FKWKK.sl PUEBLO VIEJO RUINS 169 



inouly accepted route of Coronado would have led him to cross the 

 Gila uot far from the mouth of its tributary, the San Pedro, where 

 there was a trail to Moqui, and probably also to Zuiii. If, however, 

 as is urged by Dellenbaugh, he took a still more easterly route, and 

 Cibola was situated near the Florida mountains and not at Zuiii, 

 Pueblo Viejo and the Gila river are far to the west of his route. 



Documentary history of the Pueblo Viejo in the seventeenth cen- 

 turj' is practically wanting. None of the great Spanish explorers 

 passed through the valley in this epoch, when the region was entered 

 along the Rio Grande bj' way of El Paso del Norte. 



In the first decade of the eighteenth century there were apparently 

 no rancherias in the Pueblo Viejo valley. The accounts of the several 

 expeditions of Garces, and contemporary maps, give no indication of 

 inhabited rancherias east of the mouth of the San Pedro, and no 

 mention is made in the diary of this devoted priest of people other 

 than Apaches living on the upper Gila. But the existence of ruins 

 near the mouth of the San Pedro is noted, though it is highly probable 

 that they became such long before that time. 



With the advent of Apaches the population of Pueblo Viejo 

 retreated to the west, abandoning their farms one after another, 

 until they came to the Aravapa canyon. Here they may have inter- 

 married with other stocks, and the Sobaipuris of the early years of the 

 eighteenth century probably contained some of their descendants. 

 They or other survivors never returned to their old homes in the rich 

 plains they had abandoned. 



Pueblo Viejo was apparently uninhabited by Mexicans or sedentary 

 Indians at the time of the passage of the Army of the West, and 

 the mounds indicating former houses were frequently noticed at that 

 time. Their age was even then a subject of comment. 



The appearance of Pueblo Viejo at this time was probably not unlike 

 that of those sections which are not now farmed. A dense growth of 

 mesquite and cactus covered a sandy soil, which in the dry season 

 turned to dust, covering the traveler or hovering in clouds behind 

 him. Most of the larger specimens of mesquite and other trees 

 have long ago been cut down, but the great growth which this tree 

 may have reached can be judged from a few survivors. In places 

 along the bank of the Gila there wei'e clumps of Cottonwood trees, 

 some of which even now present a delightful sight to the weary 

 traveler. In the rainy season the river overflowed its banks, flood- 

 ing the neighboring valley for miles. The river, although fordable in 

 the dry season, was so swollen after rains in the mountains as to be 

 impassable. 



The scenic beauties of the valley have not changed since the 

 Indians lived on the Gila banks. The loftj' Graham mountain, the 

 black sides of which glisten with streams of water, is a beautiful 

 sight from almost any part of the middle region of the valley. It 



