USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume I > Part 16
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It is not necessary to notice here the trouble with the Indians at Tiguex, during the winter, and many other incidents which occurred. The principal interest in Coronado's expedition relates to the route pursued across the plains and the distances traveled, so as to ascertain whether or not he and his followers came east or northeast far enough to have encamped within the limits of the terri- tory which is now Missouri. Several histories of this expedition written by participants in it, have preserved the events of the adven- turous march. Thus we have the narrative of Don Pedro Castaneda 12 and of Juan Jaramillo,13 who were both with the expedition. In addition, two anonymous documents, the "Relacion Postrera de Sivola" and the "Relacion del Suceso," also narrate some of its incidents. Finally, the letters of Coronado to the Viceroy Mendoza and to the king give his story of the march. Most of these docu- ments in the original Spanish, accompanied by a translation annotated by Winship, have recently been published in the Fourteenth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, and are thus made easily accessible. It would seem that, with so much documentary evidence based on what participants in the expedition saw and experienced, at least the course pursued, the route followed, and the distances traveled by Coronado and his army ought to be free from doubt. This, however, is far from being the case. On no subject does there appear to exist a greater diversity of opinion among those who have endeavored from these narratives to trace out which way Coronado marched than where he finally found Quivira. As a consequence, this mythical region has been located by geographers almost everywhere north of the thirty-sixth parallel, from the Mississippi to the Pacific. While
11 Bandelier, "The Gilded Man," p. 196.
12 A native of the town of Najera, in Biscay. According to Winship, there were several representatives of the family of the Castanedas among the Span- iards in America, but he has discovered only one other possible mention of this Pedro in New Spain. He accompanied the expedition in some capacity, and wrote his narrative twenty years afterward. Bancroft says he was a resident of Culican. -History of New Mexico, p. 37, note 11.
13 Was a captain in the expeditionary force, and this is all we know personally about this valiant conquistador.
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THE PLAINS
it is of little practical importance whether Coronado traversed a region now in Missouri, in 1541, nevertheless every incident in the history of the past, be it ever so insignificant, has a historical value. The student possessed of the true historic spirit will always be interested to learn how far east Coronado with his followers came, the direction or course he followed, and where he finally found Quivira. Especially will the student of the history of Missouri be interested to know whether Coronado thought that he found this realm within the borders of this state. Coronado's expedition first revealed to the world the magnitude of the interior of the North American continent, the boundless plains, "so vast," he says in his letter to the king, "that I did not find their limit anywhere that I went, although I traveled over them for more than three hundred leagues." 14
Coronado began his celebrated historic march from Tiguex to Quivira on the twenty-third of April, 1541.15 Castaneda says that he proceeded "toward the plains, which are all on the other side of the mountains." Since these plains are situated east and northeast of the Rio Grande, the course of Coronado must have been east or northeast, and the statement of Winship that he marched northeast is undoubtedly correct.16 But it should be noted here that, in the Relacion del Suceso, it is said that Coronado "started with his whole army" to the east and south.17 Naturally, from Tiguex Coro- nado would first march to Cicuye, where Alvarado had found the Indian slave, designated in all the narratives as the "Turk." In the "Relacion de Postrera de Sivola" it is said that it is a journey of four days from Tiguex to this village, which in this narrative is called "Cicuic." 18 Castaneda makes it "twenty-five marches, which means leagues, from there," thus confirming the statement, because the army would march about six leagues a day. Jaramillo gives four days to "Cicuique."19 It took Alvarado five days to go from Tiguex to Cicuye when he first went there.20 . This march also
14 14 Report, Bureau of Ethnology, part i, p. 581.
15 This is the date Coronado gives in his letter to the king, but Castaneda says the army started on the fifth of May .- 14 Report, Bureau of Ethnology part i, p. 883.)
16 14 Report, Bureau of Ethnology, part i, pp. 395 and 504.
17 Ibid, p. 577.
18 14 Report, Bureau of Ethnology, part i, p. 570.
19 Ibid, p. 587.
20 Ibid, p. 491.
I26
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
one hundred leagues east and fifty to the south."27 Incidentally we may observe that this would be the course he naturally would follow if he believed the story of the "Turk," and if the "Turk" was guide, he would naturally lead the army that way. Coronado, in his letter to the king, does not give the direction in which he marched with the army, but Jaramillo says that, after crossing the river, "we turned more to the left hand," which would be more to the northeast.28 After marching thus for four or five days they "began to come across [buffalo] bulls," and, marching for two or three days among the buffalo, "began to find themselves in the midst of a very great number of [buffalo] cows, yearlings, and bulls." And now the Spaniards first met with the Indians of the plains, named by them Querechos. Here the Spaniards noticed that the Indians did not kill the male buffalo, but only the cows, and hence found hunting where the cows and yearlings herded. Du Pratz also says that when hunting with the Arkansas Indians he killed a male buffalo on the St. Francois river, and that the Indians said to him with a smile, "You kill the males; do you intend to make tallow ?" 29 He then remonstrated with them as to their practice of killing the females, explaining that if they killed the bulls instead of the cows, the difference in profit would be very considerable. But, as stated, these Querechos moved with the cows, following and killing them just as the Arkansas Indians were accustomed to do when Du Pratz hunted with them two hundred years afterward. Coronado moved forward, in no wise delayed by these Querechos, in the same direc- tion, i. e., northeast, for eight or ten days "along the streams which are among the cows," in the buffalo country. All these streams run in an east and southeast direction, and it is along these streams that we must find the route of Coronado and his army. For this reason alone, Jaramillo's statement that the "Turk," who acted as guide from the time the army entered the plains, led Coronado off more to the east, following the course of streams, bears the impress of truth. Thus they marched twenty days "more in this direction," and at the end of that time found another settlement "of the same sort of Indians" as those that they found at first on the plains. Here by signs, an old Indian told them that many days before "he
27 14 Report, Bureau of Ethnology, part i, p. 577.
28 Ibid, p. 588.
29 DuPratz, "Louisiana," vol. i, p. 228. London Ed., 1763.
I27
CONA
had seen four others like us." So Jaramillo presumes that Nunez de Vaca and his companions must have passed that way.
The army now went into camp, and Coronado, admonished by the difficulties and perils that seemed to encompass him, ordered his captains to assemble to discuss the situation, and "what was best for all." 30 According to Jaramillo, the expedition had now marched thirty-six days since crossing the river, moving northeast or east "along those streams which are among the cows."
Comparing the account of Jaramillo with Castaneda, we find that Castaneda says that "after ten days they came to some settle- ments of people who lived like Arabs, and who were called Quere- chos "; that from these people Coronado learned that "there was a very large river over where the sun came from," 31 and that this river "was more than a league wide, and that there were many canoes in it." Castaneda in a manner agrees with Jaramillo as to the direction in which the army moved, and that since they left the settlements of the Pecos they had "marched between north and east," and adds, "but more toward the north." From these Querechos, Castaneda records, they also learned that the settlements were "all toward the east from where they were." 32 Coronado now first heard of the "Haxa" or "Haya," who, the Querechos said, lived on the great river, and obtained from them "a great deal of information about settlements all toward the east." The army, according to Castaneda, after a march of thirty-seven days, reached a country well inhabited, where they had "plenty of kidney beans and prunes, like those of Castile, and tall vineyards," and these settlements were called "Cona." They encamped in a ravine "which was a league wide from one side to the other, with a little bit of a river at the bottom, and there were many groves of mulberry trees near it, and rose bushes, with the same sort of fruit that they have in France," and out of the unripe grapes "they made verjuice." They also found walnut- trees, and the Indians had the "same kind of fowls as in New Spain," and were "very intelligent." The women were "well made and modest," wore "cloaks over their small under-petticoats" with sleeves covered up at their shoulders, all made of skins.
The army, Castaneda writes, was now two hundred and fifty
30 14 Report, Bureau of Ethnology, part i, p. 589.
31 Ibid, p. 504
32 Ibid, p. 505.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
leagues from "the settlements"-that is to say, from the Tiguex country; and here, Coronado, according to Castaneda, determined to stop. With an escort of thirty horsemen and one half-dozen foot soldiers Coronado set out from this place "in search of Quivira." The army, under command of Tristan de Arellano, he ordered to return to Tiguex. In his letter to the king, although he does not state in what direction he marched, Coronado says that he traveled over the plains "more than three hundred leagues," that he met the Querechos after a march of seventeen days, and that five days after- ward he "reached some plains with no more landmarks than as if we had been swallowed up by the sea," and where, he says, "the Querechos strayed about." He adds that while he "was lost in the plains" some of his horsemen fell in with other Indians, who " are called Teyas," by the Querechos. From the expression "lost in the plains" it has been assumed by Bandelier that Coronado was actually lost, that is to say, did not know in what direction he traveled or was traveling, that he wandered around in a circle in these vast prairies. But the various narratives show that he steadily moved east and northeast with his forces, with the exception, however, of the "Relacion del Suceso," which states that he moved southeast. It is certain, then, that by the expression "lost in the plains" Cor- onado did not mean to be understood as saying that he did not know in what direction he was marching, but rather that these plains were so vast in extent that he and his army were lost in their immensity, or, as General Simpson puts it, were "getting in a measure lost." 33 This is confirmed by a statement in the "Relacion del Suceso," where it is said that Coronado, after he ordered the army to return, himself traveled for "many days by the needle," and that after a march of thirty days he reached the river of Quivira below where the settlements were. This conclusively shows that he knew the direc- tion in which he was moving. Winship says that "there is nothing to show that the Indian guides ever really lost their reckoning." 34
When the Spaniards went into camp, "resting" in the ravine "a league wide," they had marched two hundred and fifty leagues, a distance General Simpson 35 assumed to be seven or eight hundred miles from "the settlements," that is to say, from the Tiguex country,
33 "Coronado's March," Rep. Smithsonian Inst. for 1869, p. 337.
34 14 Report, Bureau of Ethnology, part i, p. 397, note.
35 "Coronado's March," Smithsonian Report for 1869, p. 387.
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IN MISSOURI
or, as Bandelier says, "from Pecos," i. e., "Cicuye." Nor was this guess work, because, according to Castaneda,36 it had been made "the duty of one man to measure and count the steps." This gave a pretty accurate idea of the distance traveled. If Coronado marched in a northeast direction, and if we give any credence to the narratives of Castaneda and Jaramillo, we must concede that he marched in that direction; it is certain that with his whole force he came pretty near to the western limits of Missouri. On the other hand, if we adopt the east and south direction given in the "Relacion del Suceso," to which Winship 37 gives greater credence, because, in his opinion, less subject to objection, Coronado unquestionably came into the present limits of the state of Arkansas, although Winship does not believe he marched as far as Castaneda says, namely, two hundred and fifty leagues, but rather adopts the statement in the "Relacion del Suceso" that he marched one hundred and fifty leagues, one hundred east and fifty south. When, however, we take into consid- eration the enthusiasm which every man must have felt to reach the land of Quivira, where all expected great wealth, and where the sol- diers imagined that the caciques of the country slept under trees on the limbs of which hung golden bells, it is certain that the army moved at a rate of from eighteen to twenty miles a day. It is hardly probable, therefore, that in thirty-seven days the army marched only four hundred and fifty miles. Every man must have been animated by the spirit of the enterprise and the wealth and fortune he thought he was certain to secure. Even if we could adopt the statement of the anonymous "Relacion del Suceso," that Coronado marched southeast, we certainly could not believe that he covered only a dis- tance of four hundred and fifty miles in thirty-seven days, and then turned his forces back. The statements of Castaneda and Jara- millo, wherever they can be verified, are usually found to be singu- larly correct; why, then, should we doubt their statement as to the distance or direction in which Coronado moved, especially when the methods by which the distance marched was acsertained are so well explained? They were both intelligent and observant. Jaramillo was a captain in the army. It is not stated in what capacity Cas- taneda accompanied the expedition, but it is certain that he was a man of ability and education, and it is conceded that his narrative
36 14 Report, Bureau of Ethnology, part i, p. 508.
37 14 Report, Bureau of Ethnology, part i, p. 398.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
is remarkably clear and satisfactory.38 Yet, it has been observed that he was not very friendly to Coronado.
On the whole, it must be conceded, in the words of General Simp- son,39 that Coronado marched "generally in a northeast direction, over extensive plains, through countless herds of buffaloes and prairie-dog villages," and that finally, after having traveled eastward for thirty-seven days, "a distance between seven and eight hundred miles, their provisions failing them, the main body turned back to Tiguex." Then leaving the army, Coronado, as we have seen, with thirty horsemen, Captain Jaramillo among them, and six foot sol- diers, continued his search for Quivira. He was accompanied by some "Teyas" as guides, but they told him that Quivira was to the north, and that they would not find a good road thither. After remaining for two weeks in the ravines, the remainder of the force marched back and "covered in twenty-five days what it had taken thirty-seven days in going." 40 On this return march they found many salt lakes, and on the banks of a river all sorts of rose-bushes, "the fruit of which tasted like muscatel grapes." Along the same river they also found unripe grapes and currants, and Castaneda 41 says it was believed that this river flowed "into the mighty river of Espiritu Santo, which the men with Hernando De Soto discovered in Florida," which, of course, would describe several rivers they crossed on their way back to Cicuye. A singular fact noted by the chronicler is, that the army reached the Cicuye river thirty leagues below where they crossed it. No explanation of this singular fact is offered. It would seem, however, to confirm the route of march southeast, as given in the "Relacion del Suceso," and after marching thirty-seven days in a southeast direction, we can well imagine that by marching directly west they might reach the river in twenty-five days thirty leagues below where they crossed it.
But to return to Coronado. According to the "Relacion del Suceso," after starting with his escort, "it pleased God that after thirty days' march we found the river Quivira, which is thirty leagues below the settlements." Castaneda says that "the general fol- lowed his guides until he reached Quivira, which took forty-eight
38 H. H. Bancroft's "Arizona and New Mexico," p. 37.
39 "Coronado's March," Smithsonian Report, p. 337.
40 14 Report, Bureau of Ethnology, part i, p. 510.
41 14 Report, Bureau of Ethnology, part i, p. 510.
13I
QUIVIRA
days' marching on account of the great detour they had made to Florida." Jaramillo, who ought to be a credible witness, because he was in the escort, says that after Coronado left the army, "we pursued our way, the direction all the time after this being toward the north, for more than thirty days' march, although not long marches, yet not having to go without water on any one of them; among the cows all the time, some days in larger numbers than others, according to the water which we came across, so that on St. Peter's and St. Paul's day we reached a river which we found to be below Quivira." They crossed the river and then marched northeast for three days, which would be about seventy-five miles, found some Indians hunting, "killing the cows to take the meat to their village, which is about three or four days still farther (sixty or seventy-five miles more) away from us." Coronado reached this village and there wrote a letter "to the governor of Harahey and Quibira, having understood that he was a Christian from the lost army of Florida." These villages were situated in a good river bottom and there were six or seven villages a considerable distance from each other, and "among which we traveled for four or five days," that is to say, from seventy-five to one hundred miles.42
But now, perhaps chiefly on account of anxiety for the army he had left behind, and also, it may be, on account of the advance of the season, for it was the middle of August, and for fear that the winter might close up the roads with snow and ice, Coronado concluded to return. Accordingly, having provided himself with dry corn and fruit, he began his march back, and after forty days reached Cicuye. In the "Relacion del Suceso" it is said that Coronado returned by a more direct route; that in going they had traveled three hundred and thirty leagues, but in returning they traveled only two hundred leagues; that Quivira is in the fortieth degree, and the river in the thirty-sixth degree.43 Coronado himself says that he reached Quivira in the fortieth degree, and that he found "prunes like those of Spain, and nuts and very good sweet grapes and mulberries." The country,
42 Winsor thinks that in July and August, 1541, the expeditions of De Soto and Coronado must have been encamped so close together that in a few days an Indian runner might have carried tidings between them, and that Coronado, having actually heard of De Soto, sent this letter, but that the messenger failed to find De Soto's force .- Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, Vol. II, p. 292.
43 14 Report of Bureau of Ethnology, part i, p. 578.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
he says,44 is "the best I have ever seen," and "very fat and black" and "well watered by the rivulets, springs, and rivers."
Without attempting to reconcile the narratives where they differ, it is quite clear that Coronado and his escort must have found Quivira within the limits of Missouri. If Coronado followed the southeast course, as stated in the "Relacion del Suceso," for thirty-seven days, that is, traveled from seven to eight hundred miles east and south from the Pecos, which course may have carried him too far "toward Florida," as Castaneda says, a march due north of thirty days from where he left his army would pass through a country where daily he he would find water. On the contrary, if he had made a march north from a point only three hundred and fifty miles east of the Pecos, he undoubtedly would have suffered greatly for water. In the march from Pecos east the army at times suffered for water. Governor Prince, supposing that Coronado started from the canyons of the Canadian, thinks that "forty-eight days would carry Coronado to the Missouri without difficulty," and, all things considered, we can well suppose "that he traversed parts of the Indian Territory and Kansas and finally stopped on the borders of the Missouri somewhere between Kansas City and Council Bluffs." 45
If we assume that Coronado marched east, but bearing somewhat north, he must have reached a point at least one hundred miles north- east of the southwest corner of Missouri. Marching north with his escort along this route, he would find water daily, but marching north along a route one hundred and fifty miles farther west, undoubtedly he would have suffered for water.
Leaving this matter out of consideration, it is to be noted partic- ularly that Castaneda 46 says the country "is level as far as Quivira," and that there "they began to see some mountain chains." These mountains mentioned undoubtedly refer to the Ozark ridges of Mis- souri and Arkansas, the first conspicuous elevation east of the plains, and separating these plains from the Mississippi valley. Comment-
44 Ibid., p. 582.
45 "Historical Sketches of New Mexico," p. 141. The Journal of Pedro Vial, of his trip from Santa Fe to "San Luis de Ylinoa " made by order of Viceroy of Nuevo Espana, in 1792-and a copy of which I recently secured from the Archives of Spain, it seems to me throws some incidental light on this march of Coronado. Vial told Trudeau-that he could have made the journey from Santa Fe to St. Louis in twenty-five days, but for the Indians who captured and robbed him.
46 14 Report, Bureau of Ethnology, part i, p. 528.
I33
OSAGE HEADDRESS
ing on this portion of the narrative, Judge Prince 47 says: "One thing appears distinct, however, that Quivira was on the edge of the great plains or prairie, and from it the mountains first became visible, and that it was situated on a small stream just east of the great river."
Coronado, in his letter to the king, refers to the fact that "the people here are large," and says that he "had several Indians meas- ured, and found that they were ten palms in height." The only Indians noted and conspicuous for their size are the Osages. Their extraordinary height was noted by all the early travelers. Jaramillo says that when Coronado summoned "the lord of these parts, and the other Indians, he came with two hundred men, all naked, with bows and some sort of things on their heads," and says that this chief was a "big Indian with a large body and limbs well propor- tioned." The Osages shave their heads, with the exception of a scalp lock, which they adorn in a conspicuous manner, and this is the "some sort of things" that Jaramillo saw on their heads. Cat- lin 48 observes that all the Indians of the plains wore their hair long; and on the other hand, he says "The custom of shaving the head and ornamenting it with the crest of the deer's hair belongs to this tribe (i. e., the Kansas) and also to the Osages, the Pawnees, the Sacs and Foxes and Ioways, and to no other tribes that I know of, unless it be in some few instances where individuals have introduced it in their tribes, merely by way of imitation." The Kansas Indians are of the same stock as the Osages.48 So, also, the Ioways belong to the same linguistic stock. When, therefore, Jaramillo observed the dif- ference in the hair and headdress among the Indians, and recorded his observation, he gives us very distinct and unmistakable evidence that Coronado and his escort had reached a point far enough east to come in contact with the Indian tribes of the lower Missouri val- ley, or, at any rate, with those Indian tribes Dorsey says belonged to the linguistic Siouan stock, and who originally came down the Ohio and moved up the Missouri and thence up that river toward the plains, while another branch of this stock moved down the river. No incident related by Jaramillo is of greater significance to the stu- dent of this march of Coronado than this change in the decoration of the head, the "some sort of things on their heads" of the Indians of Quivira. The "Haxa" or "Hayas," which the Querechos said
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