The Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542.: Excerpted from the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1892-1893, Part 1.Winship, George Parker
History
The Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542.: Excerpted from the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1892-1893, Part 1.
Winship, George Parker
Coronado, Francisco Vásquez de, 1510-1554; Southwest, New -- Description and travel
After the siege was ended, as we have already related, he sent a
captain to Chia, a fine village with many people, which had sent to
offer its submission. It was 4 leagues distant to the west of the
river. They found it peaceful and gave it four bronze cannon, which
were in poor condition, to take care of. Six gentlemen also went to
Quirix, a province with seven villages. At the first village, which
had about a hundred inhabitants, the natives fled, not daring to
wait for our men; but they headed them off by a short cut, riding at
full speed, and then they returned to their houses in the village
in perfect safety, and then told the other villagers about it and
reassured them. In this way the entire region was reassured, little
by little, by the time the ice in the river was broken up and it
became possible to ford the river and so to continue the journey.
The twelve villages of Tiguex, however, were not repopulated at all
during the time the army was there, in spite of every promise of
security that could possibly be given to them.
And when the river, which for almost four months had been frozen over
so that they crossed the ice on horseback, had thawed out, orders
were given for the start for Quivira, where the Turk said there was
some gold and silver, although not so much as in Arche and the Guaes.
There were already some in the army who suspected the Turk, because
a Spaniard named Servantes,[164] who had charge of him during the
siege, solemnly swore that he had seen the Turk talking with the
devil in a pitcher of water, and also that while he had him under
lock so that no one could speak to him, the Turk had asked him what
Christians had been killed by the people at Tiguex. He told him
“nobody,” and then the Turk answered: “You lie; five Christians are
dead, including a captain.” And as Cervantes knew that he told the
truth, he confessed it so as to find out who had told him about it,
and the Turk said he knew it all by himself and that he did not need
to have anyone tell him in order to know it. And it was on account
of this that he watched him and saw him speaking to the devil in the
pitcher, as I have said.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account