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Show EARLY SPANISH EXPLORATIONS 281 who had accompanied him, back to Zuiii, and, with only four companions, Espejo set out upon his journey. When the natives were advised that he was going to leave them, they brought him numerous presents, among which were a great many mantas and some specimens of silver ore. Espejo took with him some Moqui guides, and after a journey of forty-five leagues over a mountainous country, he found the mines and with his own hands obtained rich samples of silver ore. On the streams he found large quantities of wild grapes, walnut trees, flax, and Indian figs. He visited several settlements of the mountain tribes, where corn was raised and whose people were found friendly. These natives told of a great river beyond the mountains and told of its great width and the great towns which were to be found upon its banks. The river, they said, flowed into the north sea and the natives used canoes to cross it. From the mines Espejo returned to Zufi, returning by a more direct route, and traveling only sixty leagues. It is believed that the mining section visited by Espejo was somewhere in the neighborhood of Bill Williams Mountain, forty or fifty miles north of Prescott, Arizona.?®° When the Spaniards had returned to Zufi, they not only found the five soldiers who had been sent back by Espejo, with his baggage, but Friar Beltran and his companions as well, as the friar had not yet started on his return to New Biscay, but soon did so, by the same route, or possibly direct from Acoma southeastward to the Rio Grande, and thence down the river.?% Espejo, with his eight remaining soldiers, with a view of making further exploration of the upper Rio Grande, took up his march to the valley of that river and, after a march of ten days, arrived at ‘‘It will 290 Bancroft, H. H., History of Arizona and New Mexico, p. 88: be remembered that Coronado had reached the Colorado by a westerly or northwesterly course from Moqui; and it is probable that Espejo’s route was rather to the southwest, as he only heard of the great river beyond the mountains. Taking his distances of 45 leagues from Moqui and 60 leagues from Zuili, we might locate his mine in the region of Bill Williams Mountain, 40 or 50 miles north of Prescott. The record hardly justifies any more definite location. ‘‘In the statement of Escalante and Barrundo, _ **1 Bancroft, H. H., ibid: in New Mez. Testim., p. 148-9, made before Espejo’s return, but at a date hot given, allusion is made to the return of Beltran, leaving Espejo in the . . ~ ¢ ahadg ¢ north. The returning party at first consisted of . Miguel Sanchez and hisi twoy . ‘ TAL. + ng ring Sons, Gregorio° Hernandez, Cristoval Sanchez, and Frias, or six in; 9” leay a 1’ . ® ~ ‘ a & . ° arne » Espejo nine for the gMoqui “ trip; later, on Espejo’s return, Gregorio Hernandez 18 said to have joined BeltrAn’s party.’’ |