360 THE CORONADO EXPEDITION, 1540-1542 [eth.ann.u 



who had been with Estevan, the son of one of the Indian chiefs accom- 

 panying the friar, met him and told the story of the negro's death. 

 Estevan had hastened to reach Cibola before the friar, and just prior to 

 arriving at the first city he had sent a notice of his approach to the 

 chief of the place. As evidence of his position or authority, he sent a 

 gourd, to which were attached a few strings of rattles and two plumes, 

 one of which was white and the other red. 



While Cabeza de Vaca and his companions were traveling through 

 Texas, the natives had flocked to see these strange white men and soon 

 began to worship them, pressing about them for even a touch of their 

 garments, from which the Indians trusted to receive some healing power. 

 While taking advantage of the prestige which was thus obtained, 

 Cabeza de Vaca says that he secured some gourds or rattles, which were 

 greatly reverenced among these Indians and which never failed to 

 produce a most respectful behavior whenever they were exhibited. It 

 was also among these southern plains Indians that Cabeza de Vaca 

 heard of the permanent settlements toward the north. Castaueda says 

 that some of these plains Indians came each year to Cibola to pass the 

 winter under the shelter of the adobe villages, but that they were dis- 

 trusted and feared so much that they were not admitted into the villages 

 unless unarmed, and under no conditions were they allowed to spend 

 the night within the flat-roof houses. The connection between these 

 Indian rattles and the gourd which Estevan prized so highly can not 

 be proven, but it is not unlikely that the negro announced his arrival 

 to the Cibola chiefs by sending them an important part of the para- 

 phernalia of a medicine man of a tribe with which they were at enmity. 



There are several versions of the story of Estevan's death, besides 

 the one given in Friar Marcos' narrative, which were derived from the 

 natives of Cibola. Castaueda, who lived among these people for a while 

 the next year, states that the Indians kept the negro a prisoner for 

 three days, "questioning him," before they killed him. He adds that 

 Estevan had demanded from the Indians treasures and women, and 

 this agrees with the legends still current among these people. 1 When 

 Alarcon ascended Colorado river a year later, and tried to obtain news 

 of Coronado, with whom he was endeavoring to cooperate, he heard 

 of Estevan, who was described as a black man with a beard, wearing 

 things that sounded, rattles, bells, and plumes, on his feet and arms — 

 the regular outfit of a southwestern medicine man. 2 Friar Marcos was 

 told that when the messengers bearing the gourd showed it to the chief 

 of the Cibola village, he threw it on to the ground and told the messen- 

 gers that when their people reached the village they would find out 

 what sort of men lived there, and that instead of entering the place 

 they would all be killed. Estevan was not at all daunted when this 

 answer was reported to him, saying that everything would be right 



'Bandelier, Contributions, pp. 154,155. 



2 There is an admirable and extended account, witb many illustrations, of the Apache medicine men, 

 by Captain .Tohu G. Bourke. in the ninth report of the Bureau of Ethnology. 



