On the trail of a Spanish pioneer; the diary and itinerary of Francisco Garces (missionary priest) in his travels through Sonora, Arizona, and California, 1775-1776; translated from an official contemporaneous copy of the original Spanish manscript, and ed., with copious critical notes

On the trail of a Spanish pioneer; the diary and itinerary of Francisco Garcés (missionary priest) in his travels through Sonora, Arizona, and California, 1775-1776; translated from an official contemporaneous copy of the original Spanish manscript, and e - Page 199

484 COMMENTARY ON MARK OF NICE, 1539. other larger river, inhabited by much people, whose multitude they explained with fistfuls of sand; that followed exactly, was the same as, or scarcely differed from, that which Coronado followed, accompanied by the friar, the very next year. As lately worked out by Mr. Hodge, this route left the San Pedro in the vicinity of the present Benson; went through Dragoon and Railroad passes, as the railroad does now; reached the Gila at or near Solomonville ( in which vicinity was the much mooted Chichilticalli or Red House of the Coronado relations); passed the Gila Bonito high up, and thus in the S. E. corner of the present White Mountain reser­vation; crossed the Salado or Salt river, believed to be the Rio de las Balsas or Raft river of the Coronado relations; and thus attained some of the headwaters of the Colorado Chiquito; whence the distance was short to the Rio Vermejo or modern Zuni river, which appears to have been struck a few miles below the point where it crosses the present boundary between Arizona and New Mexico. Thence it was only a day's journey to the first Zunian or Cibolan pueblo, Hawiku, about six miles east of the boundary last said. Pursuing the route thus sketched, or one closely approxi­mate thereto, for twelve days, which brought the friar within two or three days of his destination, on the 2ist- 3ist of May, he was met by a fugitive from Cibola- one of the many Indians who had accompanied Estevanico thither- with the startling news that the negro had been killed by the Cibolans. Ac­counts of the affair differ in detail, as usual, and it is not neces­sary to go into them here; of the main fact there is no question. This catastrophe put an entrada into Cibola out of the ques­tion; but Friar Marcos determined not to desist without at least a view of the promised land. He was led by two of his Indians to a spot whence he sighted the nearest one of the Seven Cities of Cibola, la qual estd sentada en un llano, a la falda de un cerro redondo-" which is situated in a plain at the skirt