A VISIT FROM THE SPANIARDS. 73 



quite probable tliat the Indians occupying this old vil- 

 lage were Wichitas or i)erhaps some of their I'elatives, 

 the Pawnees. On the basis of the character of the 

 mounds and their relics alone, however, an inference as 

 to their tribal relationship inust be regarded as but 

 little more than a guess. But it is none the less in- 

 teresting to note in this border land of ancient nations 

 a mingling of northern, southei-n, and western features 

 of primitive industry and art. 



A VISIT FROM THE SPANIARDS? 



The finding of a, piece of chain-mail with the other 

 relics makes it certain that the village was occupied by 

 Indians at least as late as after America had been dis- 

 covered by the Europeans. At the Emporia meeting of 

 the Kansas Academy of Science in 1886 the author 

 suggested that this relic might have come to the In- 

 dians from Coronado's CA'pedition to this region in 1542 

 and called attention to Col. Simpson's study of the 

 route which this explorer followed in traveling from 

 Tiguex to Quivira showing that he probably passed 

 through the central pai-t of the state of Kansas.* 

 Several old Spanish documents relate the adventures of 

 Coronado. They all state that he marched east from 

 the mountains in New Mexico and across the plains for 

 more than a month. Then selecting forty men he left 

 his main army and marched with these few followers 



* Coronado's Marcli in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola," by .1. H. Simpson. 

 Annual Report, Smithsonian Institution, 18(!9, pp. 330 — S-iO. 



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