194 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 



hood of these holy pioneers of civilisation, who, totally 

 unfitted by their former mode of life for undergoing 

 such hardships as they must have anticipated, threw 

 themselves into the wilderness with fearless and stub- 

 born zeal. 



For the most part, however, they found the Indians 

 exceedingly hospitable and well disposed ; and it was 

 not until some time after when, receiving from the 

 missionary monks glowing, and not always very truthful, 

 accounts of the riches of the country in which they had 

 located themselves, the governors of Mexico despatched 

 armed expeditions under adventurous desperadoes to 

 take and retain possession of the said country, with 

 orders to compel the submission of the native tribes, 

 and enforce their obedience to the authority of the 

 whites that the simple and confiding Indians began 

 to see the folly they had committed in permitting the 

 residence amongst them of these superior beings, whom 

 they had first looked upon as more than mortal ; but 

 who, when strong enough to do so, were not long in 

 throwing off the mask, and proving to the simple 

 savages that they were much " more human than 

 divine." 



Thus, in the province of New Mexico, Fray Augustin 

 Ruiz, with his co-preachers, Marcos and Venabides, 

 were kindly received by the native inhabitants, and we 

 have seen how one million (?) Indians came from the 

 " rumbo '' of the Cibolo, ready and willing to receive 

 the baptismal sacrament. This Cibolo, or Sivulo, as it 

 is written in some old MSS., is, by the way, mysteriously 



