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
There is a village, small and strong, between Cicuye and the province
of Quirix, which the Spaniards named Ximena,[232] and another village
almost deserted, only one part of which is inhabited.[233] This
was a large village, and judging from its condition and newness it
appeared to have been destroyed. They called this the village of the
granaries or silos, because large underground cellars were found
here stored with corn. There was another large village farther on,
entirely destroyed and [p524] pulled down, in the yards of which
there were many stone balls, as big as 12-quart bowls, which seemed
to have been thrown by engines or catapults, which had destroyed the
village. All that I was able to find out about them was that, sixteen
years before, some people called Teyas,[234] had come to this country
in great numbers and had destroyed these villages. They had besieged
Cicuye but had not been able to capture it, because it was strong,
and when they left the region, they had made peace with the whole
country. It seems as if they must have been a powerful people, and
that they must have had engines to knock down the villages. The only
thing they could tell about the direction these people came from was
by pointing toward the north. They usually call these people Teyas
or brave men, just as the Mexicans say chichimecas or braves,[235]
for the Teyas whom the army saw were brave. These knew the people
in the settlements, and were friendly with them, and they (the
Teyas of the plains) went there to spend the winter under the wings
of the settlements. The inhabitants do not dare to let them come
inside, because they can not trust them. Although they are received
as friends, and trade with them, they do not stay in the villages
over night, but outside under the wings. The villages are guarded
by sentinels with trumpets, who call to one another just as in the
fortresses of Spain.
There are seven other villages along this route, toward the snowy
mountains, one of which has been half destroyed by the people already
referred to. These were under the rule of Cicuye. Cicuye is in a
little valley between mountain chains and mountains covered with
large pine forests. There is a little stream which contains very good
trout and otters, and there are very large bears and good falcons
hereabouts.
_Chapter 6, which gives the number of villages which were seen in the
country of the terraced houses, and their population._
[Illustration: LVIII. On the Terraces at Zuñi]
Before I proceed to speak of the plains, with the cows and
settlements and tribes there, it seems to me that it will be well for
the reader to know how large the settlements were, where the houses
with stories, gathered into villages, were seen, and how great an
extent of country they occupied.[236] As I say, Cibola is the first:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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