COKONADO'S MARCH. 325 



(Sonora,) aiicl it lias been so called to this day."'* Aijain, in another 

 part of liis Relations, describing the places betv/een the Sonora Eiver 

 and Chichilticale, he informs ns that "it was forty leagnes from Sonora 

 to the valley of the Snya, where was fonnded the city of San Hier- 

 onimo."t Now, my idea is, that the town of Corazones on the Sonora 

 Eiver was Sonora, so called because it was eminently the town of the 

 province of Corazones, in which it was situated; and that San Hieronimo 

 de los Corazones was situated, according to,Corouado,.ten or twelve 

 leagues from the sea,| and, as above stated, forty leagues from Sonora, 

 on the Snya River; which would i^lace it about where I have located it, 

 on a river which is now called the San Ignacio.t 



From Sonora the march was, according to Jaramilio, four days to the 

 !N"expa River. Jaramilio says: "Affer leaving Sonora we made a journey 

 of four days in a desert, and arrived af'another stream, which we under- 

 stood was called Nexpa. We descended the stream two days, and we 

 quitted it to the right at a foot of a chain of mountains, which we 

 followed two days. They told us that it was called Chichilticale. After 

 having left the mountains we came to a deep creek, the banks of which 

 were escarped. After quitting this stream, which is beyond the Nexpa 

 of which I have spoken, we took a northeast direction," &c.|| 



Now the Nexpa, the stream they descended two days. I believe was 

 the Santa Cruz, running in a northerly direction, (the proper direction 

 of their march ;) the mountains, at the foot of which they also traveled 

 two days, were the " Santa Catarina Mountains ;" and the stream which 

 they then reached was the Gila, whose deep bed and escarped banks so 

 ■ exactly cortespond with the descrijition given by Jaramillo.fj 



The next important place was Chichilticale. Here was the Casa 

 Grande of which so much had been reported, and here the army com- 

 menced its march northeastwardly across the great desert, on the f;\Y 

 side of which were the seven cities of Cibola. That the Casa Grande 

 was so situated, with regard to Cibola, there is no dispute ; but of its 

 exact location there is some question. 



Castaiieda says: "At Chichilticale the country ceases to be covered 

 with thorny trees, and changes its aspect ; it is there the gulf terminates, 

 and the coast turns fCest la que le (joJfe se termine ef que la cote tourne;J 

 the mountains follow the same direction, and they must be crossed to 

 reach the plains again."** 



* Castaneda's Relations, p. 44. t Ibid., p. 158. 



t The sea (Gulf of California) returnetli towards the west, right against the Corazones, 

 the space often or twelve leagues. (Coronado's Rel., Hakluyt, vol. iii, p. 448.) 



§In this connection it may be pertinent to remark, that San Iliei'onimo de los Cora- 

 zones, which seems to have been a sort of depot, was transferred to Sonora ; but appears 

 still to have been kept as a post, for wo are told that some of its garrison deserted it, 

 for, among other reasons, that they looked on it as useless, " for the road to New Spain 

 passed by a more favorable direction, leaving Suya to the right." This will account 

 for two routes being laid down on the accomi)anyiug map between Souora and the 

 Nexpa River. 



II Jaramillo's Relations, Temaux Compans, pp. 367 and 363. 



^ Mr. E. G. Squier supposes the Nexpa to have been the Rio Gila. His language is : 

 "Allowing 30 miles to the day's march, which is about the average imder favorable 

 circumstances, we have 120 miles as the distance between the point on the Sonora 

 River left by Coronado in his advance and Chichilticale, between longitudes 109° and 

 110°. This is, according to the best maps, about the distance between the Sonora River 

 and the Gila, called Nexpa by the chronicler." (American Review for November, 1848, 

 p. 6.) 



I cannot agi-ee with Mr. Squier in the foregoing statement, for the reason that the 

 distance between the Sonora River and the Gila, according to the latest map issued by 

 the Engineer Department of the Army, is not 120 miles, but as much as 290 miles ; and, 

 therefore, as many as eight or ten days' journey instead of four. 



** Castaneda's Relations, Teruaux Compans, p, 100. 



