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Show 282 LEADING FACTS OF NEW MEXICAN HISTORY EARLY the province of the Queres, and thence eastward in two days, or twelve leagues, to the province of the Ubates, or Hubates, which had five pueblos containing 20,000 inhabitESPEJO RETURNS TOTHERIO ants. These were undoubtedly the GRANDE—THENCE HOME By pueblos lying north of Santa Fé, and WAY OF THE PECOS RIVER to reach these from the Queres provtraveled northeast inince, Espejo stead of east. From these pueblos it was possible for him to reach the pueblo of Cicuyé, which he next visited, in one day’s journey. Cicuyé, according to Espejo, was in the province of the Tamos, which, with its three large pueblos, contained forty thousand people. There is no doubt that the Cicuyé of Espejo is the Pecos of today, as it was situate half a league from the Rio de las Vacas, by which name the Pecos river was known to Espejo. The Tanos, different from the other natives visited by Espejo, were very unfriendly, refusing to admit the Spaniards to their pueblos and declining to furnish them with any provisions whatever. Some of the soldiers in his command were taken ill, and Espejo determined to make quick return to New Biscay. Taking with him a Pecos Indian, and leaving the pueblo of Cicuyé, after having traveled half a league, they reached the Rio Pecos, down which they journeyed for one hundred and twenty leagues. On this portion of the journey they saw many herds of buffalo. Meeting with some Indians of the tribe of J umanos, Espejo was escorted by them to the Rio Concho in twelve days of travel, covering some forty leagues. Espejo left Cicuyé in the month of July, 1583, and arrived at San Bartolomé, in New Biscay, on the 20th day of Sep- tember of that year. Here, during the month of October he made up his report. Friar Beltran and _ his party had arrived some months before, and the friar had left and gone to Durango. viceroy, to whom the report was Sent, king and the Council of the Indies, forwarded the same The to the When we take into consideration the size of the force under Espejo, the conditions which existed, the purposes for which he came to New Mexico, the feelings of hostility which necessarily must coo — the Indians who had recollections of the visit Without the ‘ssa relore, this entrada was little short of remarkable. 8 of a single life, without a conflict with the natives SPANISH EXPLORATIONS 283 of a single province, he accomplished as much, if not more than had been effected by Coronado and his great expedition, confessedly the most brilliant and completely equipped of any that had ever left the City of Mexico. Coronado’s treatment of the natives, in many respects, was most barbarous, and the reception and treatment of Hspejo by the natives of Tiguex, who had suffered most at Coro- nado’s hands, is a fair commentary upon the peaceful disposition of the Indians had they been accorded the treatment which the instructions of the viceroy, Mendoza, had demanded. The practical results of this entrada were far more important and satisfactory than the efforts of Coronado forty years before. Castafieda, the historian of the early expedition, realized what a great section of country had been lost to the members of the expedition under Coronado, and the reports of the subsequent exploring parties only confirmed what Castafieda deplored.?% There is no means of knowing with certainty whether or not Francisco de Ibarra ever entered what is now New ORIGIN OF THE EXPEDITION NAME OF NEW OF IBARRA, MEXICO— _ 1563-5 the territory Mexico. As of has been said, after the Coro- nado expedition, the Spaniard gradually ex- tended his conquests northward toward the Rio Grande and the Rio Gila. This progress was most constant, and was carried on by miners and missionaries. Just how far Ibarra penetrated the unknown north is not positively known. At any rate, on his return Ibarra boasted that he had discovered a ‘‘New Mexico’’ as well as a 292 Castafieda, Relacion, etc., Winship’s translation, p. 472: ‘“‘T always notice and it is a fact, that for the most part, when we have something valuable in our hands, and deal with it without hindrance, we do not value or prize it as highly as if we understood how much we would miss it after we had lost it, and the longer we continue to have it the less we value it; but after we have lost it and miss the advantages of it, we have a great pain in the heart and we are all the time imagining and trying to find ways and means by which to get it back again. It seems to me that this has happened to all or most of those who went on the expedition which, in the year of our Saviour, Jesus hrist, 1540, Francisco Vasquez led in search of the Seven Cities. Granted that they did not find the riches of which they had been told, they found a place in which to search for them and the beginning of a good country to settle im, 80 as to go on farther from there. Since they came back from the country which they conquered and abandoned, time has given them a chance to underStand the direction and locality in which they were, and the borders of the good country they had in their hands, and their hearts weep for having lost so favorable an opportunity.’’ |
