EXPEDITION TO TIGUEX AND QUIYIRA. 
Ill 
clothes painted with the beasts of the country; which he says were not well done, as the Indian 
painter was occupied hut one day in painting them. He had seen pictures on the walls of the 
houses in the city executed in much better style. There were also an “ox hide"’ (buffalo robe), 
“turquoise ear-rings, combs, and tablets set with turquoises.” They told him that they killed 
the negro, Stephen, because “he touched their women.” lie adds, that “in this place is 
found some quantity of gold and silver, very good,” but he cannot learn whence it comes, as 
they refuse to tell him the truth in all tilings. 
coronado’s expedition continued. 
“ The rest of the history of this voyage to Acuco, Tiguex, Cicuic, and Quivira, by Francisco Lopes 
de Gomara.” 
They agreed to pass further into the country, which was told them to be better and better. 
So they came to Acuco*, a town upon an exceeding strong hill. And from thence Don Garcias 
Lopez de Cardenas went with his company of horsemen unto the sea ; and Francisco Yasquez 
went to Tiguex, which standeth on the bank of a big river.f There they had news of Axa and 
Quivira: where, it was said, “was a king, whose name was Tartarrax, with a long beard, 
hoary-lieaded, and rich ; which was girded with a Bracamart; which prayed upon a pair ot 
beads ; which worshipped a cross of gold and image of a woman the queen of heaven.” 
In the country of Tiguex there were “melons, and white and red cotton, of which they made 
large mantles.” “From Tiguex they went, in four days’journey, to Cicuic,” a small town, “and 
four leagues thence they met with a new kind of oxen;};, wild and fierce, whereof, the first day, 
they killed fourscore, which sufficed the army with flesh.” From Cicuic they went to Quivira, 
which, by their account, is almost 300 leagues distant, “through mighty plains and sandy 
heaths, smooth and wearisome, and bare of wood,” so that they made heaps of ox-dung for want 
of stones and trees, that they might not lose themselves upon their return; “for three horses 
were lost in that plain, and one Spaniard, who went from his company on hunting.” “All that 
way, and the plains are as full of crooked-backed oxen as the mountain Serena in Spain is of 
sheep; but there is no people but such as keep those cattle.” * * “One day it rained in 
that plain a great shower of hail, as big as oranges.” * * At length they came to Quivira, 
and found Tartarrax, whom they sought, a hoary-headed man, naked, and with a jewel of 
copper hanging at his neck, which was all his riches. The Spaniards, seeing the false report of 
so famous riches, returned to Tiguex, without seeing either cross or show of Christianity, and 
thence to Mexico. In the end of March, 1542, Francisco Vasques fell from his horse in Tiguex, 
and “ with the fall fell out of his wits and became mad; which some took to be for grief, and 
others thought to be counterfeited ; for they were much offended with him because lie peopled 
not the country.” “ Quivira § is in 40°; it is a temperate country, and hath very good waters, 
and much grass, plums, mulberries, nuts, melons, and grapes, which ripen very well. There 
is no cotton, and they apparel themselves in ox-hides and deer-skins.” 
“ It grieved Don Antonio de Mendoga very much that the army returned home ; for he had 
spent about threescore thousand pesos of gold in the enterprise, and owed a great part thereof 
still. Many sought to have dwelt there; but Francisco Yasquez de Coronado, which was rich, 
and lately married to a fair wife, would not consent, saying they could not maintain nor defend 
themselves in so poor a country and so far from succour.” 
Gomara, after describing the buffalo, adds : “There are also in this country other beasts as 
® Acuco—the pueblo of Acoma. f Rio del Norte. 
J This appears to he the first instance in which wild buffalo were seen by Spaniards upon this expedition. 
§ The latitude of Quivira is probably near 34°. The great barren plain crossed from Tiguex must have been in the 
direction from Santa Fe' southward ; east of Zandia and Manzana mountains. No other route would have presented the 
plain they describe. 
