398 THE CORONADO EXPEDITION, 1540-1542 [kth.ahn.J4 



Canadian river by a bridge, just south of where Mora river enters it, 

 the Spaniards, according to Bandelier, marcbed toward the northeast 

 for ten days, until they met the first of the plains Indians, the Que- 

 recho or Toukawa. Thence they turned almost directly toward the 

 rising sun. Bandelier thinks that they very soon found out that the 

 guides had lost their reckoning, which presumably means that it became 

 evident that there was some difference of opinion among the Indians. 

 After marching eastward for thirty-five days or so, the Spauiards 

 halted on the banks of a stream which flowed in the bottom of a broad 

 and deep ravine. Here it was computed that they had already trav- 

 eled 250 leagues — G50 miles — from Tiguex. They had crossed no other 

 large river since leaving the bridge over the Canadian, and as the 

 route had been south of east, as is distinctly stated by one member 

 ol the force, they had probably reached the Canadian again. There is 

 a reference to crossing what may have been the North Fork of the 

 Canadian, in which case the army would now be on the north bank of 

 the main river, below the junction of the two forks, in the eastern part 

 of Indian Territory. Here they divided. The Teya guides conducted 

 the main force directly back to the Bio Grande settlements. Coronado 

 went due north, and a month later he reached a larger river. He 

 crossed to the north bank of this stream, and then followed its course 

 for several days, the direction being northeast. This river, manifestly, 

 must be the Arkansas, which makes a sharp turn toward the northeast 

 at the Great Bend, east of Fort Dodge, flowing in that direction for 

 75 miles. Jaramillo states that they followed the current of the river. 

 As he approached the settled country, Coronado turned toward the 

 north and found Quivira, in northeastern Kansas, not far south of the 

 Nebraska boundary. 1 



The two texts of the Belacion del Suceso differ on a vital point; 2 

 but in spite of this fact, I am inclined to accept the evidence of this anony- 

 mous document as the most reliable testimony concerning the direc- 

 tion of the army's march. According to this, the Spaniards traveled 



'Bandolier accounts for sixty-seven days of short marches and occasional delays between the sepa- 

 ration of the force on Canadian river and the arrival at Quivira. It may be that the seventy-seven 

 days of desert marching which Coronado mentions in his letter of October 20, 1541, refers to this part 

 of the journey, instead of to the whole of the journey from the bridge (near Mora on the Canadian) 

 to Quivira. Hut the number sixty-seven originated in a blunder of Ternaux-Compans, who substi- 

 tuted it for seventy-seven, in translating this letter. The mistake evidently influenced Bandelier to 

 extend the journey evermore time than it really took. But this need not affect his results materially, 

 if we extend the amount of ground covered by each day's march and omit numerous halts, which 

 were very unlikely, considering the condition of his party and the desire to solve the mystery of 

 Quivira. If the Spaniards crossed the Arkansas somewhere below Fort Bodge, and followed it until 

 the river turns toward the southeast, Quivira can hardly have been east of the middle part of the state 

 of Kansas. It was much more probably somewhere between the main forks of Kansas river, in the 

 central part of lhatstate. Bandelier seems to have abandoned bis documents as he approached the 

 goal, and to have transported Coronado across several brandies of Kansas river, in order to till out 

 his sixty-seven days — which should have been seventy-seven — and perhaps to reach the region fixed 

 on by previous conceptions of the limit of exploration. He may have realized ttiat the difficulty in 

 his explanation of the route was that it required a reduction of about one-fourth of the distance cov- 

 ered by the army in the eastward march, as plotted by General Simpson. This can be accounted for 

 by tin- wandering path which the army followed. 



2 See the note at the end of the translation. 



