OCR Text |
Show 358 MOQUI PASTURES, OR " MUCA CONCABE. thereto a half- ruined pueblo. I asked what that was, and they answered me that it had been a pueblo of the Moqui, and that some crops which were near to a spring of water were theirs, they coming to cultivate them from the same Moqui pueblo [ Oraibi] that is today so large. The river runs little, and it was yellowish; having crossed it and ascended some hills, I entered upon some very wide plains, without one tree, though there is some small grass; and having gone six leagues in the same direction I arrived at some pastures where the Moquis keep their horseherd. These pastures are of difficult entrance and worse exit; there are found some scanty aguages. There is not to be discovered from this place any sierra on the north and east; only is seen that which runs toward therefore, his Jaquesila = Moencopie wash - f- Colorado Chi-quito below their junction; but it is not necessary to insist upon this point. See Font's map, which traces " R. Jaquesila" entirely N. and W. of Oraybe, a portion of it running S. W. ( = Moencopie wash) before it turns N. W. ( = Colorado Chi-quito) to join the main Colorado. The wash is intermittent, commonly quite dry below, contributing no water to the Little Colorado; but higher up, in the vicinity of its sources, it runs sometimes. It is possible to identify the half- ruined pueblo, the mesa, and the Moqui pastures of which Garces speaks; certainly the latter are Moencopie, better spelled Moencapi, and curiously styled " Muca concabe " in the text beyond: sec the note on p. 393. From this position Garces can make his entrada into Moqui on a well- known trail southeast, by going the fifteen miles or so which he next indicates. |