Chap. II.} 1540. |
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them at Chichilti-Calli, the village on the border of
the desert, which was found to consist of one solitary house, built of red earth, without a roof and in ruins.
Having in fifteen days toiled through the desert, they came upon a rivulet, which, from the reddish color of its turbid waters, they named Vermilion, and the next morning, about the eleventh of May, Old Style, about forty-six days after Easter, 1540, they reached the town of Cibola, which the natives called Zuñi. A single glance at the little village, built upon a rocky table, that rose precipitously over the sandy soil, revealed its poverty and the utter falsehood of the Franciscan's report.
The place, to which there was no access except by a narrow winding road, contained two hundred warriors; but in less than an hour it yielded to the impetuosity of the Spaniards.
They found there provisions which were much wanted, but neither gold, nor precious stones, nor rich stuffs; and Niza, trembling for his life, stole back to New Spain with the first messenger to the viceroy.
As the other cities of Cibola were scarcely more considerable than Zuñi, Coronado despatched Pedro de Tobar with a party of horse to visit the province of Tusayan, that is, the seven towns of Moqui; and he soon returned with the account that they were feeble villages of poor Indians, who sought peace by presents of skins, mantles of cotton, and maize.
On his return, Garci Lopez de Cardenas, with twelve others, was sent on the bolder enterprise of exploring the course of the rivers.
It was the season of summer as they passed the Moqui villages, struck across the desert, and winding for twenty days through volcanic ruins and arid wastes, dotted only
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