Images de page
PDF
ePub

recovery of her foothold there during the American Revolution, and her struggle afterwards to hold back the oncoming tide of the now independent Anglo-Americans, profited her nothing in the end; for in 1819, two hundred and twelve years after Jamestown, all that remained to Spain of her old province of Florida passed to the United States.

CHAPTER VI

NEW MEXICO

OLD Castañeda, who wrote a belated chronicle of Coronado's expedition, gave Coronado a black eye and at the same time encouraged new flights of fancy. He made it appear that for some man of destiny the north held prizes. From the resemblance of the Pueblo to the Aztec dwellings the region came to be called New Mexico. It was, after all, the "otro Mexico," which so many had sought. For nearly four decades after Coronado's day the Pueblo Indians were not revisited; but, during the interval the frontier of settlement in the central plateau of Mexico pushed northward, and the post of Santa Bárbara was set up at the head of the Conchos River, which led to the Río Grande. This opened a new highway to New Mexico. Coronado's roundabout trail by way of the Pacific slope, made dangerous by hostile Indians using poisoned arrows, was now no longer necessary. In

[graphic]

the course of slave-catching and prospecting raids down the Conchos, frontiersmen crossed the trail of Cabeza de Vaca and from the Indians heard new reports of the Pueblo country. Some one at Santa Bárbara had a copy of Vaca's Narrative, and the marvelous tale of adventure was read again with keen attention. To the friars, newly heralded Cibola appeared a virgin field in which to save souls; to the soldiers and miners, a new world of adventure and treasure.

New Mexico was again the scene of exploration. But, by the ordinance of 1573, military expeditions among the Indians were forbidden, and as a consequence any new enterprise must go in missionary guise. An expedition was organized at Santa Bárbara in 1581, led by Fray Agustín Rodriguez, with whom went Fray Francisco López, Fray Juan de Santa Maria, nineteen Indian servants, and nine soldier-traders. The soldiers were led by Francisco Chamuscado, "the Singed." They were equipped with ninety horses, coats of mail for horse and rider, and six hundred cattle, besides sheep, goats, and hogs. For barter with the natives they carried merchandise. While the primary purpose of the stock was to provide food on the way, the friars were

prepared to remain in New Mexico if conditions

were propitious.

Leaving Santa Bárbara on the 5th of June, the party descended the Conchos River to its mouth and proceeded up the Río Grande. They were followed by a retinue of Indians who regarded them as children of the sun-so the chronicler thought. They passed through the Piros towns and continued to the Tiguas above Isleta, and on to the Tanos on Santa Fé River. Here Father Santa María set out alone to carry reports to Mexico, against the wishes of his companions, whose fears were justified, for he was killed three days later by Indians east of Isleta. The two friars and their party continued to Taos, near the Colorado line, and crossed to the Buffalo Plains, east of the Pecos River. Returning westward, they were obliged to fight a band of hostile natives in the Galisteo valley. Then they crossed the Río Grande and visited the Indian towns of Acoma and Zuñi. On the way some of the men, boylike, or with an historical sense, carved their names on El Morro Cliff, now called Inscription Rock, where they are still visible. At Zuñi they found three Mexicans who had come with Coro nado, and after forty years had nearly forgotten their native tongue. Back eastward came the

The

expedition. Rodriguez and López decided to found a mission at Puaray, a Tigua town on the Río Grande above Albuquerque, and there, with a few servants, the two friars made their abode. soldiers returned to Santa Bárbara. Chamuscado, the leader, became ill on the way and was carried on a litter of hides strung between two horses Before reaching his destination he died.

Three months later two servants from the mis sion fled to Mexico and reported that López had been killed by the Indians. A rescue expedition was hastened, for Fray Agustín might still be alive. But the expedition was too late. On reach ing Puaray it was learned that Fray Agustín also had been slain.

The soldier-traders of this rescue party were led by Antonio de Espejo, a merchant of Mexico, and Espejo had other business in New Mexico. From the Río Grande he explored northwest to Jémez and went to Acoma and Zuñi. Here he left Father Beltrán, the Franciscan who accompanied him, and went on in search of a lake of gold he had heard of. Arrived at the Moqui towns, in Arizona, he obtained four thousand cotton blankets and saw the snake dance performed by the Hopi Indians, who still raise cotton and still perform the famous

[graphic]

L

« PrécédentContinuer »