USA > New Mexico > Historical sketches of New Mexico : from the earliest records to the American occupation > Part 6
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After eating the dogs the Spaniards felt refreshed, and continued their journey, and at night came to a village of fifty dwellings. The inhabitants probably never had heard of white men, as they were greatly amazed at their appearance, showing at first much fear. In the morning the Indians brought their sick, on whom they prayed for a blessing. Here the Spaniards stayed some days ; and when they stated that they must leave, the whole town was in tears at their departure,
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begging them to remain. They went forward, however, and were received by the next tribe with equal hospi- tality. Here for the first time they saw the Mesquit, and ate of its fruit, and of flour made from it. Though these people arranged a special festival in honor of the travellers, they did not tarry, but passed on ; and after crossing a river as wide as the Guadalquiver, arrivedat a large Indian town of a full hundred habitations. Here the fame of the strangers had preceded them, and the people came out to receive them, making a barbarous kind of music with their voices and hands, and carrying gourds with pebbles in them, which were used solely on important occasions ; because, as the gourd did not grow in their country, but was only found when brought down the river occasionally in times of floods, they con- sidered it peculiarly sacred, and as coming direct from heaven. Having heard of the wonderful cures effected by the pale-faces, the people pressed upon them in crowds, each trying to be foremost in touching them in order to receive some of the miraculous virtue, so that the Spaniards were in danger of their lives and had to retire into a house. All night long the natives danced and sang in honor of the occasion, and the next morn- ing the whole town came to be touched and blessed, as they had heard had been done in other places, and made presents to the Indians who had guided the Spaniards from the last town. This latter custom was continued from place to place in an increasing degree. Those that accompanied the party from the town just mentioned to the next, took from each person who came to be cured his bow and arrows, and any ornaments which he might wear, apparently as payment for having brought the wonderful physicians; and the sick men were so full of rejoicing over what they considered a certainty of cure that they cheerfully yielded all that they had. The people of that town, when they in their turn conducted them to still another, were even more grasping, entering
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the houses and carrying off whatever suited their fancy ; but when the Spaniards showed sorrow and displeasure at this, the people who were thus despoiled assured them that they need not be grieved, as they were so gratified at their coming that they considered the payment by their property but a small equivalent ; and besides (and this was perhaps the real reason of their complacency), that as the Spaniards went on, they in their turn .would be well rewarded by those in advance, who were very rich.
About this time the four travellers first came in sight of some mountains, all the country heretofore having been a level plain. These were undoubtedly the San Saba Mountains of modern atlases, though Cabeza de Vaca in describing them gives a good illustration of the indefinite ideas of geography then existing in America, by saying that " they appear to come in succession from the North Sea," or Atlantic. They were guided towards them by Indians, who took them to the villages of their kindred, because they did not wish their enemies to enjoy so great a privilege as the presence of the wonder- working strangers; but who, nevertheless, did not forget to plunder the towns visited as a kind of reward. At length this custom became so well known that at any place that they approached the people would hide a portion of their goods. Sometimes they made voluntary presents to the Spaniards, but the latter always dis- tributed them among the natives who were bearing them company, in order to carry out the national custom. At this point they followed up the course of a river for a considerable distance, being desirous to seek the interior, where they found uniform kindness and hospitality, rather than trust themselves again with the tribes near the coast, who were more violent and had proved cruel task-masters.
Once when the Spaniards had preferred to follow their own ideas of the proper route, rather than the
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suggestion of the accompanying people, the latter left them and the little company of adventurers journeyed on alone ; and on arriving at a village found every one in sorrow, because news had come that wheresoever the Spaniards came the town was pillaged by their escort. When they saw that the party was unaccompanied, they gained courage, and gave them prickly-pears to eat. But their sense of security was short-lived, for at dawn a lot of Indians from the preceding town suddenly broke open their houses and plundered them of almost everything. As consolation the marauders told them that the Spaniards were the children of the Sun, having power to cure or to destroy, to cause to live ordie. They advised them to do everything to make the strangers satisfied, and to show them the highest respect; not to mind what they lost in doing this, but to conduct the Spaniards to places where the people were numerous, and then to pillage the town, as that was the custom. The hearers were apt pupils, and when Cabeza de Vaca and his party were ready to move, they accompanied them, repeating what they had been told of the Span- iards, and adding much more ; for " these people," says the chronicler, "are all very fond of romance, and are great liars, particularly when it is to their interest." On the journey two native physicians presented them with two gourds, which the Spaniards thereafter carried, thus increasing the estimation in which the people held them. Here they reached the base of the range of hills, and proceeded almost directly inland for fifty leagues, when they came to a village, where, among the articles presented to them, was a hawk-bell of copper, thick an l large, and figured with a face, which the natives 1 ad greatly prized, and brought as their choicest offering. On inquiry they said that it had come from the north, where there was much of that metal, but they had only received this one piece from a neighboring tribe. The next day the travellers passed over a ridge seven leagues
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in extent, and in the evening came to a beautiful river, on which was a village, where they stopped. Here the people as usual were profuse with their gifts, presenting, among other things, little bags of Marquesite and pul- verized galena, with which they rub the face. Here also the Spaniards first found Piñons, which Cabeza describes by saying that "in that country are small pine trees, the cones like little eggs; but the seed is better than that of Castilla, as its husk is very thin, and while green, is beat and made into balls, to be thus eaten. If the seed be dry, it is pounded in the husk, and consumed in the form of flour." At this time Vaca performed a very notable cure, removing from a man's breast, close to the heart, a large arrow-head, which for many years had been imbedded there. "From there," says the chronicler, "we travelled through so many sorts of peo- ple, of such diverse languages, that memory fails to re- call them. They ever plundered each other, and those that lost, like those that gained, were fully content. We drew so many followers that we had not use for their services. Whatever they either killed or found, was put before us, without themselves daring to take anything until we had blessed it, though they should be expiring of hunger, they having so established the rule since marching with us. Frequently we were accom- panied by three or four thousand people, and as we had to breathe upon and sanctify the food and drink for each, and grant permission to do the many things they would come to ask, it may be seen how great was the annoy- ance."
The party now arrived at a " great river coming from the north," and after proceeding thirty leagues over a level section, met a number of persons who had come out of their town to receive them, and who welcomed them most hospitably to their homes. These obliging hosts also guided them on their way more than fifty leagues, over rough mountains devoid of water or any kind of
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food, where the party suffered much with hunger ; but having accomplished that distance, their eyes were glad- dened by the sight of a very large river, the water of which was breast high. (The "great river coming from the north" was almost without a doubt the Pecos, and the "very large river" the Rio Bravo del Norte, now better known as the Rio Grande.) Proceeding westerly, they stopped at a plain at the base of the mountains, where they found a considerable population, who gave them so many goods that half of them had to be left for lack of means to carry them. Vaca told the Indians to take back the goods which were left, or they would soon be spoiled ; but they answered that "that was not pos- sible, as it was not their custom after they had bestowed a thing to take it back." It is evident that the phrase " Indian giver " did not originate with this par- ticular tribe of natives, whose customs were so thoroughly based on an opposite principle. The party remained here some days, first letting the natives know that they wished to reach the land of the setting sun. To this the Indians replied that the inhabitants in that di- rection were remote, and were hereditary enemies of their own tribe. Cabeza then asked them to conduct the party to the north, but of this journey they gave an even more discouraging account, saying that there were neither people, nor food, nor water in that direc- tion. The Spaniards, however, insisted on that course, and when the inhabitants of the village still objected to going with them, Vaca became offended and went to sleep in the woods away from the houses, which so dis- tressed the natives that they went where he was and remained all night, begging him to forgive them and be no longer angry, and saying that they would go whithersoever he desired, even though they were sure they should die on the way. The terror which this display of displeasure on the part of the Spaniards oc- casioned was greatly heightened by the strange coinci-
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dence that on the next day many of the Indians became ill and some of them died. "Wheresoever this became known," says Cabeza de Vaca, "there was great dread, and it seemed as if the inhabitants would die of fear at sight of us. They besought us not to remain angered, nor require that more of them should die. They be- lieved we caused their death by only willing it, when in truth it gave us so much pain that it could not be greater; for beyond their loss, we feared they might all die, or abandon us from fright, and that other people thenceforward would do the same, seeing what had come to these. We prayed to God our Lord to relieve them, and from that time the sick began to get better."
After remaining here over a fortnight the travellers again proceeded on their long journey, a number of women acting as guides, as that was the only possible course when the tribe to be met was hostile to that just left. After marching three days, Castillo, with Este- vanico, the African, set off on an expedition with two women as guides, one being a captive from the country they were approaching. The latter led them to the river that ran between some ridges where there was a town in which her family lived, and there it was, to use the language of the narrator, that "habitations were first seen having the appearance and structure of houses." Castillo in his report described them as " fixed dwell- ings of civilization;" and in speaking of their next journey, Vaca uses the term "settled habitations " The party was certainly then in New Mexico, though in what exact spot it is impossible now to say, but their description seems to point very distinctly to some of the Pueblo towns. The points that would specially strike a man who had lived so long away from civilization, and where a tent is the most pretentious dwelling, would naturally be those of permanence and stability, and of resemblance to the solid houses of European communities, and these are precisely the ones to which the narrators
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allude. The inhabitants of these towns, of which the Spaniards visited several, are described as the "finest persons of any we saw, of the greatest activity and strength, who best understood us and most intelligently answered our inquiries." "We called them," says Vaca, " ' the cow nation' because most of the cattle killed are slaughtered in their neighborhood, and along that river upwards for fifty leagues they destroy great numbers."
The country was found to be very populous, and the inhabitants lived on beans, pumpkins, and corn, al- though at that time the latter was scarce on account of drought. The people did not understand the language of the Indians who had accompanied the Spaniards, and seemed to be different in many ways. After stopping a few days the Christians told them that they must go on toward the setting sun, and enquired concerning the best route. The Indians replied that the only fea- sible path was to follow the great river they were on up- ward to the north, for if they went more directly to the west, they would have a long journey across a desert, where there was nothing to eat except a fruit called by the natives "chacan," which, even when ground between stones, could scarcely be used as an article of food on ac- count of its dryness and pungency. Along the river, on the contrary, there was a continuous population; and though they had few provisions, yet they would receive the strangers with the best of good-will and hospitality. The Spaniards, however, disliked to add anything un- necessary to the length of the journey required to bring them to some of their own nationality, and determined to brave the dangers and sufferings of the desert route. They found it as represented, and indeed were not able to swallow the chacan fruit at all, but had to subsist on a handful of deer suet each day, this being the most concentrated form of nutriment that Cabeza de Vaca could devise, and he having devoted much time to its collection for the purpose
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The route here is obscurely recorded, as it appears they did proceed up the river for seventeen days, and then, after crossing, a further journey of seventeen days brought the travellers to a land of plenty again, where were large supplies of flour, grain, beans, and pump- kins; but before reaching this, they had passed through a section where during four months of the year the peo- ple lived on nothing but the powder of straw, and their journey happening to come exactly at that time, they' were compelled to accept the same scanty diet. It may be added that on the journey they were presented with " coverings of cowhide," meaning buffalo-hides, in con- siderable numbers. The land of plenty, when reached, was one where the natives had permanent structures for houses, some of earth, and some of cane mats. Through this good land they travelled by their own computation (which is almost always exaggerated) over 100 leagues, finding everywhere settled habita- tions, and plenty of corn and beans. The people gave them "cotton shawls, better than those of New Spain, many beads, and certain corals found on the South Sea, and fine turquoises that came from the North." "In- deed they gave us," says the chronicler, "everything they had. To me they gave five emeralds, made into arrow-heads, which they use at their singing and danc- ing. They appeared to be very precious. I asked whence they got these, and they said the stones were brought from some lofty mountains that stand towards the north, where were populous towns and very large houses, and that they were purchased with plumes and feathers of parrots." The "populous towns and very large houses" undoubtedly referred to the greater pueblos to the north. Here for the first time the Span- iards saw the use of the "Soap-weed " (Yucca filamen- tosa, called also Spanish Bayonet and Amole) for cleans- ing purposes, and found a people who habitually used coverings for the feet, like shoes or moccasins. "These
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Indians, " continues the narrative, "ever accompanied us until they delivered us to others, and all held full faith in our coming from heaven. While travelling we went without food all day until night, and we ate so little as to astonish them. We never felt exhaustion, neither were we in fact at all weary, so inured were we to hard- ship. We possessed great influence and authority ; to preserve both we seldom talked with them. The negro was in constant conversation ; he informed himself about the ways we wished to take, of the towns there were, and the matters we desired to know. We passed through many and dissimilar tongues. Our Lord granted us favor with the people who spoke them, for they always understood us, and we them. We ques- tioned them and received their answers by signs, just as if they spoke our language and we theirs; for although we knew six languages, we could not everywhere avail ourselves of them, there being a thousand differences. Throughout all these countries the people who were at war immediately made friends, that they might come to meet us, and bring what they possessed. In this way we left all the land at peace, and we taught all the in- habitants by signs which they understood, that in heaven was a man we called God, who had created the sky and the earth ; him we worshiped and had for our Master ; that we did what he commanded, and from his hand came all good; and would they do as we did, all would be well with them. They are a people of good condition and substance, capable in any pursuit."
Proceeding onward, always to the west, and through a town which they named the Town of Hearts (Pueblo de los Corazones), they came to a village, where the in- cessant rain detained them for a fortnight; and during that time at length saw the first signs which gave token of an approach to the European settlements which they had so long been seeking. Hung to the neck of an In- dian, Castillo saw the buckle of a sword-belt, and at-
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tached to it the nail of a horse shoe. While small things in themselves, to the Spaniard these spoke vol- umes, for they were sure signs of some communication with a civilized and Christian people. Eagerly he in- quired of the owner whence they had come, and was told that they had come from heaven. He asked how, and who had brought them, and then came the answer they were so earnestly waiting for, that a number of men with beards like the Spaniards had come from heaven to the river near by, bringing horses, lances, and swords, and that they had lanced two Indians. " What had become of these men," asked the travellers, endeavoring to suppress any signs of their intense in- terest. The answer was that "they had gone to sea putting their lances beneath the water, and going them- selves under the water; afterwards they were seen on the surface of the water going towards the setting sun." Never were men more rejoiced than the Spaniards, at the news which showed that the colonies of their countrymen were near at hand.
From this point information regarding Europeans, and signs of their recent presence, increased at every step. Unfortunately, too much of this was of an un- favorable and shameful character. Everywhere the new-comers had made themselves feared and hated, and not loved. Wherever they had been they had killed, abused, or enslaved the natives. 3 Cabeza de Vaca in pressing westward told the natives that he was going in search of these people to tell them no more to kill or enslave them, nor despoil their houses and lands, nor do other injustices; and at this the poor natives greatly rejoiced. Passing on, they found whole territories depopulated because the inhabitants had fled to the mountains for fear of the Spaniards. For two years they had planted no corn, because whatever they raised was stolen by the marauding parties of the Europeans. They had abandoned their houses, which were found
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going into decay; and although the land was of great fertility and well watered, they were wretchedly sub- sisting on roots and the bark of trees. To Cabeza de Vaca and his companions, whom they never associated in any way with these Spanish oppressors from the west, they cheerfully brought the few things which they had saved by concealment ; at the same time tell- ing them of the forays of their bearded enemies, who had carried off half the men and all the women and boys from the valleys into slavery, only those remain- ing who had escaped to the mountains. Contrasting the generous confidence with which his own party was received, and the high respect and veneration paid to them, though they were impoverished, naked, and half starved, with the fear and hatred which the outrages and oppression of the Spaniards of Sinoloa had inspired, the chronicler well says in his report to the emperor : "Thence it may at once be seen, that to bring all these people to be Christians, and to the obedience of the Im- perial Majesty, they must be won by kindness, which is a way certain, and no other is."
Trying to collect the natives, as usual, for a confer- ence, the messengers of Cabeza de Vaca returned, saying that it was impossible, as some of the people had seen the Christians from behind trees the night before, and so all were fleeing to the mountains; especially, as they had seen slaves in chains with the Spanish party. The truth of this was soon evident; as the travellers reached a point where the Christians had encamped at night, the stakes showed that they were horsemen. Vaca cal- culated that the distance from this point to the town where they first saw the buckle and nail was ninety-two leagues; the river, where the Spaniards had first been seen by the natives, being about twelve leagues west of that village. As the Spanish marauding party had now been passed, and Vaca feared that they were killing and enslaving the kind and hospitable people through whose
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country he had just come, he turned back, with Estev- anico and eleven Indians, to seek them; and followed their trail ten leagues, and finally the next day overtook four of them on horseback. What a strange meeting! Men born in the same land, across the Atlantic, meeting in an Indian territory close to the Pacific; one party, after journeying for seven years across a continent, en- during all kinds of hardships, emaciated, and having almost lost the semblance of European civilization; the others coming from the opposite direction, well armed, and on horseback, seeking conquests and riches. "They were astonished at sight of me," says Cabeza de Vaca; "so confounded that they neither hailed me nor drew near to make an inquiry. I bade them take me to their chief; accordingly, we went together half a league to the 'place where was Diego de Alcaraz, their captain."
After his surprise at seeing Vaca had subsided, Al- caraz told him that he was completely discouraged ; that for a long time he had not been able to capture any In- dians; and that his men were worn out and discontented from hunger and fatigue. Vaca then told him that his companions, Castillo and Dorantes, were but ten miles off with a multitude of friendly Indians, and desired that they should be sent for; which was quickly done, three horsemen being swiftly.despatched, with Estev- anico as a guide. Five days afterwards they returned with Castillo and Dorantes, and more than 600 Indians; many of whom were those who had fled from Alcaraz, but who gladly showed their confidence in Cabeza de Vaca and his companions. Alcaraz begged that they would ask the Indians to bring food; and this they cheer- fully did at the request of Vaca-bringing pots full of corn, which they had hidden in the ground, and Vaca distributed it to the Spanish troops. But no sooner had the latter satisfied their hunger than they forgot all sense of obligation, and wished to capture the Indians and make slaves of them. This outrage Cabeza de Vaca
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and his companions opposed vigorously, and finally suc- ceeded, after many high words, in preventing it; and persuaded the Indians, by promises of future good treat- ment, to return to their houses and fields.
The confidence which the natives showed in these wanderers, in contrast to the hatred and fear for the Mexican Spaniards, caused a strange feeling of jealousy on the part of the latter; and calling an interpreter, they told the Indians that Cabeza de Vaca and his friends were of the same people as themselves, only they had been lost a long time; that they themselves were the lords of the land who must be obeyed and served, while the wanderers were persons of mean condition and small importance. But the Indians were not to be in- fluenced by any such talk, and conversing among them- selves said, as the narrative of Vaca tells us, "that the Spaniards lied, for we came from the land where the sun rises, while the others came from the land where the sun sets ; we healed the sick, they killed the sound; that we had come naked and barefooted, while they had arrived in clothing and on horses, with lances; that we were not covetous of anything, but all that was given us we directly turned to give, retaining nothing ; that the others had no other purpose than to rob whom- soever they found, bestowing nothing on any one. Even to the last I could not convince the Indians that we were of the Christians, and only with great effort and solicitation we got them to go back to their residences. We ordered them to put away apprehensions, establish
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