318 



COROXADO'S MARCH. 



I have thus briefly described the explorations which were made by 

 Coronado and his captaius, as far as Cibola, ou the northern edge ot the 

 great desert northward of Chichilticale ; the branch expedition of Mel- 

 chior Diaz from Sonora northwestward to and around the head of the 

 Gnlf of California, after crossing the Tizon (Colorado,) in search of the 

 vessels; the exploration of the river Tizon, by Alareon, in boats 

 for a distance of 85 Spanish leagues,* or about 200 miles, above its 

 mouth ; the expedition of Don Pedro de Tobar from Cibola to Tusayan, 

 lying to the northwest of Cibola twenty-five leagues ; and the exploration 

 of Don Garci Lopez de Cardenas from Cibola through Tusayan west- 

 wardly to the deeply cafioned river Tizon. I shall now give in as few 

 words as I can some account of Corouado's subsequent explorations to 

 the eastward of Cibola. 



While the discoveries above mentioned were being made, some In- 

 dians living seventy leagues towards the east, in a province called Cicuye, 

 arrived at Cibola. There was with them a Cacique, surname Bigotes 

 (Mustaches) on account of his wearing these long appendages. They 

 had heard of the Spaniards, and came to offer their services and their 

 friendship. They offered gifts of tanned skins, shields, and helmets, 

 which the general reciprocated by giving them necklaces of glass beads, 

 and bells, which they had never before beheld. They informed him of 

 cows, because one of these Indians had one painted on his body.'' Cas- 

 taueda goes on to say, but u we would never have guessed it, from 

 seeing the skins of these animals, for they are covered with a frizzled 

 hair, which resembles wool;"* thus showing that they certainly were 

 buffaloes. 



The general ordered Captain Hernando d'Alvarado to take twenty 

 men and to accompany these Indians, but to return in eighty days to ren- 

 der an account of what he might have seen. Alvarado departed with 

 them, and "five days after they arrived at a village named Acnco, built 

 on a rock. The inhabitants, who are able to send about two hundred 

 warriors into the field, are the most formidable brigands in the province. 

 This village was very strongly posted, inasmuch as it was reached by 

 only one path, and was built upon a rock precipitous on all its other 

 sides, and at such a height that the ball from an arqucbuse could scarcely 

 reach its summit. It was entered by a stairway cut by the hand of man, 

 which began at the bottom of the declivitous rock and led up to the vil- 

 lage. This stairway was of suitable width for the first two hundred 

 steps, but after these there were a hundred more much narrower, and 

 when the top was finally to be reached it was necessary to scramble up 

 the three last toises by placing the feet in holes scraped in the rock, and 

 as the ascender could scarcely make the point of his toe enter them he 

 was forced to cling to the precipice with his hands. On the su mm it- 

 there was a great arsenal of huge stones, which the defenders, without 

 exposing themselves, could roll down on the assailants, so that no army, 

 no matter what its strength might be, could force this passage. There 

 was ou the top a sufficient space of ground to cultivate and store a large 

 1 supply of corn, as well as cisterns to contain water and snow. ; 't 



The Indians here, as at Tusayau, traced lines on the ground, and for- 

 bade the Spaniards to pass over them ; but seeing the latter disposed 



* Common Spanish league equals 3.42 American miles. (United States Ordnance 

 Manual.) 



t Castafieda'.* Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. G8. " II est ici la question des bisons, quo 

 1'awteur nomine toujours racas. Je me servirai doreuavant du mot de bison." (Note 

 by Tcruaux Compans.) 



t Castaueda's Relations, Teruaux Compans, pp. 68, 09, 70. 



