LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 195 



alluded to by the monkish historians who have written 

 on this region, as being a kingdom inhabited by a very 

 superior class of Indians to any met with between Ana- 

 huac and the vale of Taos in the enjoyment of a high 

 state of civilisation, inhabiting a well-built city, the 

 houses of which were three stories high, and having 

 attained considerable perfection in the domestic arts. 

 This, notwithstanding the authority of Don Francisco 

 Vasquez Coronado, who visited Cibolo, and of Solis and 

 Venegas, who have guaranteed the assertion, must be 

 received cum grano salis; but, at all events, the civili- 

 sation of the mysterious Cibolo may be compared to 

 that of the Aztec empire, under Montezuma, at the 

 time of the Spanish Conquest, both being egregiously 

 exaggerated by the historians of the day. Cibolo was 

 situated on a river called Tegue. At this day, neither 

 name is known to the inhabitants of New Mexico. If 

 pate-shaven Venabides had held his tongue, New Mexico 

 might now be in the peaceful possession of the Catholic 

 Missions, and the property of the Church of Mexico 

 pretty considerably enhanced by the valuable placeres, 

 or gold- washings, which abound in that province. Full, 

 however, of the wonderful miracle of Santa Clara of 

 Carmona, which had been brought to light through the 

 agency of the medallion at the end of his rosario, Fray 

 Venabides must needs return to Spain, and humbug 

 poor old Fernando, and even the more sensible Isabel, 

 with wonderful accounts of the riches of the country he 

 had been instrumental in exploring, and of the excel- 

 lent disposition of the natives to receive the word 



