321 



Indian village, with two public squares, houses with several 

 stories, as in the Casas Grandes, and streets in parallel lines. 

 The natives of these countries, near which the first station of 

 the Mexican nations is placed, have long beards, like the 

 Ainos (inhabitants of Tarakai) of eastern Asia. These are 

 the Yabipais, whose language differs essentially from that of 

 the Asteques. This analogy of construction among the 

 present and the ancient inhabitants, whatever may be the 

 superiority of the latter in their civilization, is a very curious 

 phenomenon. I know how little confidence can be placed 

 in the narratives of Fray Marcos de Niza ; but it cannot be 

 doubted that in the middle of the 16th century, a small 

 centre of civilization was still preserved in the regions situ- 

 ated on the north of New Mexico, at Cibora, and at Quivira. 

 When well-informed travellers shall one day have explored 

 the plains between the Rio Colorado and the Rio Colombia, 

 those plains which the ecclesiastic Escalante went partly over 

 in 1777, it will be important to compare the present state of 

 the country, and above all the names of places, with the 

 detailed journals we possess of the expedition of Francisco 

 Vasquez de Cornado (1540). The Spanish historians give 

 strange variations to the names of places and men in this 

 Mexican Dorado; (Harac, Tinhex, Cicuic, Acuc, Huex, 

 Tutonteac, and the name of that king Tatarax, Senor de las 

 siete ciudades, who was made a kind of Prester-John 5 

 <( Hombre barbudo, que rezava en oras, que adorava una 

 cruz de oro, y una imagen de muger, Senora del cielo." 

 (Gomara, Hist, de las Indias, 1553, fol. cxvii ,• Herera Decad. 

 vi, p. 157, 204; Laet, p. 297—304; Viaje al Estrecho 

 de Fuca, p. 27 ; Political Essay, ii. 277 ; View of the 

 Cordilleras and Monuments, Vol. i, p. 307, 318; Personal 

 Narrative, Vol. v. p. 844.) The Conquistadores placed 

 Cibora, no doubt vaguely (according to the name of 

 the bisons, cibolas, or cows with humps, and long hair, 

 vacas carcobadas), in lat. 30° 30' ; Quivira, in latitude 40° a 

 VOL. VI. Y 



