winship] THE ARRIVAL AT CHICHILTICALLI 387 



The Sonora was followed nearly to its source before a pass was discov- 

 ered. On the northern side of the mountains he found a stream — the 

 Nexpa, he calls it — which may have been either the Santa Cruz or the 

 San Pedro of modern maps. The party followed down this river valley 

 until they reached the edge of the wilderness, where, as Friar Marcos 

 had described it to them, they found Chichilticalli. 1 



Here the party camped for two days, which was as long as the general 

 dared to delay, in order to rest the horses, who had begun to give out 

 sometime before as a result of overloading, rough roads, and poor feed. 

 The stock of provisions brought from Culiacan was already growing 

 dangerously small, although the food supply had been eked out by the 

 large cones or nuts of the pines of this country, which the soldiers found 

 to be very good eating. The Indians who came to see him, told Coro- 

 nado that the sea was ten days distant, and he expresses surprise, which 

 Mr Bandelier has reechoed, that Friar Marcos could have gone within 

 sight of the sea from this part of the country. 



< Coronado entered the wilderness, the White Mountain Apache coun- 

 try of Arizona, on Saint John's eve, and in the quaint language of 

 Hakluyt's translation of the general's letter, "to refresh our former 

 trauailes, the first dayes we founde no grasse, but worser way of moun- 

 taines and badde passages." 2 Coronado, following very nearly the line 

 of the present road from Fort Apache to Gila river, proceeded until he 

 came within sight of the first of the Seven Cities. The first few days of 

 the march were very trying. The discouragement of the men increased 

 with the difficulties of the way. The horses were tired, and the slow 

 progress became slower, as horses and Indian carriers fell down and 

 died. The corn was almost gone, and as a result of eating the fruits 

 and herbs which they found along the way, a Spaniard and some of the 

 servants were poisoned so badly that they died. The skull and horns 

 of a great mountain goat, which were lying on the ground, filled the 

 Europeans with wonder, but this was hardly a sign to inspire them 

 with hopes of abundant food and gold. There were 30 leagues of this 

 travailing before the party reached the borders of the inhabited country, 

 where they found "fresh grass and many nutte and mulberrie trees." 



The day following that on which they left the wilderness, the advance 

 guard was met, in a peaceable manner, by four Indians. The Spaniards 

 treated them most kindly, gave them beads and clothing, and "willed 



'This "Red House," in the Nahuatl tongue, lias been identified with the Casa Grande ruins in 

 Arizona ever since the revival of interest in Corouado's journey, which, followed the explorations in 

 the southwestern portion of the United States during the second quarter of the present century. 

 Bandelier's study of the descriptions given by those who saw the " Red House" in 1539and 1540, how- 

 ever, shows conclusively that the conditions at Casa Grande do not meet the requirements for Chichil- 

 ticalli. Bandelier objects to Cas:i Grande because it is white, although he admits that it may once have 

 been covered with the reddish paint of the Indians. This would suit Mota Padilla's explanation that 

 the place was named from a house there which was daubed over with colored earth — alniagre, as the 

 natives called it. This is the Indian term for red ocher. Bandelier thinks that Coronado reached the 

 edge of the wilderness, the White Mountain Apache reservation in Arizona, by way of San Pedro 

 river and Arivaypa creek. This requires the location of Chichilticalli somewhere in the vicinity of the 

 present Fort Grant, Arizona. 



2 Hakluyt, Voyages, vol. iii, p. 375, ed. 1600. 



