544 THE COKONADO EXPEDITION, 1540-1542 [eth.ann. H 



I have not written about other things which were seen uor made any 

 mention of tliem, because they were not of so much importance, 

 although it does not seem right for me to remain silent concerning the 

 fact that they venerate the sign of the cross in the region where the 

 settlements have high houses. For at a spring which was in the plain 

 near Acuco they had a cross two palms high and as thick as a finger, 

 made of wood with a square twig for its crosspiece, and many little 

 sticks decorated with feathers around it, and numerous withered flow- 

 ers, which were the offerings.' In a graveyard outside the village at 

 Tutahaco there appeared to have been a recent burial. Near the head 

 there was another cross made of two little sticks tied with cottou 

 thread, and dry withered flowers. It certainly seems to me that in 

 some way they must have received some light from the cross of Our 

 Redeemer, Christ, and it may have come by way of India, from whence 

 they proceeded. 



Chapter 9, which treats of the direction which the army took, and of 

 how another more direct way might be found, if anyone was to return to 



tli at country. 



I very much wish that 1 possessed some knowledge of cosmography 

 or geography, so as to render what I wish to say intelligible, and so that 

 I could reckon up or measure the advantage those people who might go 

 in search of that country would have if they went directly through the 

 center of the country, instead of following the road the army took. 

 However, with the help of the favor of the Lord, I will state it as well 

 as I can, making it as plain as possible. 



It is, I think, already understood that the Portuguese, Campo, was 

 the soldier who escaped when Friar Juan de Padilla was killed at Qui- 

 vira, and that he finally reached New Spain from Panuco, 2 having trav- 

 eled across the plains country until he came to cross the North Sea 

 mountain chain, keepiug the country that Don Hernando de Soto dis- 

 covered all the time on his left hand, since he did not see the river 

 of tbe Holy Spirit (Espiritu Santo) at all. 3 After he had crossed the 

 North Sea mountains, he found that he was in Panuco, so that if he 

 had not tried to go to the North sea, he would have come out in the 



1 Scattered through the papers of Dr J. Walter Fewkes on the Zuhi and Tusayan Indians will be 

 found many descriptions of the pdhos or prayer sticks and other forms used as offerings at the 

 shrines, together with exact accounts of the manner of making the offerings. 



2 The northeastern province of New Spain. 



3 The conception of the great inland plain stretching hetween the great lakes at the head of the St 

 Lawrence and the Gulf of Mexico came to cosiuographers very slowly Almost all of the early maps 

 show a disposition to carry the mountains which follow the Atlantic coast along the Gulf coast as far 

 as Texas, a result, doubtless, of the fact that all the expeditions which started inland from Florida 

 found mountains. Coronado's journey to Quivira added hut little to the detailed geographical knowl- 

 edge of America. The name reached Europe, and it is found on the maps, along the fortieth parallel, 

 almost everywhere from the Pacific toast to the neighborhood of a western tributary to the St Law- 

 rence system. See the maps reproduced herein. Castaneda could have aided them considerably, but 

 the map makers did not know of his book. 



