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Show 220 LEADING FACTS OF NEW MEXICAN FRANCISCO HISTORY It was but a short distance now until Coronado was upon the plains, where he came upon some settlements inhabited by people ‘‘who lived like Arabs’’ and THE ARMY REACHES THE PLAINS were known as_ Querechos. AND THEY SEE BUFFALO AND INDIANS CALLED QUERECHOS These people lived in tents made of the tanned skins of the buffalo. When they saw the army they did not appear to be at all alarmed and came out of their tents to witness its approach. Fearlessly they advanced to the horsemen in front, and asked the Spaniards who they were. 7°? Presently Coronado came up and talked with them. The conversation was carried on by means of signs, by which they made themselves very well understood, in fact there was no need of an interpreter. They informed the general that there was a very large river over toward the rising sun, and that it was possible to go along this stream for ninety days without a break from settlement to settlement; that natural and accustomed route for the Indians of the Rio Grande and of the several pueblo villages northeast of the present pueblo of Santo Domingo and those of Cicuyé to take when going to the plains in search of buffalo was by Ceaye. the Pecos river, particularly those who lived in the neighborhood of Bancroft, Hubert H., History of Arizona and New Mezico, p. 59, river was the Gallinas, the eastern and larger branch of the Pecos. thinks this In a note he says, ‘‘as we have seen, the size of this stream has to be explained by the season of the flood, with the possible addition of earlier exploration by Alvarado. To thus explain away the difficulty is a very different matter from Davis’s similar theory about the Rio Puerco, because on the Puerco the army spent, if D, and the others are right, two winters, and had ample time to learn its size and its connection with the Rio Grande; while the Cicuyé was merely crossed «4 this point once in May, and was once or twice explored below and shown to : 7 a large iver. D.’s position that the Cieuyé was the Rio Grande is sine d untenable. Prince undoubtedly followed Davis and thus fell into this Bancroft : is clearly in error. To have reached the left bank of the Gallinas ) - oe a ae to cross the Pecos; the Gallinas is not the larger branch ee a se o eaten also errs when he thinks that T, and at the time that Coronado went out upon the plains, the Pecos was at a ee oe and difficult to cross. cae oes soli big Explorers rece eastern the bridge was built ce anadian. No Indian or ctbolero ever left the locality of the old p ; 0, going to the ‘‘ buffalo plains,’’ except by the route down the Pecos in the Southern United States, note Pp. hema ere i the eastern Apaches, or Apaches Vaqueros of later os as oo. The first Querechos were met near the 1895, odge, ead F a eh! Navajéib and Apache, Am. Anthrop., p. 235, July, ames Mooney has discovered that ‘Querecho’ is an old Comanche name of th and eastern New i. ikawa7 , who ranged the buffalo plains of western Texas VASQUEZ CORONADO 221 the first of these settlements was called Haxa, and that the river was more than a league in width and that there were many canoes on the river. 228 During the two days’ march after this meeting with the Querechos, the Spaniards saw many others of the same tribe and such great numbers of buffalo that it seemed almost incredible. The Turk told them that it was a two days’ journey to Haxa, and Coronado sent Captain Diego Lopez with a command of ten men, lightly equipped, in search of the place. The army followed over a section of country, the llano estacado, ‘‘without sight of mountain range, nor a hill, nor a hillock, which was three times as high as a Diego Lopez was lost for two days, at the end of which he man.’’ returned with the news that although he had traveled a distance of twenty leagues he had seen ‘‘nothing but buffalo and sky.’’ While on the march the army came across a wandering band of Indians, among whom was one who was blind, who told them, using the sign language, that ‘‘he had seen four others like us many days before, whom he had seen near there and rather more toward New Spain,’’ believed by the soldiers to have been Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca and his companions. Later on other Indians of the plains were encountered, who called themselves Teyas, an intelligent, well-formed people, who lived like the Querechos. At this time it was estimated that the army had marched upwards of of two hundred and fifty leagues since leaving the province have to come had time this by The captain-general, who Tiguex. of great doubts as to the sincerity of the Turk,?*° called a council At this meeting it was concluded that it was best that his captains. i probably. 238 This river was the Arkansas near the Mississipp ‘¢We all went forward one day to a 239 Jaramillo, in his Relacion, ete., says: to agree on meadows, stream which was down in a ravine in the midst of good Here, the Indian Ysopete, who should go ahead and how the rest should return. asked to tell us the truth, as we had called the companion of the said Turk, was He said he in search of. and to lead us to that country which we had come those were certainly would do it, and that it was not as the Turk had said, because at Tihuex, about gold fine things which he had said and given us to understand style of them, and their and how it was obtained, and the buildings, and the prolixity, which had led trade, and many other things told for the sake of the and of the priests. us to go in search of them, with the advice of all who gave it it was his native because He asked us to leave him afterward in that country, not go along country, as a reward for guiding us, and also, that the Turk might him in everything that with him, because he would quarrel and try to restrain him this, and said he wanted to do for our advantage; and the general promised he would be one of the thirty, and he went in this way.’ ' |
