326 CORONADO'S MARCH. 



Now this certainly shows that CastaSeda believed Ghichilticale was 

 situated at the head of the Gulf of California. But according? to Coro- 

 nado's report to the viceroy Mendo^a, this assuredly was not the case; 

 for he says: "I departed for the Corazones, and always kept by the sea- 

 coast as near as I could judge, and, in very deed, I still found myself 

 the farther off, in such sort that, when I arrived at Ghichilticale, I found 

 myself ten days' journey from the sea, and the father provincial (Marcos 

 de Niga) said that it was only five leagues distant, and he had seen the 

 same. We all conceived great grief, and were not a little confounded, 

 when we saw that we found everything contrary to the information 

 which he had given to your lordship."* 



In another i^lace, Coronado states that the transport ships which had 

 been ordered to cooperate with him had been seen off the country of 

 the Corazones, on their way to " discover the haven of Ghichilticale, 

 which Marcos de Niga said was in five-aud-thirtj^ degrees."t 



The above certainly shows that both De Ni^a and Castaiieda at one 

 time believed that Ghichilticale was at the head of the gulf; and it is 

 probable that both the transport vessels and army were ordered to 

 communicate with each other at that point, on the sui^position that it 

 was a good harbor, and would be a cai)ital place for a depot of supplies 

 before entering the great desert^ But Coronado's report eft'ectually 

 explodes the idea of its having been found such; and if there were more 

 proof on this point needed, it would appear in the fact that neither 

 Alarcon, who commanded the fleet and passed up the Colorado River in 

 search of the army, nor Melchior Diaz, who explored all around the 

 head of the gulf, make any mention of having seen the place, which 

 they most assuredly would have done had they passed anywhere near it. 



But where was the exact location of Ghichilticale ? In my opinion it 

 was on the Eio Gila at Gasa Grande, in latitude 33° 4' 21" north, and 

 longitude 111° 45' west from Greenwich, and the following are my 

 reasons therefor: 



It is distinctly stated by Castaiieda that the place was marked by a 

 Casa Grande, which, though then in ruins on account of having been 

 destroyed by the natives, had evidently been used as a fortress ; that it had 

 been built of red earth, and was evidently the work of a civilized people 

 who had come from a distance.^ 



Now, the first ruin to be seen on the Gila, ascending it from its mouth, 

 and the only one along its whole course which bears any resemblance 

 to that mentioned by Castaiieda, and of which we have anj' record, is 

 that described by Father Font, who, with Father Garces, saw it in 1775, 



*Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. iii, p. 448. tibitl. 



I Castaueda's Relations, pp. 40, 161, 162. Mr. Morgan, in a foot-note to his paper 

 before referred to, says : " There is no ruin on the Gila at the present time that answers 

 the above description," and seems to have come to this conclusion, because Captain A. 

 R. Johnston, United States Army, in his journal, (U. S. Ex. Doc. No. 41, 1848, p. 596,) 

 says, " The house was built of a sort of white earth and pebbles, probably containing 

 lime." Emory merely says, '• The walls were formed of layers of mud," (Thirtietli Con- 

 gress, First Session, Ex. Doc. No. 7, p. 82;) and Bartlett in his Personal Narrative, p. 

 272, informs us that " The walls are laid with large square blocks, and the material is 

 the mud of the valley mixed with gravel." 



Mr. N. H. Hutton, civil engineer, assistant to Lieutenant Whipple, in his explorations 

 for the Pacific Raih'oad in 1853-'54, and at present my assistant, assures me that he has 

 seen the localitj^ and the ruins, and that the Casa had evidently been built of the earth 

 in the vicinity, which is of a reddish color, though in certain reflections of the same the 

 building appeared whitish, on account of the pebbles contained in the mass. Castaueda 

 in his Relations, p. 41, says : " Cette maisou, construite en terre rouge;" and p. 161, 

 " La terre de ces pays est rouge." In addition, what more natural than that 

 Emory and Bartlett, finding the color of the building nothing difierent from that of the 

 soil in that region, should fail to say anything about it ? 



