OCR Text |
Show 206 LEADING FACTS OF NEW MEXICAN other towns down the river. The inhabitants villages were terraced. Coronado visited all of province, and resuming his march to Tiguex,?”° where he met Alvarado, Cardenas, and El Turco, HISTORY FRANCISCO were peaceful; the the villages of this reached that place, waiting for him in the village that had been prepared as winter quarters for the army. part of the Laguna group, north of Acoma. In this they certainly err, because Castafieda says Tutahaco was down the river southeast of Tiguex. 220 Bancroft, Hubert Howe, History of Arizona and New Mexico, identifies the province of Tiguex with the valley of the Rio Grande, and Cicuyé, at the edge of the buffalo plains, from the vicinity of which a river flowed southeastward, with the now ruined pueblo of Pecos. Ina very elaborate note he cites many authorities. He says: ‘‘Tiguex, also printed Tihuex and Tihuek, is 40 1. N(E%) of Cibola. Castaieda 3. 4. eastward, of Acuco. Jd. It has twelve villages on a great river; the valley is about 2 1. wide and bounded on the w. by high snowy mts. 4 villages at the foot of the mts. 3 others on the heights. Id, Tiguex is the central point of all the pueblos; 4 villages on the river below Tiguex are S. E. because the river makes a bend to the east (no such bend appears on the modern maps); up and down the valley the region explored extends about 130 1. all inhabited. Jd. 20 1. east of the pefiol of Acuco, a river flowing from N. to S., well settled, with 70 pueblos, large and small, in its whole extent (and branches?); the settled region extends 50 1. N. and S. and there are some villages 15 or 20 1. away on either side. Rel. del Suceso, 323. On the river are 15 villages within 20 ]. and others on the branches, Jaramillo, 309. Coronado, Pacheco, doc. iii, 368, says Tiguex was the best province found; yet not desirable for Spanish occupation. Gallatin, followed by Prince, 128, and Davis, 185, puts Tiguex on the Puerco. The reasons are, the N. E. direction of Jemez from Tiguex and the great river crossed after passing Cicuyé, which these authors identify with the Rio Grande. In my opinion these points are of slight weight in opposition to the general tenor of all the narratives. It seems incredible that the Spaniards should have described the valley of the Puerco as the broad valley of a large river on which and on its branches for over 100 1. on the right and left were situated most of the pueblos. admits that the Puerco was but a small been full or flooded at the time; ample stream, but suggests that Davis it may have yet, in a year and more the Spaniards had time to learn its comparative size. They went in their explorations far si the Junction, and if the river Tiguex had been the Puerco, its junction with a larger river would naturally have been noted. If, however, any further proof is needed, we have years later, the fact that Espejo, ascending the Rio Grande forty found the province of Tiguas with reports of Coronado’s visits and fights with the natives, Espejo, Relacion, 112-113. This province of the Tig- Bogie i F ane known at the end of in ‘ I €s, being on the Rio Gran in in the region of Sandia. Panigice Historical A he gee — “ me of documentary evidence which he cites, has no benthciice i locating lt pi = the Rio Grande above the Puerco junction, at or near Bernalillo. the ie ll ig gel had cama located Tiguex on the Rio Grande above that some of the i pnas woes te ty et 334-335, while admitting Tiguex below the mouth of the Puerco, oo eta inane 7 mountains, the iting also Jeffery’s Atlas of 1773, which puts Tigua at the footSoc of those mts. Simpson’s view of this matter eM remove Some of the difficulties in connection with Espejo’s trip ut 1t would also create other and greater difficulties. ’ VASQUEZ CORONADO 207 Upon his arrival at Tiguex, the captain-general had an interview with El Turco, whose stories sounded good to the credulous ear of Coronado. Already the Turk had evolved a plan by which, trusting to the well-known desire of the Spaniards for gold, he would lead them over the mountains on to the staked plains, where they would die of thirst. The Turk was blessed with an imagination far more vivid than any possessed by the ordinary Indian, and, in his conversation with the Spanish captain, led them to believe that in his country the yellow metal was a very common affair. Naturally the Spaniards, filled with disappointment at not finding the statements of the friar Marcos verified, were ready to believe almost anything the Turk had to relate, and became very enthusiastic in their hopes of a great future conquest. ‘‘In his country,’’ said El Turco, ‘‘there was a river in the level country which was two leagues wide, in which there were fishes as big as horses and large numbers of very big canoes, with more than twenty rowers on the side, and that they earried sails; and their lords sat on the poop, under awnings, and on the prow they had a He said also that the lord of that country took great golden eagle. his afternoon nap under a great tree on which were a great hung number of little gold bells, which put him to sleep as they swung their ordinary dishes in the air. He said also that everyone had made of wrought plate, and the jugs, plates, and bowls were of gold.’’ 221. El Turco even had a name for the yellow metal, which he called acochis. bracelets. When He also told them that when he was captured golden by the Indians of Cicuyé, the latter had deprived him of his the captain-general heard this statement, he 1m- mediately sent Alvarado to Cicuyé to secure the bracelets ; abe He arrival Alvarado ascertained that El] Turco was a great har. ne the then succeeded in decoying the chief of the Cicuyé, Bigotes, # he put a cacique, who was an old man, into his tent, where confinemen in held were they chains, took them to Tiguex, where 6 ; i im their When Alvarado left Cicuye, taking with him t for six months. ice 221 Castafieda, Relacion, Winship’s ‘ trans., p. 493: ae ra he was saci ont ee believed, on account of the ease with a a ae were not gold, and nts and he recognize : ing about abou other not : care anything ne kale aia on grere very well and did metals.’’ |