George Bancroft, History of the Colonization of the United States, Vol. 1, 17th edition.

[40l] nobles or priests; no human sacrifices; no cruel rites

Chap. II.} 1541.

of superstition; no serfs or class of laborers or slaves; they were not governed much; and that little government was in the hands of a council of old men. A subterranean heated room was the council chamber. They had no hieroglyphics like the Mexicans, nor calendar, nor astronomical knowledge. Bows and arrows, clubs and stones, were their weapons of defence; they were not sanguinary, and they never feasted on their captives. Their women were chaste and modest; adultery was rare; polygamy unknown. Maize, beans, pumpkins, and, it would seem, a species of native cotton were cultivated; the mezquite tree furnished bread. The dress was of skins or cotton mantles. They possessed nothing which could gratify avarice; the promised turkoises were valueless blue stones.

Unwilling to give up the hope of discovering an opulent country, on the twenty-third of April, 1541, Coronado, with the false Indian as the pilot of his detachment, began a march to the north-east. Crossing the track of Cabeza de Vaca, in the valley of the Canadian river, they came in nine days upon plains, which seemed to have no end, and where countless numbers of prairie dogs peered on them from their burrows. Many pools of water were found impregnated with salt, and bitter to the taste. The wanderings of the general, extending over three hundred leagues, brought him among the Querechos, hunters of the bison, which gave them food and clothing, strings to their bows and coverings to their lodges. They had dogs to carry their tents when they moved, but they knew of no wealth but the products of the chase, and they migrated with the wild herds. The