242 IN THE OLD WEST 



throwing off the mask, and proving to the simple 

 savages that thej 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 in- 

 habitants, and we have seen how one million (?) 

 Indians came from the " rumbo " of the Cibolo, 

 ready and willing to receive the baptismal sacra- 

 ment. This Cibolo, or Sivulo, as it is written in 

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

 alluded to by the monkish historians who have 

 written on this region, as being a kingdom in- 

 habited by a very superior class of Indians to any 

 met with between Anahuac and the vale of Taos 

 — in the enjoyment of a high state of civilization, 

 inhabiting a well-built city, the houses of which 

 were three storeys high, and having attained con- 

 siderable 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 as- 

 sertion, must be received cum grano sails; but, at 

 all events, the civilization of the mysterious Cibolo 

 may be compared to that of the Aztec empire un- 

 der Montezuma, at the time of the Spanish Con- 

 quest, 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 



