319 



for an attack, they quickly sued for peace, and presented to their con- 

 querors a supply of birds' bread, tanned deer-skins, pine-nuts, seeds, 

 flour, and corn. 



Three days' journey thence Captain Alvarado and party reached a 

 province called Tiguex, where, on account of Bigotes, whom the inhab- 

 itants knew, they were received very kindly; and the captain was so 

 well pleased with what he saw that he sent a messenger to Coronado 

 inviting- him to winter in that country, which pleased the general greatly, 

 as it made him believe that his affairs were growing better. 



Five days' journey thence, Alvarado reached Cicuye, a village very 

 strongly fortified, and whose houses had four stories. He reposed here 

 with his party some days, when he fell in with an "Indian slave who 

 was a native of the county adjacent to Florida, the interior of which 

 Fernando de Soto had lately explored."* 



This Indian, whom they called il Turco, (the Turk,) on account of his 

 resemblance to the people of that nation, spoke of certain large towns, 

 and of large stores of gold and silver in his country, t and also of the 

 country of the bisons, (buffaloes.) Alvarado took him as a guide to the 

 bison country, and after he had seen a few of them he returned to Tig- 

 uex to give an account of the news to Coronado. 



in the order of events, Coronado, who had remained at Cibola with 

 the main body of the army, hearing of a province composed of eight 

 towns, took with him thirty of the most hardy of his men and set out 

 to visit it on his way to Tiguex. In eight or eleven days (the narrative 

 is here obscure) he reached this province, called Tutahaco, which ap- 

 pears to have been situated on the Rio de Tiguex, below the city of Tig- 

 uex, for Castaneda expressly states that he afterward ascended the 

 river and visited the whole province until he arrived at Tiguex. The 

 eight villages composing this province were not like those of Cibola, 

 built of stone, but of earth, lie also learned of other villages still fur- 

 ther down the river. 



" On his arrival at Tiguex, Coronado found Hern an do d'Alvarado 

 with the Turk, and was not a little pleased with the news they gave 

 him. This Indian told him that in his country there was a river two 

 leagues wide, in which fish as large as horses were found ; that there 

 were canoes with twenty oarsmen on each side, which were also pro- 

 pelled by sails; that the lords of the laud were seated in their sterns 

 upon a dais, while a large golden eagle was affixed to their prows. He 

 added that the sovereign of this region took his sietita beneath a huge, 

 tree, to whose branches golden bells were hung, which were rung by 

 the agitation of the summer breeze. He declared, moreover, that the 

 commonest vessels were of sculptured silver; that the bowls, plates, and 

 dishes were of gold. He called gold acochia. He was believed because 

 he spoke with great assurance, and because when some trinkets of cop- 

 per were shown him he smelt them, and said they were not gold. 

 He knew gold and silver very well, and made no account of the other 

 metals. The general sent Ilernando d'Alvarado to Cicuye to reclaim 

 the golden bracelets which the Turk pretended had been taken from 

 him when he was made prisoner. When Alvarado arrived there the 

 inhabitants received him kindly, as they had done before, but they pos- 



* Castaneda's Relations, Tcrnaux Compans, p. 72. The basin <>!' t he Mississippi River 

 and tributaries, iu former (lavs, \vere included in Florida by the Spaniards. (Sec note, 

 p. 90.) 



tThc country of Qnivira, which Coronada, as will be seen in the sequel, visited, anil 

 which, beiii; adjacent to Florida, as stated above, must have been sit uated in the coun- 

 try tributary to the Missouri or Mississippi, and not near the Rio Grande, as some com- 

 mentators have supposed. 



