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Show FURTHER NOTICE OF ZUKl. 379 eluding also in this letter some ( account) of the petty date at 1630. Which is to be regarded as right? Benavides, who wrote in 1630, leads to the inference that at his time the murders had not yet been committed. But Benavides was in Spain when he wrote the ' Memorial' to the king, and he had left New Mexico in 1628. He might have been in Mexico even when the tragedy occurred and not have heard of it before his sailing for Spain. I therefore incline in favor of the date 1630, until better informed." Aside from the documentary evidence thus referred to, we may agree with Mr. Hodge that the statement of this eminent authority seems reasonable from the point of view of time. It seems hardly likely that the news of the murder of Letrado could have reached Santa Fe, the usual red-tape been unwound, and the avenging party have come within a day's march of Zuni, within a month from the date of the tragedy. Zuni is identical with the present pueblo of the same name in western central New Mexico. It is built on a part of the site of Halona, one of the Seven Cities of Cibola, to visit which, in search of gold, the practically fruitless expedition of Francisco Vasquez Coronado was organized in 1540. The Zuni Indians ( who call themselves Shiwi or Ashiwi) occupied seven pueblos, the ruins of which are still readily traceable. Their first missionary was Fray Francisco Letrado, as above said. The Zunis took an active part in the Pueblo revolt of 1680, killing their priest, Fray Juan de Bal, and fleeing to the summit of Taaiylone, popularly called Thunder mountain. The population has diminished, during the last fifty years, from about 3,000 to approximately 1,400 ( nearly 200 having succumbed to the smallpox epidemic of 1898- 99). Writers on the Zunis and their tribal range during three and a half centuries have greatly confused the names, some of the attempts being Cabri, Cami, Cibola- Zuiii, £ uni, Cuiii, Juni, Luni, Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe ( mission name), Sinis, Soones, Sounes, |