Háwikuh, to-day a ruin of great interest, lies fifteen miles southwest of modern Zuñi. On our way thither we overtook and passed an Indian pointed out as the prize man in the foot-race that is of special ritual significance to this tribe. A hardy, compact figure, he was no longer young, but never failed to do his daily stint of dog-trot practice which would keep him in condition for the annual competition. Háwikuh was built on the slopes of a round and not very elevated hill. The most noticeable of the many excavations are those of the _kiva_ and mission church, not far separated from each other, thus perfectly exemplifying the dual religious allegiance that has prevailed from the first baptism of an Indian by Spanish padres until the present day. A great plain stretches out on every side, sparsely dotted with the familiar stunted herbage of the desert. Standing on the summit of the mound, the middle distance is broken toward the south by a range of moderate height and steepness. On some one of its projecting cliffs the friar might well have stood to look upon the coveted goal to which he might not win. Vast horizons encompass the plain and far off the twin peaks of the Zuñi buttes pierce the sky. It is a lonely scene but the more easy for that reason to re-people with the figures of a vanished past. Fray Marcos not only saw Háwikuh, but he also heard of Ácoma. The Indian with whom Estévan had talked told the friar that, besides these Seven Cities, there were other territories which they called Marata, Acus, and Totonteac. Acus was described as an independent kingdom and province. Its people went _encaconados_: that is, with turquoises hanging from their noses and ears. The turquoise they called “Cacona.” The village called “Ácuco” or “Tutahaco” lay between Cíbola and the streams running to the southwest, entering the “Sea of the North.” Ácuco was Ácoma,[40] which therefore came into history only twenty years after Cortés entered the City of Mexico. When Fray Marcos returned to Culiacán in the late summer of 1539, his accounts of what he had seen, and what he had heard, were sufficient to inflame the imagination of the Spaniards there, who were longing for conquest, for wealth, and for fame. It did not take long to raise a volunteer army, nor to excite the viceroy to do all in his power to further an expedition that might be expected to bring much renown to himself, to the King of Spain, and to Holy Church. For it is never to be forgotten that the soldier armies of Spain were always supplemented by smaller armies of priests. [Illustration: HÁWIKUH TO-DAY FIRST OF THE SEVEN CITIES OF CÍBOLA _Bolton_] [Illustration: THE RUINED CHURCH OF HÁWIKUH _Bolton_]