waters approch: I thought it my duety to doe according as your lordship gaue mee charge in your instructions, which is, that immediately vpon mine arriuall here, I should signifie so much vnto your lordship, and so I doe, sending withall the bare relation of that which I haue seene. I. haue determined to send round about the countrey from hence to haue knowledge of all things, and rather to suffer all extremitie, then to leaue this enterprise to serue his maiestie, if I may finde any thing wherein I may performe it, and not to omit any diligence therein, vntill your lordship send mee order what I shall doe. Wee haue great want of pasture: and your lordship also shal vnderstand, that among all those which are here, there is not one pound of raisins, nor suger, nor oyle, nor any wine, saue only one pinte which is saued to say Masse: for all is spent & spilt by the way. Now your lordship may prouide vs what you thinke needefull. And if your honour meane to send vs cattell, your lordship must vnderstand that they will bee a sommer in comming vnto vs: for they will not be able to come vnto vs any sooner. I would haue sent your lordshippe with this dispatch many musters of things which are in this countrey: but the way is so long and rough, that it is hard for me to doe so; neuerthelesse I send you twelue small mantles, such as the people of the countrey are woont to weare, and a certaine garment also, which seemeth vnto me to bee well made: I kept the same, because it seemed to mee to bee excellent well wrought, because I beleeue that no man euer sawe any needle worke in these Indies, except it were since the Spaniards inhabited the same. I send your Lordshippe also two clothes painted with the beasts of this countrey, although as I haue sayde, the picture bee very rudely done, because the painter spent but one day in drawing of the same. I haue seene other pictures on the walles of the houses of this citie with farre better proportion, and better made. I send your honour one Oxe-hide, certaine Turqueses, and two earerings of the same, and fifteene combes of the Indians, and certain tablets set with these Turqueses, and two small baskets made of wicker, whereof the Indians haue great store. I send your lordship also two rolles which the women in these parts are woont to weare on their heads when they fetch water from their welles, as wee vse to doe in Spaine. And one of these Indian women with one of these rolles on her head, will carie a pitcher of water without touching the same with her hande vp a lather. I send you also a muster of the weapons wherewith these people are woont to fight, a buckler, a mace, a bowe, and certaine arrowes, among which are two with points of bones, the like whereof, as these conquerours say, haue neuer beene seene. I can say nothing unto your lordshippe touching the apparell of their women. For the Indians keepe them so carefully from vs, that hitherto I haue not seene any of them, sauing onely two olde women, and these had two long robes downe to the foote open before, and girded to them, and they are buttoned with certaine cordons of cotton. I requested the Indians to giue me one of these robes, which they ware, to send your honour the same, seeing they would not shewe mee their women. And they brought mee two mantles which are these, which I send you as it were painted: they haue two pendents like the women of Spaine, which hang somewhat ouer their shoulders. The death of the Negro is most certaine for here are many of the things found which hee carried with him: And the Indians tell me that they killed him here, because the Indians of Chichilticale tolde them that hee was a wicked villaine, and not like vnto the Christians: because the Christians kill no women: and hee killed women; and also he touched their women, which the Indians loue more then themselues; therefore they determined to kill him: But they did it not after such sort as was reported, for they killed none of the rest of those that came with him: neither slewe they the young lad which was with him of the prouince of Petatlan, but they tooke him and kept him in safe custodie vntill nowe. And when I sought to haue him, they excused themselues two or three dayes to giue him mee, telling mee that hee was dead, and sometimes that the Indians of Acucu had carried him away. But in conclusion, when I tolde them that I should bee very angry if they did not giue him mee, they gave him vnto me. Hee is an interpreter, for though hee cannot well speake their language, yet he vnderstandeth the same very well. In this place there is found some quantitie of golde and siluer, which those which are skilfull in minerall matters esteeme to be very good. To this houre I could neuer learne of these people from whence they haue it: And I see they refuse to tell mee the trueth in all things, imagining, as I haue sayde, that in short time I would depart hence, but I hope in God they shall no longer excuse themselues. I beseech your lordship to certifie his Maiestie of the successe of this voyage. For seeing we haue no more then that which is aforesayd, and vntill such time as it please God that wee finde that which wee desire, I meane not to write my selfe. Our Lorde God keepe and preserue your Excellencie. From the Prouince of Cibola, and from this citie of Granada the third of August 1540. Francis Vasques de Coronado kisseth the hands of your Excellencie. In 1530, ten years after the conquest of Mexico by Cortes, stories were told the Spaniards there of seven great Indian cities in the north, within the present limits of New Mexico and Arizona. The cities were said to be full of silver and gold; and Nuño de Guzman, with a force of 400 Spaniards and 20,000 Indians, set out from Mexico in search of this "Land of the Seven Cities," believed to be only 600 miles distant. The Seven Cities and the Island of the Amazons, of which he had also heard, kept receding as he marched, and finally he retraced his steps as far as Compostella and Guadalaxara, where he established what was afterwards known as the province of New Gallicia. He was presently deposed from the governorship of this province by Mendoza, the new viceroy, and was succeeded by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. To Coronado, in 1536, came the accounts of the arrival at Culiacan of De Vaca and his three companions, the sole survivors of Narvaez's expedition to Florida in 1527, after nine years' wanderings through the great regions north of the Gulf of Mexico, with their accounts of having fallen in with civilized peoples, living "in populous towns with very large houses." Coronado sent out Fray Marcos de Nizza, a monk who had been in Peru under Alvarado, on a preliminary investigation north, accompanied by one of De Vaca's companions, a negro named Stephen, and others. Fray Marcos' report upon his return is the first definite account which exists of the exploration and history of the region occupied by what we call the Pueblo Indians. It may be found in Hakluyt's Voyages, iii, 438 (edition of 1810). Fray Marcos came to many Indian villages, passed through rich valleys, and heard much about the province of Cibola and its seven great cities, and of other great kingdoms beyond, which were called Marata, Acus and Totonteac. From a hill he looked down upon a city in a plain, which he said was larger than Mexico, and which his Indian companions said was the smallest of the Seven Cities. After great dangers and remarkable experiences he returned to Coronado, who went with him to Mexico to report to Mendoza. Mendoza forwarded Fray Marcos' written report to the Emperor Charles V, accompanied by an account of his own of the previous attempts at exploring the country (given in Ternaux-Compans, ix, 283, 290). In February, 1540, Coronado himself, accompanied by Fray Marcos, set out for the Seven Cities of Cibola, with a force of 300 Spaniards and 800 Indians. But the expedition resulted in great disappointment. Instead of the great city which Marcos had reported, Cibola turned out a poor village with not more than 200 inhabitants, situated on a rocky eminence. From its resemblance in situation, Coronado gave the name of Granada to the village. He states that the name Cibola belonged to the whole district, not to any particular place. From this village, August 3, 1540, he sent to the viceroy the account of his explorations published in the present leaflet, expressing his disappointment and his disbelief in Fray Marcos' report of the rich and powerful kingdoms beyond. He pushed on, however, frequently deceived by extravagant stories, suffering great disappointments, and undergoing endless hardships, until the spring of 1542, when he returned to Mexico. Gen. Simpson speaks of his expedition as one which, "for extent in distance travelled, duration in time, and the multiplicity of its coöperating expeditions, equalled, if it did not exceed, any land expedition that has been undertaken in modern times." Gen. Simpson maintains that Coronado reached a point as far north as what is now the boundary line between Kansas and Nebraska, well on toward the Missouri River. Bandelier is not satisfied that he went so far northeast, and thinks that he moved more in a circle. Bandelier identifies some of the places mentioned in connection with the expedition with pueblos north of Santa Fé. The river found by one detachment, with its banks elevated "three or four leagues in the air," was undoubtedly the Colorado in its Grand Cañon. "In the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society for October, 1881," says Professor Henry W. Haynes, from whose chapter on "Early Explorations of New Mexico," in the Narrative and Critical History of America, these facts are gathered, "I have given in detail the reasons for identifying Cibola with the region of the present Zuñi pueblos. Mr. Frank H. Cushing has made the important discovery that this tribe has preserved the tradition of the coming of Fray Marcos, and of the killing of the negro Stephen, whom they call 'the black Mexican,' at the ruined pueblo called Quaquima. They claim also to have a tradition of the visit of Coronado, and even of Cabeza de Vaca." Squier also identifies Cibola with Zuñi, as do Simpson, Prince and Davis. H. M. Breckenridge maintained that Cibola was the well-known ruin called Casa Grande. Lewis H. Morgan (see his article on The Seven Cities of Cibola in the North American Review for April, 1869), argued in favor of the identification of the site with the remarkable group of ruins in the valley of the Rio Chaca, about 100 miles northeast of Zuñi. Rev. E. E. Hale, in a paper on Coronado's Discovery of the Seven Cities, read before the American Antiquarian Society in April, 1881, argued, on the ground of certain new evidence, that the Moqui pueblos perhaps better satisfied the demands. Professor Haynes, in an answer to this at the following October meeting of the Society, discussed all the different opinions and upheld the Zuñi theory. To Professor Haynes' essay, above mentioned, is appended a very full account of the literature of this whole subject, to which the student is referred. Coronado's report to Mendoza is printed in the present leaflet as given by Hakluyt in his Voyages, iii, 446 (ed. of 1810). His letter to Mendoza, March 8, 1539, transmitting report from Fray Marcos, and another brief letter to Mendoza, may be found in the same volume. A French translation of his letter to Emperor Charles V, giving an account of events from April 23 to October 20, 1541, is given in the Voyages of Ternaux-Compans, ix, 355. Of other narratives by companions of Coronado, see account given by Haynes. Gallatin's essay on the Ancient Semi-civilization of New Mexico, in the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society (vol. iii, 1848), based on the reports of Col. Emory and Lieut. Abert, E. G. Squier's essay on the same subject in the American Review for November, 1848, Davis's Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, Simpson's Coronado's March, and Bandelier's Historical Introduction to Studies among the Sedentary Indians of New Mexico, are the important modern works. Published by the Directors of the Old South Studies in History and Politics, Old South Meeting House, Boston. Schools and the trade supplied by D. C. HEATH & Co., Boston. To the Right Worshipful the Commissioners under his Majesties Great-Seal, for Propagation of the Gospel amongst the poor blind Indians in New-England. RIGHT WORSHIPFUL AND CHRISTIAN GENTLEMEN: THAT brief Tract of the present state of the Indian-Work in my hand, which I did the last year on the fudden present you with when you call'd for fuch a thing; That falling short of its end, and you calling for a renewal thereof, with opportunity of more time, I shall begin with our last great motion in that Work done this Summer, because that will lead me to begin with the state of the Indians under the hands of my Brethren Mr. Mahew and Mr. Bourn. Upon the 17th day of the 6th month, 1670, there was a Meeting at Maktapog near Sandwich in Plimouth-Pattent, to gather a Church among the Indians: There were present six of the Magiftrates, and many Elders, (all of them Messengers of the Churches within that Jurisdiction) in whose presence, in a day of Fafting and Prayer, they making confeffion of the Truth and Grace of Jesus Christ, did in that folemn Assembly enter into Covenant, to walk together in the Faith and Order of the * The full title of this tract was as follows: A Brief Narrative of the Progress of the Gospel amongst the Indians in New England, in the Year 1670, given in by the Reverend Mr. JOHN ELLIOT, Minifter of the Gofpel there, in a LETTER by him directed to the Right Worshipfull the COMMISSIONERS under his Majesties Great-Seal for Propagation of the Gofpel amongst the poor blind Natives in those United Colonies. LONDON, Printed for John Allen, formerly living in LittleBritain at the Rifing-Sun, and now in Wentworth street near Bell-Lane, 1671. |