CORONADOS MARCH. 323 



We sliall now return to Coronado, whom we left at Quivira. It appears 

 that, ill consequence of his not arriving at Tignex at the expected time, 

 Don Tristan d'AreUauo set out in search of him with forty horsemen. 

 At Cicuye the inhabitants attacked Don Tristan, by which he was de- 

 layed four days. Hearing of the ai)proach of Coronado, he contented 

 himself with guarding the passes in the vicinity of the village till the 

 arrival of the general. Castaiieda says that, '• notwithstanding he had 

 good guides, and was not incumbered with baggage, Coronado was forty 

 days in making the journey from Quivira."* From Cicuye he journeyed 

 to Tiguex, where he went into winter quarters, wi^h the intention in the 

 spring of pursuing his discoveries by pushing his whole army toward 

 Quivira. 



"When winter was over Coronada ordered the preparation to be made 

 for the march to Quivira. Every one then began to make his arrange- 

 ments. Nevertheless, as often happens in the Indies, things did not 

 turn out as people intended, but as God pleased. One day of festival 

 the general went forth on horseback, as was his custom, to run at the 

 ring with Don Pedro Maldonado. He was mounted on an excellent 

 horse, but his valets having changed the girth of his saddle and having 

 taken a rotten one, it broke in mid-course and the rider unfortunately 

 fell near Don Pedro, whose horse was in full career, and in s])ringing 

 over his body kicked him in the head, thus inflicting an injury which 

 keirt him a long while in bed and placed him within two lingers of 

 death."+ 



The result of this was that being of a superstitious nature and hav- 

 ing been foretold by a certain mathematician of Salamanca, who was 

 his friend, that he should one day find himself the omnipotent lord of a 

 distant country, but that he" should have a fall which would cause his 

 death, he w^as very anxious to hasten home to die near his wife and 

 children. From this time, Castaiieda states, that Coronado, feigning 

 himself to be more ill than he was, worked upon his soldiery in so subtle 

 a way as to induce the greater part of them to petition him to return to 

 New Spain. They then began openly to declare their belief that it was 

 better to return, inasmuch as no rich country* had been found, and it 

 was not populous enough to distribute it among the army. The general, 

 finding no one to oppose him, took up his line of march on his return to 



This was, undoubtedly, the place in latitude 31° 39', where the Rio del Norte, cutting 

 through the mouutains, empties into a deei> and impassable canon, from which it emerges 

 some distance below, as has been before stated." (See Transactions of American Ethno- 

 logical Society, vol. ii, p. 71.) 



Mr. Gallatin, though usually very judicious in his remarks, I think is at fault here. 

 The cause of the river disappearing at the point referred to, and then appeariiig again 

 further down, was not on account of its entering a canon, which the Sjianiards could 

 have noticed and not been deceived about, but because the Rio Tiguex, (Rio Grande,) 

 like most of the rivers which I have seen on the plains and in New Mexico, is liable, 

 when very low, to be lost in its sandy bed, and then to appear again further down, where 

 the sand is not sufficient to absorb it. It is on this account, as I have seen, when the 

 heat of the sun added its potent influence to cause a river to disappear through the 

 day, that during the night, when this influence did not prevail, it would again appeal 

 a running stream. 



Humboldt refers to a disappearance of the Rio Grande, which appears to have taken 

 place about the same localitj*, and also attributes it to a wrong cause. " The inhab- 

 itants of Paso del Norte preserve the memory of a very extraordinary event which 

 occurred in the year 1752. They saw, all at once, the river become dry, thirty leagues 

 above, and more than twenty leagues below. El Paso ; the water of the river precipi- 

 tated itself iu a newly-formed crevasse, and did not appear again above ground until 

 you reach the Presidio de San Elezario." (Huml)oldt's Essai Politique Sur le Royaume 

 de la Nouvelle Hispagne, edition 1811, p. 303.) 



* Castaueda's Relations, Teruaux Compans, p. 142. 



t Castaueda's Relations, Teruaux Compaus, p. 202. 



