208 NEW TRACKS IN NORTH AMERICA. 



wlio marvelled to see liinij having no knowledge of any 

 Christians, or even of the Indians from whom they were 

 separated by the desert. They entertained him kindly, and 

 called him ^^Hayota/^ in their language signifying a man 

 come from heaven.* He was told by these peoj)le, whom ^ 

 Yasquez Coronado had named Coragoncs, that four or five 

 days' journey within the country, at the foot of the moimtains, ^^ 

 ^^ there was a large and mighty plain, wherein were many 

 great to^ms, and people clad in cotton, '' And when he 

 showed them certain minerals which he carried, ^^ they took 

 the mineral of gold/' and told him ^' that thereof were vessels v 

 among the people of that plaiti, and that they carried certain ^ 

 round green stones hanging at their nostrils and at their ears, 



and that they had certain thin plates of gold wherewith they 

 scrape off their sweat, and that the walls of their temples are f 

 covered therewith." But as tliis valley (previously called a 

 plain) was distant from the sea-coast, he deferred the '' dis- 

 covery thereof until his return, f 



Marco de Nica travelled three days through towus inhabited 

 by the people of the Cora^ones, and then came to a ^^ town of 

 reasonable bigness,":}: called Yacupa, forty leagues distant from 

 the sea. The people of Vacupa,- he states, showed him ^^ great ^ 

 courtesies,'' and gave him ^^ great store of good .victuals^ 

 because the soil is very fruitful^ and may be watered." Here 

 the negro, Stephen, was sent in advance to reconnoitre. At ^ 

 the end of four days Father Marco receiA^ed a message from 



* These were Opita Indians, occupying the valley either of the Eio Sonera 

 or its main tributary, the Eio de San Miguel. They received me as hospitably 

 as they did Father Marco, and are the best-looking Indians I have ever seen. 

 For a description of the desert, -which I also traversed, see chapter vii., vol. ii. 



t These ** gi-eat towns" were probably situated in the Casas Grandes valley 

 (a description of some of the ruins of which has been given), and, no doubt, 

 were famous cities amongst the Indian tribes. 



X "Magdalena, on the Eio de San Miguel." — {Whipple,) 



^ 



