105 
MARCO DE NINA’S JOURNEY TO CEVOLA. 
Stephen, and certain Indians of the town of Cuchillo, whom the viceroy had made free. He 
proceeded to Petatlan, where he rested three days, and then left his companion Honoratus sick. 
Thence, “ following as the Holy Ghost did lead,” he travelled twenty-five or thirty leagues, 
seeing nothing worthy of notice, saving certain Indians from “the island ol Saint Iago, where 
Fernando Cortez, of the valley, had been;” and he learned that among the islands were “great 
store of pearls.” Continuing through a desert of four days’ journey, accompanied by the 
Indians of the islands and of the mountains which he passed, he found other Indians, who 
marvelled to see him; 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.” 
The desert referred to is between Rio Yaqui and Rio Sonora, a distance of something more 
than one hundred miles. Mr. Bartlett, in his “Personal Narrative,” describes the portion of 
it which he crossed from Hermosillo to Guaymas, thirty-seven leagues, as being “destitute of 
streams,” “barren and uninteresting.” The Indians found beyond this desert consequently 
occupied the valley of the Sonora river, called by Vasquez de Coronado, as we shall see here¬ 
after, the valley of Cora<jones. Here Friar Marco was informed that four or five days within 
the country, at the foot of the mountains, “there was a large and mighty plain, wherein were 
many great towns, and people clad in cotton.” And when he showed them certain metals which 
he carried, “they took the mineral of gold,” and told him “that thereof were vessels among 
the people of that plain, and that they carried certain round green stones hanging at their nos¬ 
trils and at their ears, and that they had certain thin plates of gold wherewith they scrape oft’ 
their sweat, and that the walls of their temples are covered therewith.” But as this “valley” 
(previously called a plain) was distant from the sea-coast, he deferred “the discovery thereof” 
until his return. 
By a reference to modern maps, it will be perceived that this valley, or plain, which he 
is informed lies four or five days’ travel within the country, corresponds nearly with that of 
Rio de las Casas Grandes, where, at this day, are ruins, about one hundred and fifty miles east 
from the valley of Rio Sonora. These ruins are minutely described by Mr. Bartlett, and, at the 
time of Friar Marco’s expedition, must have been famous cities among the Indian tribes. 
Marco de Ni^a travelled three days through towns inhabited by the people of the Coratjones, and 
then came to a “town of reasonable bigness,” called Vacupa, forty leagues distant from the sea. 
This place corresponds nearly with Magdalena, on Rio San Miguel, and its inhabitants were 
probably ancestors of the Cocopas, now scattered over the deserts northwestward, and many resi¬ 
ding near the mouth of Rio Colorado. 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 received a message from Stephen, stating that wonderful accounts 
had been told him of a great city, called Cevola, thirty days’ journey distant. The negro pushed 
on, without waiting as he was ordered, and succeeded in making the discovery of that people, 
who finally killed him. 
Upon the same day that Nica received these messengers from Stephen, there came to him three 
Indians of those whom he called Pintados, because he saw their faces, breasts, and arms 
painted. “These dwell further up into the country, towards the east, and some of them border 
upon the seven cities.” The Pintados probably belonged to the tribe now called Papagos, or 
Pimas; for I believe the Papagos and Pimas of the present day are one nation, speaking the 
same language. They are still scattered over the country referred to by the reverend father, 
from the Santa Cruz valley to Rio Gila, which perhaps may be said to border on the kingdom 
of Cibola. 
With these Pintados he departed from Vacupa upon Easter Tuesday; and having travelled 
three days northward, the way that Stephen had gone before him, he was informed that a man 
might travel in thirty days to the city of Cevola, which is the first of the seven. He was told, 
14 i 
