322 COEONADO'S MARCH. 



five days on the journey, and even then much time was lost. The first 

 time it had taken thirty-seven days."* 



" On the road they passed a great number of salt marshes where there 

 was a considerable quantity of salt. Pieces longer than tables and four 

 or five inches thick were seen floating on the surface. On the plains 

 they found an immense number of small animals resembling squirrels, 

 and numerous holes burrowed by them in the earth.' 1 ! These animals 

 were most unquestionably the little prairie-dogs whose villages have 

 been so naively described by Washington Irving and George Wilkins 

 Kendall. On this march the army reached the river Cicuye, more than 

 thirty leagues below the place where they had before crossed it by a 

 bridge. They then ascended the river, by following the banks, to the 

 town of Cicuye. The guides declared that this river, the Cicuye, (no 

 doubt the Pecos,) at a distance of more than twenty days' journey, 

 threw itself into that of Tiguex, (the Eio Grande,) and that subsequently 

 it flowed toward the east. Castaiieda goes on to say: "It is believed 

 that it (the Tiguex) joins the great river of Espiritu Sancto (Mississippi 

 River) that the party of Hernando de Soto discovered in Florida."! 



The army under Arellano reaching Tiguex, on its return from the 

 prairies in the month of July, ]o41, this officer immediately ordered 

 Captain Francisco de Barrio-Nuevo to ascend the Eio de Tiguex (Eio 

 Grande) in another direction with some soldiers on an exploring expe- 

 dition. They reached the provinces, one of which, comprising seven 

 villages, was called Hemes; the other, Yuque-Yuuque. 



Twenty leagues (68 miles) further in ascending the river, they came to 

 a large and powerful village named Braba, to which the Spaniards gave 

 the new title of Valladolid. " It was built on the two banks of the river, 

 which was crossed by bridges built with nicely-squared timber." The 

 country was very high and cold. From Braba the exploring party re- 

 turned to Tiguex. Another party, it seems, went down the Eio de "Tig- 

 uex (Eio Grande) eighty leagues, where they discovered four large vil- 

 lages, and " reached a place where the river plunged beneath the ground; 

 but inasmuch as their orderscoutiued them to a distance of eighty leagues, 

 they did not push on to theplace where, according to the Indians' accounts, 

 this stream escapes again from the earth with considerably augmented 

 volume." || 



* Castaneda's Relations, pp. 133, 134. 



t Castaiieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 134. 



t" VARIOUS NAMES OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. I remember to have seen in the 

 course of my reading the following Indian, Spanish, and French names applied to the 

 river Mississippi ; and it may be well to record them in your magazine for preserva- 

 tion, and probably to be augmented in number by other students of American history: 



"Indian names. Mico king of rivers; Mescha-Sibi-Mescha, great and Sibi River; 

 Namosi-Sipou Fish River; Ukimo-chitto Great Water path a Chocta" name ; Missee- 

 seepe; Meact-chassipi old father of rivers, according to Du Pratz; Malbouchia, 

 according to Iberville. 



"French. Riviere de St. Louis; Riviere de Colbert ; Mississippi. 



"Spanish. Rio Grande; Rio Grande del Espiritu Santo; Rio de la Eulata ; Rio de la 

 Palisada ; Rio de Chuchaqua. 



" The Vernci Ptolemy of 1513 lays it down, or, at least, marks a river without a name, 

 at the site of its embouchure. Orbus Typis, 1515 ; Pineda's map, 1519 ; other Ptolemies, 

 1525; Cabeca de Vaca saw it in 1528. De Soto crossed it in June, 1541, and died iu 

 Louisiana, on the west bank of the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Big Black 

 River, May 21. 1542. 



"BRANTZ MAYER. 



" BALTIMORE, October 15, 1857." 



(Sec Historical Magazine, vol. 1, p. 342.) 



Castaiieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 139. 



|| Castaiieda's Relations, Ternaux Compans, p. 140. Mr. Albert Gallatin, commenting 

 on this passage, ays : "The assertion that the river was lost under ground was a mistake. 



