358 THE CORONADO EXPEDITION, 1540-1542 [eth.amn. 14 



At this point in his narrative Friar Marcos first uses the word pueblo, 

 village, in referring to the seven cities, a point which would be of 

 some interest if only we could be sure that the report was written 

 from notes made as he went along. He certainly implies that he kept 

 some such record when he speaks of taking down the statements of 

 the Indian who first told him about the seven cities. It looks as if the 

 additional details which he was obtaining gradually dimmed his vision 

 of cities comparable to those into which he had seen Pizarro gather the 

 golden ransom of Atahualpa. 



Friar Marcos had not heard from Estevan since leaving Vacapa, but 

 the natives told him that the negro was advancing toward Cibola, and 

 that he had been gone four or five days. The friar started at once to 

 follow the negro, who had proceeded up Sonora valley, as Mr Bandelier 

 traces the route. Estevan had planted several large crosses along 

 the way, and soon began to send messengers to the friar, urging the 

 latter to hasten, and promising to wait for him at the edge of the wilder- 

 ness which lay between them and the country of Cibola. The friar 

 followed as fast as he could, although constantly hindered by the 

 natives, who were always ready to verify the stories he had already 

 heard concerning Cibola. They pressed him to accept their offers of 

 turquoises and of cow skins in spite of his persistent refusals. At one 

 village, the lord of the place and his two brothers greeted the friar, 

 having collars of turquoises about their necks, while the rest of the 

 people were all encaconados, as they called it, with turquoises, which 

 hung from their ears and noses. Bere they supplied their visitor with 

 deer, rabbits, and quail, besides a great abundance of corn and pinon 

 seed. They also continued to offer him turquoises, skins, fine gourds, 

 and other things which they valued. The Sobaipuri Indians, who were 

 a branch of the Papago, among whom the friar was now traveling, 

 according to Bandelier, seemed to be as well acquainted with Cibola 

 as the natives of New Spain were with Mexico, or those of Peru with 

 Cuzco. They had visited the place many times, and whatever they 

 possessed which was made with any skill or neatness had been brought, 

 so they told him, from that country. 



Soon after he encountered these people, the friar met a native of 

 Cibola. He was a well-favored man, rather old, and appeared to be 

 much more intelligent than the natives of this valley or those of any of 

 the districts through which the friar had passed in the course of his 

 march. This man reported that the lord of Cibola lived and had his 

 seat of government in one of the seven cities called Ahacus, and that 

 he appointed men in the other cities who ruled for him. Abacus is 

 readily identified with Hawikuh, one of the present ruins near K'iap- 

 kwainakwin, or Ojo Caliente, about 15 miles southwest of Zuni. On 

 questioning this man closely, the friar learned that Cibola — by which, 

 as Bandelier and Cushing maintain, the Indian meant the whole range 

 occupied by the Zuni people — was a large city, in which a great many 



