notions. All that can be safely taken as true, however, are the main particulars of the incidents related, without the circumstantial statements, which it is plain are the result of the narrator's imagination. Garcilasso was, we have already stated, not an actual participant of the expedition, but wrote down what a soldier of the force told him, relating the incidents in such language and interlarded with such speeches as to him seemed proper for the occasion.
In the town of Capaha the Spaniards found a great variety of skins of deer, panthers, bear and wildcats. Out of these they made garments of which they stood in great need, many of them being nearly naked. They made moccasins of deer skins, and used bear skins as cloaks. Of the Indian bucklers, made out of buffalo skins, the troops also took possession. At Capaha, too, the Spaniards first caught a spadefish. The chronicler mentions the fact that some of these fish caught in the Mississippi river weighed one hundred and one hundred and fifty pounds.29
From Capaha, De Soto sent some of his soldiers northward. He learned from the Indians that in certain ranges of hills forty leagues distant there was salt, and also much of a yellowish metal. As the army was suffering for want of salt, he sent two trusty and intelli- gent men, Hernando de Silvera and Pedro Moreno, accompanied by Indians, to visit this region. After eleven days they returned half-famished, with their Indian companions loaded with salt in natural crystals, and one of them loaded with copper.
In his narrative, the "Gentleman of Elvas" says De Soto sent thirty horsemen and fifty footmen from Capaha to the province of
29 The description of the fish, which is a very local and curious animal, accor- ding to Nuttall, affords additional evidence of the truth of the relation of La Vega, and that De Soto marched up as far as New Madrid and farther up the river. Nuttall's Arkansas, p. 254. This fish, " the most whimsical production of the streams of the west," is accurately described by the best historian of the expe- dition. Bancroft's History of the U. S., vol. i, p. 45.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
Caluca, to see if he might travel to Chisca, where the Indians said there was gold and silver, and that this expedition traveled for seven days through a desert and then returned, reporting that the country was poor in maize. In consequence of this report, De Soto asked the Indians in what direction the country was most inhabited, and that the Indians advised him that Quiquate was a great province toward the south.30 Upon this information, De Soto concluded to retrace his steps to the village of the Casquins, and thence to march to the province of Quiquate, "where the Indians sowed large fields of maize." The cacique of the Casquins was ordered to repair the bridge across the lake, and De Soto marched back to his village, where he remained for five days longer, and then, according to Garcilasso, marched toward the south, but it is apparent, from the context of the narrative, that he must have marched in a southwest direction. The cacique of the Casquins supplied a guide and carriers, and after marching a day he lodged at another village of the Casquins, near a river, and was furnished there with canoes to pass over the stream. This river was only a day's march from the residence of the cacique, and as his village was on or near the Mississippi, the distance traveled by De Soto probably did not exceed twelve or fifteen miles. Going in a southwesterly direction, this would have brought his army into the district now known as the Little river overflow. In 1542 Little river was undoubtedly a good-sized stream, running parallel with the Mississippi river in a southerly direction through a country partially timbered, or perhaps altogether a prairie, or. as the "Gentleman of Elvas" says, a country "full of good meadows on the river." The vast and gloomy forests that now mark this region had not as yet grown up. Here, then, we find the river, and across this river De Soto and his army were transferred to the second ridge running parallel with the Mississippi north and south, between the Little river on the one side and the St. Francois on the other. This ridge is also marked with many aboriginal remains, giving evidence that it was at one time the center of a large population. It lies now within the limits of Dunklin county, Missouri, and Mississippi county, Arkansas. That De Soto did not march south, but southwest, is also stated in Biedma's concise account. He says: "Seeing there was no way to reach the South Sea, we returned toward the north [meaning, undoubtedly, the south], afterward we traveled in a 30 Shipp's De Soto, p. 654.
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FROM QUIQUATE TO CALIGOA
southwest direction to a province called Quiquate, where we found the largest village we had yet seen in all our travels. It was situated on one of the branches of a great river." The country is level. After crossing Little river, De Soto marched through this country for four days, according to Garcilasso, but probably not at a very great speed, until he reached Quiquate; the "Gentleman of Elvas" merely says that they arrived there on the fourth day of August. Quiquate is described as a large town, and beyond it there was a lake "where horses could not pass." May it not be, that Quiquate was situated at the lower end of that peninsula of high land, extending through Dunklin county into Mississippi county, Arkansas, which is still well marked, although Little river is now filled and choked up with timber, "and the meadows of the river," which were then observed, are all grown up with heavy forests? At the lower end, in Arkan- sas this ridge is still surrounded by a chain of shallow lakes on the east and southeast, and on the west by the lakes of the St. Francois river, which then no doubt were very much larger and deeper, and perhaps appeared like the arm of a large river. At the lower end of this high tongue of land, or ridge, numerous remains of aboriginal inhabitants exist, and here, if we are allowed to speculate, perhaps the town which was "the largest" that had been seen in Florida may have been located. After various incidents which it is unneces- sary to note, at Quiquate, De Soto moved northwest to Caligoa, because he thought he might find gold and silver in that direction, although the Indians at Quiquate advised him that the country farther south was much more populous.
The route to Caligoa led through dreary woods, and it is expressly said that no path or trail connected it with Quiquate; from this may also be inferred that heretofore De Soto generally had followed established roads or paths. A single Indian now acted as his guide. On this march he was compelled to pass through lakes and pools of very shallow water, and full of fish. He also moved his army across "vast plains and high mountains," and at last "suddenly came to Caligoa." The distance traveled from Quiquate to Caligoa was said to have been forty leagues, or about one hundred and twenty miles, if we are to trust the narrative of the "Gentleman of Elvas." Caligoa was situated on the margin of a small river. The surprised Indians, when they saw the Spaniards, fled, while some threw themselves into the stream; but nevertheless a number
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
were captured. A few days after this surprise, the cacique of Caligoa made his appearance and presented De Soto with mantles of deer skins and robes of buffalo, and informed him that six leagues farther north was a thinly inhabited country where vast herds of wild buffalo ranged.
Of course, it cannot now be determined how far northwest into what is now Missouri De Soto penetrated in his march to Caligoa. But that he reached some of the highlands of the St. Francois or Black is quite certain. After passing through the lowlands, swamps, and morasses (perhaps the old river-bed of the Mississippi), lying northwest of what is now known as the Dunklin county ridge, he reached the southwestern slopes of the Ozarks, and then he must have passed over some of the high plateaux of these mountains, at that time and long afterward devoid of timber, where herds of buf- falo roamed. Nuttall supposed that Caligoa was situated toward the sources of the St. Francois.31 Schoolcraft seems to be of the same opinion, and says that "the elevated lands between the Black river and the St. Francois had evidently been the line of march of De Soto when he set forward from Quiquate on the St. Francois toward the northwest in search of Caligoa. Any other crossing between west and southwest would have involved his army in lagoons and the deep and wide channel of White river, which forms a barrier of about one hundred and fifty miles toward the south." 32 And when we take into account that De Soto was in search of gold and silver, it is not at all improbable that he and his army may have passed over and bivouaced among the granite and porphyritic ridges whence the St. Francois and Black take their rise.
From Caligoa, De Soto was directed, in his search for gold, south and southwest to Palisema. When he reached Palisema, the cacique had fled, but left his cabin arranged in order. "The walls were hung with deer skins, admirably dyed and dressed," so that they "appeared to the eye like beautiful tapestry." The floor was like- wise covered with fine skins.33 Palisema was in a rough country. It was a little, scattering village, and De Soto found little* maize there, and therefore he quickly departed. It took the Spaniards
31 Nuttall's Arkansas, p. 256- note in which he says: "towards the source of the St. Francois on the hills of White river."
32 Scenes and Adventures in the Ozarks, cited in Shipp's De Soto, note 25 p. 658.
33 2 Irving's Conquest of Florida, p. 132.
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PALISEMA AND TANICO
four days to march from Caligoa to Palisema, and the distance they traveled over this rough country could not have exceeded one hun- dred miles within that time.34
From Palisema, a march of four days more brought De Soto to the frontiers of the province of Cayas, and he "encamped on the banks of the river near the village called Tanico." De Soto now had approximately moved about one hundred and eighty miles south and southwest from Caligoa. If the Cayas are identical with the Kansas Indians, as is supposed by Schoolcraft, De Soto probably reached a territory which was inhabited by them, lying between the head-waters of the Arkansas and White and the great bend of the Missouri.35 The fact that he found the waters of the stream on which he encamped were impregnated with salt, a fact which over- joyed the Spaniards, who were in great need of this article, would seem to indicate that he must have reached one of the streams heading in the salines of the western plains. The country around Tanico was well cultivated, was full of. sown fields and stores of maize. Here De Soto remained for a month, fattened his horses, and rested his men.36
From Tanico, De Soto marched for four days to Tulla, but in order to reach this place he was compelled to pass high mountains, which intervened between the two places. It may well be inferred from this that what we now know as the Boston mountains separated Tanico from Tulla. Tanico was situated in the plains or prairies of western Missouri; Tulla, on the other hand, in the valley of the Arkansas. But here we leave the story of De Soto, who now undoubtedly passes into the territory of the present state of Arkansas on his fateful march.
34 In the account of the "Gentleman of Elvas," it is said that from Palisema the Spaniards came to another town called Tatalicoyo, where they found a large river which emptied into the Mississippi. This river was evidently a fork of the White river, or the White river itself, but most probably the north fork of this stream, and not the Arkansas, as has been supposed. If we place Caligoa at the head of the St. Francois or White, it is evident that De Soto could not have marched as far as the Arkansas river in so short a time. From Tatalicoyo, according to this last narrative, the Spaniards marched for four days through a mountainous country and finally reached Tanico .- Shipp's DeSoto, p. 556.
35 "The Cayas of LaVega are the modern Kansas," says Thwaites, but upon what direct authority, he does not state .- Nuttall's Arkansas, p. 145, note 122. (Clark Ed.)
36 Shipp's De Soto, p. 658.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
At this time it is impossible to trace the route of De Soto with any conclusive accuracy. A few physical landmarks remain which can be approximately identified. The names of a few of the Indian tribes he encountered furnish, perhaps, the most conclusive evidence that he marched and camped in this state. Doubtless if the first settlers of upper Louisiana had been mindful of the historic interest of this heroic enterprise, and searched as diligently for evidence of this march as they did for gold and silver, they might have been rewarded by finding indubitable evidence, such as broken arms and trappings, of the transient passage through the territory of what is now Missouri, of this chivalric Spaniard and conquistador.
CHAPTER IV
Expedition of Coronado to Conquer the Seven Cities of Cibola-Grand Review of the Expeditionary Army by the Viceroy, February, 1540-Event- ful and Toilsome March from Compostela to Cibola-Dream of Silver and Gold, Great Kingdoms and Royal Cities Dispelled by Reality --- Reconnoitering Corps Seek Other Settlements-Alvarado Discovers the Rock of Acoma, Tiguex on the Rio Grande, and Cicuque on the Pecos- Wonderful Riches of the Land of Quivira Related by "The Turk," a Former Indian Slave-Army in Winter Quarters at Tiguex-Route Followed and Distance Traveled by Coronado's Army to Quivira, De- scribed by Participants-Location of Quivira Disputed by Historians and Geographers-Incidents of the Expedition of Historical Value-Magni- tude of the Interior of the Continent First Revealed-March from the Valley of the Rio Grande to the Valley of the Pecos-Ruins of Cicuye in Valley of the Pecos-Coronado Crosses the Canadian and Reaches the Great Plains-Marches for Days Among the Buffaloes-First Meets the Indians of the Plains, Styled "Querechos"-Marches Along the Streams in the Buffalo Country-Reaches a Country Well Inhabited-A Country of Kidney Beans and Prunes and Vines-Encamps in a Ravine a League Wide-Coronado Orders Army to Return to Tiguex-With Thirty Horsemen and Six Foot Soldiers Coronado Proceeds to Quivira- Travels Many Days by the Needle Across the Great Plains-Reaches the River of Quivira-Proceeds to the Villages of Quivira-Quivira Evidently Within the Present Limits of Missouri-Topography of the Country- The Osages Identified by Coronado, and Tribes of the Lower Missouri Valley.
Two years after De Soto with great joy, on a bright Sunday morn- ing, had passed over the bar of San Lucar bay, the gorgeous banner of Spain unfurled at his mastheads, the trumpets sounding and the ordnance of his ships discharging farewell salutes, far away on the shores of the Pacific in New Spain, at Compostela, the chief city of the newly created kingdom of Nueva Galicia,1 one hundred and ten leagues west of the City of Mexico, in February, 1540, the viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza,2 arrived to review the expedition organ- ized by his order, which under the command of Don Francesco Vas- quez de Coronado, as captain-general, was to discover and conquer the seven cities of Cibola. Knowledge of these cities had been obtained from the same Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca,3 who, by his
I The Kingdom of Nueva Galicia at that time comprised the undefined northwest of Mexico.
2 Don Antonio de Mendoza, first viceroy of New Spain, from 1535 to 1549, afterward viceroy of Peru, where he died July 21, 1552. A book of rules (libro de tasas), compiled in part from the ancient laws of the Incas, was ordered prepared by him, and promulgated while he was viceroy.
3 Born in 1490; died at Seville in 1560; came to Florida with the fated
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
marvelous stories of the wealth of gold and silver within the realms of Florida, had aroused De Soto to undertake his famous expedition. On the twenty-first day of February the viceroy held a grand review of the whole expeditionary army, ready and equipped for the adven- turous march. The assembled forces consisted of "about two hun- dred and fifty Spaniards on horseback, and about three thousand Indians, more or less." 4
On the day following the review, "after they had heard mass, captains and soldiers together, the viceroy made them a short speech, telling them of the fidelity they owed their general, and showing them clearly the benefits which the expedition might afford, from the conversion of these people, as well as in the profit of those who should conquer the territory." No expense had been spared to fully equip the army so as to make the expedition successful. Arms, horses, and supplies had been liberally furnished, and, according to Castaneda, one of the historians of the march, "there were so many men of such high quality among the Spaniards that such a noble body was never collected in the Indies, nor so many men of quality in such a small body." After enumerating many, he says, pathetically, " I have forgotten the names of many good fellows. It would be well if I could name some of them, so that it might clearly be seen what cause I had for saying that they had on this expedition the most brilliant company ever collected in the Indies to go in search of new lands." 5
expedition of Pamphilo de Narvaez in 1528, as its treasurer. Only he and three others escaped the shipwreck and savages; lived for years among them, and finally reached the northern settlements of Mexico. He returned to Spain in 1537, where his travels and adventures aroused great interest. Afterward he was appointed governor of Paraguay, where he was deposed and imprisoned by the colonists for arbitrary acts; later he was sent to Spain, tried and banished to Oran, Africa, but was recalled, pensioned and made judge of the supreme court of Seville. He wrote an account of his travels in Florida and his administration in Paraguay. A picturesque character.
4 The number of men who participated in this expedition is variously given in various narratives .- 14 Report, Bureau of Ethnology, part i, p. 378. H. H. Bancroft supposes that the forces consisted of three hundred Spaniards and eight hundred Indians .- Bancroft's " Arizona and New Mexico," p. 36.
5 Francesco Vasquez Coronado was a native of Salamanca, Spain, and came to America in the retinue of viceroy Mendoza. In 1537 he married Beatrice de Estrada, a cousin by blood, according to gossip, of the Emperor Charles; obtained a large grant in Mexico, so large even as to cause complaint from Cortez; enjoyed the confidence of the viceroy; was appointed governor of Nueva Galicia in 1538, and in 1540 captain-general of the expedition to conquer the seven cities of Cibola. What became of Coronado after the failure of the expedition is not known; apparently he sinks into oblivion. In 1544
I2I
REACHES CIBOLA
From Compostela, on the twenty-third of February, 1540, accom- panied by the viceroy for two days, the expedition began its eventful and toilsome march, with flying colors and buoyant with the brilliant dream of rich kingdoms to be won. After enduring many hard- ships and much suffering in the rugged and inhospitable regions in the north of New Spain, crossing many rivers and mountains, and the alkali plains of the present Arizona, the army finally reached the so-called seven cities of Cibola, since identified as a district or terri- tory inhabited by the Zuni Indians.6 Of course, the dream of great kingdoms, of royal cities, of wealth, of silver and gold, vanished- dispelled by the naked reality.
In this district or territory of Cibola, Coronado encamped for a time. All were bitterly disappointed. Something had to be done to maintain the existence of the expeditionary force. Renewed efforts were necessary. Rumors of other settlements were current, and hence reconnoitering corps were sent out in different directions. Hernando de Alvarado7 was sent eastward, and found the rock of Acoma,8 Tiguex on the Rio Grande, and other settlements. Tiguex was not far from the present site of Bernadillo, according to Bandelier.9 Thence Alvarado reached another Indian town named Cicuye or "Cicuque," on the Pecos, where an Indian slave originally from the country of Florida, who acted as guide for him to see the cows (buffalo) of the plains, told him so many and such marvelous tales of the wealth in gold and silver of a country he called Quivira, that Alvarado quickly returned, to report "the rich news to the general." This Indian was called by the Spaniards the "Turk," because he "looked like one."10 Thus the drooping hopes of the adventurers · were revived. Coronado then moved the army from Cibola in December, through heavy snow-storms, to pass the winter in Tiguex. The season was long and cold. So, during this winter the Spaniards lived in Tiguex, no doubt "going about in rusty helmets, battered
and in 1547, however, he was accused of holding more Indians to labor on his estate than allowed by law, but the result of this accusation is not known .- 14 Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, part i, p. 403.
6 Bandelier, "The Gilded Man," p. 185, et. seq. "We may," he says, "without mistake, regard Cibola as identical with the country Zuni."
7 May have been a relative of Pedro de Alvarado.
8 A famous perpendicular rock in the plain, nearly three hundred feet high, on which was found, and is now located, a town.
9 Bandelier, "The Gilded Man," p. 204.
10 14 Report, Bureau of Ethnology, vol. i, part i, p. 402.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
cuirasses, ragged doublets, and worn-out boots, but with good weapons, amongst the Indians, who wrapped themselves in thick covers made of rabbit skins."11 Here they waited impatiently for he spring, in the meantime feeding on hope and dreaming of the land of Quivira and its riches.
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