CHAPTER XVII.

THE SPANISH EXPLORERS AND MISSIONARIES.

THE SPANISH DISCOVERY OF ARIZONA. FRIAR MARCO DE NIZA. THE NEGRO ESTEVANICO. CORONADO. CASTANADA. ULLOA. ALARCON. DISCOVERY OF THE COLORADO. ESPEJO. MOQUI AND THE SEVEN CITIES OF CIBOLA. THE PUEBLOS. FATHERS KINO AND ESCALANTE, MISSIONS. PRESIDIOS. PUEBLOS, ETC.

The early half of the wonderful sixteenth century—the years which saw the mysterious empire of Montezuma shattered and the power of the Castilian made firm and enduring, for some centuries at least, were not without important consequences to the strange, wild interior of which for some years the mailed warriors of Cortez had been having their imaginations fired by fabulous stories of wealth and prosperity. The "Seven Cities of Cibola”—cities of the bull were almost a myth to the Aztecs themselves, whose traditionary lore was laden with the stories of strange adventures encountered in the endeavors of their more hardy warriors and traders to explore the land to the north of their own power, and to deal with the people who inhabited a territory of weird forms and scenes, wild gorges, flooding rivers that forced their way through black and lofty mountains and arid deserts, valley and mesa wrenched from the desolation and made to bloom through industry with homes and harvests. The cupidity of the ruthless warriors and adventurers was excited by stories of fabulous wealth, while their superstition was linked with the devotion of the missionary priests, who were eager to carry their religion to strange peoples, bearing the cross of the Redeemer to meet the phallian cross of the sun-worshipers in their seven cities, reported to be full of gold and glowing with treasure.

Between what now constitutes Arizona and New Mexico and the central States of Mexico, then the seat of Aztec civilization, there lay a wide stretch of country but thinly settled by a race not of the Aztec stock, though allied thereto. The Gulf of California had been discovered and named after Cortez. It had not, however, been explored. Direct reports of the

TABULA CALIFORNIA. Anno 1702.
Ex autoptica observatione delineata a R.P.Chino è S.I.

Tabula Geographica R.P.Euseby Franc. Kino Tridentini è Soe IESU.

JESUIT MAP OF ARIZONA 1698.

EXPEDITION OF NIZA.

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famed cities of Cibola were first heard by the Spaniards in 1530. Cabeza de Vaca, a sailor, was shipwrecked in the Gulf, and wandered into the Moqui country in 1535. The Spanish conqueror, Cortez, had been replaced by the Viceroy, Mendoza, when in March, 1539, the Padre Marco de Niza set out to find the cities of Cibola, accompanied by Senor Estevanico, a man of color who had previously served with Narvaez. They left Culiacan, a city of "New Spain," in March, 1539. The priest and his associate reached the Gila river, and discovered the Pima Indians, (no mention was made of the Maricopas) living at the same point in the valley where their descendants are still found. They were four days crossing the desert, apparently a portion of Papagueria. The Indians had neither heard nor seen any of the conquering people, nor had they heard of Christianity. The friar told them of the "Lord God in Heaven," and "the Emperor." These people told the padre that four or five days distant to the east there was a large plain with many great towns thereon, the same being at the foot of the mountains. The inhabitants were clad in cotton. Gold, the friar understood, was so common that it was used for household purposes. The story told by the friar indicates that the Pimas were telling him of the Zuni towns, whose remains are still to be seen on the border of Arizona and New Mexico. From the Pima country, Padre de Niza, with Estevanico, traveled, reaching the region then inhabited by the Zuni people. The adventurous missionary, having heard the reports given by the Pimas, concluded to send Estevanico ahead, who had not traveled far before he received information that the nearest of the seven cities referred to was named Cibola, and distant thirty days' journey.

As pre-arranged, Estevanico sent word to the friar, who followed. The former kept ahead, however, and the friar, after traveling four weeks, was met by one of the Indians who had accompanied Estevanico, returning in great haste and terror. The Indian said that when within a day's journey of Cibola, Estevanico dispatched messengers before him with presents and messages for the Governor, who said that he knew well enough what kind of people they came from, and warned them that if they entered the city he would put them to death. He meant it too; for on the arrival of the remainder of the party they were shut up in a large house outside the city, and the next day, out of more than three hundred men, women and children composing the party, but three escaped massacre by the people. The women and children accompanying Este

vanico and his Spaniards were probably from the tribes in Sonora and on the Gila river among whom they had traveled. The negro leader was charged with behaving badly towards the women. Friar Niza, however, was not to be daunted, and concluded to press forward. He reached the city, (or said he did) which he reported to be large, built of stone, and gold and silver more abundant than in Peru; also that he was informed Cibola was the least of seven cities. It does not appear from the translation how the friar succeeded in avoiding the fate that overtook the African and his party, or how three hundred men, women and children managed to subsist en route. On the 22d September, 1539, the friar gave to the Viceroy, in the city of Mexico, an exaggerated relation of his journey, which led to an expedition of over a thousand men, (principally Indians) under command of Vasquez de Coronado. The Friar accompanied the expedition, the vanguard of which arrived at the first village of Cibola about forty-five days after leaving Culiacan. Instead of such a large and rich city as they expected to find, it proved to be a small and poor village of about two hundred warriors; the houses were small, three or four stories in height, with terraces on the top. The province was composed of seven villages in a valley six leagues long; the inhabitants united in defence of the first, but being attacked, and dispersed, the whole province submitted. The province of Tusayan (now known as the Moqui villages) was twenty-five leagues north-west from Cibola, and also contained seven cities. In a north-east direction were the cities or villages of Acuco and Cicuye, and between them the province of Tiguex, Tegua, or the farthest-Cicuye-being seventy leagues from Cibola. These, it is evident, were the New Mexico Pueblos. In these the Spaniards were not opposed, and the chief of Cicuye (Bigotes) even offered, by messengers sent to Cibola, the services and friendship of his nation, and they were accompanied back to Cicuye by twenty Spaniards; notwithstanding which, he and the cacique were not long afterwards arrested by the Spaniards. This, with other gross provocations, caused an insurrection in Tiguex, which contained twelve villages; it was suppressed, but the inhabitants left for the mountains. In May, 1540, the army left Tiguex for Cicuye, twenty-five leagues distant, on arrival at which Bigotes and the cacique were liberated; and the army, supplied with provisions here, went north-east six or seven days' journey, where they for the first time found buffaloes, and Indians, called Querechos, who in the main subsisted upon