Part 3

Men and women wore mantles woven either of the bark of trees or of a wild sort of hemp which the Indians knew how to dress properly for the purpose. They also understood the art of tanning and dyeing such skins as were obtained in the chase, which they also made up into garments. Two of these mantles made a woman's usual dress. One was worn about them, hanging from the waist down, like a petticoat or gown, the other would be thrown over the left shoulder with the right arm bared, after the manner of the Egyptians. The warriors wore only this last mantle, which allowed them free use of the right arm in drawing forth an arrow from the quiver, or in bending the bow. When dressed up in his head-gear of feathers, and wearing his ornamented mantle flung across his shoulder, bow in hand, and carrying his well-filled quiver at his back, the Indian warrior made no unpicturesque figure, even beside the heavily-armed white man, for he was of a well-proportioned and muscular build, with good features, an eye like the eagle's, and a bearing which told of the manhood throbbing beneath his dusky skin.

The Indians of Florida worshipped both a god of good and evil. They also made sacrifice to both spirits alike. In some places they worshipped and sacrificed to the sun as the great life-giving principle; in others they had a curious custom when any great lord died, of sacrificing living persons to appease or comfort his spirit with the offering of these other spirits who were to serve him and bear him company in the happy hunting-grounds.

Some tribes kept their dead unburied for a certain time in a rude sort of pantheon, or temple, dedicated to their gods.[5] Over this a strict watch was kept to guard against the intrusion of evil spirits who were supposed to lie in wait, in the form of some prowling beast of prey. This custom sprung from a belief that the spirits of the dead revisited their mortal bodies at times.

Besides maize, pumpkins, beans, and melons, whatever natural fruits the country produced the Indian lived on. He hunted and fished. The summer was his season of plenty, the winter one of want, sometimes of distress, but in the semi-tropical region, bordering upon the Gulf, his wants were fewer and more easily supplied, and hence, as a rule, life was freer from hardship than in more northern climes.

The stronger nations made war upon the weaker, but treaties were duly respected. The vanquished were compelled to pay tribute to the conquerors or join themselves with some stronger tribe than their own. The languages differed so much with different nations, that De Soto found he must have a new interpreter for every new nation he visited; nevertheless the Indians quickly learned to speak the Spanish tongue. In public the people behaved with great propriety, showed respect for their rulers, and often confounded De Soto, who pretended to supernatural powers, by the shrewdness of their replies. For instance, when the Spaniard gave out that he was the child of the sun, a Natchez chief promptly bid him dry up the river, and he would believe him. In some places the Indians greeted the Spaniards with songs and music. Their instruments were reeds hung with tinkling balls of gold or silver. When the chieftain, or cacique, went abroad in state, men walked by his side carrying screens elegantly made of the bright plumage of birds. These were borne at the end of a long staff.

The Spaniards found the fertile parts of the country everywhere crowded with towns, and very populous. But they did not find the gold[6] they coveted so much. They called the Indians a people ignorant of all the blessings of civilization, but to their honor be it also said, they were free from the vices by which it is accompanied and degraded.

FOOTNOTES

[1] PRIMITIVE MAN. All the articles named as being found in common use among the Florida Indians have been taken from the burial mounds which exist in the States of Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, etc. And all are more or less referred to as so many evidences of an extinct civilization.

[2] NARVAEZ pursued the same policy, and met with like treatment.

[3] FIRE-ARMS of that period were very clumsy weapons indeed. The arquebus was a short hand-gun, the caliver longer, and with the help of a slow-match could be fired from a rest. Only a certain proportion of the infantry were thus armed; the rest carried pikes.

[4] CORN. The Indians' corn-mill was a smooth round hole worn in the rock. A stone pestle was used. The coarse meal mixed with water or tallow, or both, was then wrapped in leaves, and baked in hot ashes.

[5] BURIAL PLACES. Upon finding one of these receptacles for the dead, a Franciscan of Narvaez' company, who declared the practice idolatrous, caused all the bodies to be burnt, thereby much incensing the natives.

[6] GOLD. Hearing the Spaniards always asking for gold, the natives shrewdly made use of it to rid themselves of these unwelcome visitors, by sending them farther and farther away. In reality the Indians had almost none of the precious metals, but the finding of a few trinkets among them seems to have dazzled De Soto's eyes.

HOW NEW MEXICO CAME TO BE EXPLORED.

_"Northward, beyond the mountains we will go,_ _Where rocks lie covered with eternal snow."_

In the disasters of Narvaez and De Soto, the movement from the side of Florida towards the West had met with an untimely check. But, strangely enough, it made progress in another quarter through these very misfortunes.

For while De Soto was vainly seeking for gold on that side, his countrymen were bestirring themselves in the same business in a quite different direction, as we shall see.

At this time it was Don Antonio de Mendoza who was the emperor's viceroy in Mexico. Now Mendoza aimed to gain distinction with his sovereign by being the first who should discover and make known to the world, all the unexplored region lying north of Mexico, which was accounted as rich as any yet known to the Spaniards. Most of all, perhaps, Mendoza wished to find the land's end in that northern direction, as by doing so he would complete the work of putting a girdle round the continent, and gain the glory of it for himself.

Various efforts were making to do this both by land and sea.[1] And curiously enough these efforts came from the West.

For the purpose in hand Mendoza had with him in Mexico two or three survivors[2] of Narvaez' expedition, who, in the most wonderful manner, had made their way overland through the unknown regions of the North, from Florida into Mexico. These men told the viceroy, Mendoza, that the natives who dwelt among the mountains to the north were a very rich people, who lived in great cities and had gold and silver in abundance. Mendoza also held captive some Indians whose homes were in that far-away country, which he was now meditating how to conquer.

Yet two important obstacles met Mendoza at the start. In the first place, the unknown country, which the Spaniards vaguely knew by the name of Cibola,[3] could be reached only through mountain defiles, so rugged and inaccessible that men questioned whether it could be reached at all. Nature had admirably adapted it for defence. Clearly, then, a few resolute men might easily defend their country against a host, and the Spaniards having reason to expect the most determined resistance found a twofold hinderance in their way.

The second obstacle, the Spaniards had created for themselves, by making slaves of all natives taken in arms. Rather than be slaves the Indians had fled into the mountain fastnesses. As their fear of the Spaniards was very great, these fugitives secreted themselves in the most inaccessible places, choosing rather to live like wild beasts than be branded like cattle with hot irons, and nursing their hatred of their oppressors. Not venturing to come down into the open valleys where they would be at the mercy of their conquerors, these unhappy people lived in caves, or in stone dwellings perched high among the rocks, where they could at least breathe the air of liberty unmolested. Those who formerly lived in the valleys had also fled to the mountains when they heard of the Spaniards' coming. So the Spaniards would have to contend not only with nature, but with a brave and a hostile people, if they attempted to subdue them.

Considering that great difficulties are often overcome or results accomplished by simple means, the viceroy took a poor barefooted friar[4] from his cell, gave him one of Narvaez' men for a guide, and with a few natives of the country sent him out to explore the unknown wilds. Upon reaching Culiacan, which was the most northerly place the Spaniards had made their way to, the captive Indians were sent ahead with messages of peace and good-will to the distrustful natives, who took good care to keep out of the way.

These promises of peace induced a great many of the natives to come down from the mountains; and once there they were easily won over with gifts and kind words, and in gratitude for the promise not to capture and enslave them as they had done, told the Spaniards to go and come as freely as they chose. The natives were then sent home to spread the news among their brethren.

The way being thus opened, the friar and his party set forth by one route, while still another party, led by Vasquez de Coronado,[5] went forward by a different one, on the same errand. Of the two parties, that of the friar alone succeeded in penetrating far into the country, and the information he brought back now reads more like a story from the Arabian Nights than the sober record of one already well versed in the country and people, such as Mendoza says he believed Father Marco to be. Yet the father is thought to have reached Cibola, or Zuñi, which was the object of his journey, when the murder of his negro guide caused him to hasten back with all speed to the Spanish settlements.

So these attempts, as well as a second made by Coronado in the following year, were fruitless in every thing except the formal act of taking possession of the country, and the acquisition of some imperfect geographical knowledge about the valleys of the Colorado,[6] the Gila,[7] and the Rio Grande del Norte.[8] About all we can say of them is that the explorers went through the country.

As in Florida, so here a long period of inaction followed these failures. In both cases the Spaniards had come and seen, but not conquered. The Mississippi flowed on untroubled to the sea, the heart of the continent still kept its secret fast locked in the bosom of its hills. But we know now that the gold and silver the Spaniards craved so much to possess were there waiting for the more successful explorers.

It is forty years before we again hear of any serious effort made to search out the secrets of this land of mystery. The Church then took the matter in hand. It was wisely decided that the best way to conquer the people was to convert them. Accordingly two pious Franciscans set out from the Spanish settlements in New Biscay[9] on this errand. This time they penetrated into the country by the valley of the Rio Grande, under protection of a few soldiers, who, after conducting the fathers to a remote part of this valley, left them to pursue their pious work alone, and themselves returned to New Biscay. Hearing nothing from these missionaries, those who had sent them fitted out an expedition in the following year—1582—to go in search of them. This rescuing party brought back a more exact knowledge of the country and people than had so far been obtained through all the many explorers put together.

In proportion as they advanced up the Rio Grande, these explorers found everywhere very populous towns. The people lived well and contentedly. Some were found who had even kept the faith taught them by Christians,[10] long ago, but in general they worshipped idols in temples built for the purpose. In the natives themselves the Spaniards remarked a wide difference. Some went almost naked, and lived in poor hovels of mud covered with straw thatch. Others, again, would be clothed in skins, and live in houses four stories high. Often the natives showed the Spaniards cotton mantles skilfully woven in stripes of white and blue, of their own making and dyeing, which were much admired. It seemed for the most part a land of thrift and plenty, for the towns were populous beyond any thing the Spaniards had ever dreamed of. And the farther north the explorers went, the better the condition of the people became. Finding themselves in a land much like Old Mexico, in respect of its mountains, rivers, and forests, the explorers gave it the name of New Mexico.

One of the greatest towns visited, called Acoma,[11] contained above six thousand persons. It was built upon the level top of a high cliff, with no other way of access to it than by steps hewn out of the solid rock which formed the cliff. The sight of this place made the Spaniards wonder not a little at the skill and foresight shown in planning and building these natural fortresses, which nothing but famine could conquer. All the water was kept in cisterns. But this was not all the aptitude these people showed in overcoming obstacles or supplying needs. Their cornfields lay at some distance from the town. In this country it hardly ever rains. So the want of rain to make the corn grow was supplied by digging ditches to bring the water from a neighboring stream into the fields. We therefore see how conditions of soil and climate had taught the Indians the uses of irrigation.[12]

Turning out of the valley of the Rio Grande, to the west, the explorers at length came to the province of Zuñi, where many Spanish crosses were found standing just as Coronado had left them forty years before. Here our Spaniards heard of a very great lake, situated at a great distance, where a people dwelt who wore bracelets and earrings of gold. Part of the company were desirous of going thither at once, but the rest wished to return into New Biscay in order to give an account of all they had seen and heard. So only the leader with a few men went forward, meeting everywhere good treatment from the natives, who in one place, we are told, showered down meal before the Spaniards, for their horses to tread upon, feasting and caressing their strange visitors as long as they remained among them.

These explorers returned to Old Mexico in July, 1583, by the valley of the Pecos,[13] to which stream they gave the name of River of Oxen, because they saw great herds of bison[14] feeding all along its course.

Out of these discoveries and reports came new attempts to plant a colony on the Rio Grande. Nothing prospered, however, until 1598, when Juan de Oñate[15] invaded New Mexico at the head of a force meant to thoroughly subdue and permanently hold it. Oñate was named governor under the viceroy. These Spaniards established themselves on the Rio Grande, not far from where Santa Fé now is. Most of the village Indians submitted themselves to the Spaniards, whose authority over them was, at best, little more than nominal, though the roving tribes, the fierce Apaches and warlike Navajoes, never forgot their hereditary hatred to the Spaniards, with whom they kept up an incessant warfare.

With this expedition came a number of Franciscan missionaries who, as soon as a town was gained over, established a mission for the conversion of the natives. In 1601 Santa Fé was founded and made the capital. In thirty years more the Catholic clergy had established as many as fifty missions which gave religious instruction to ninety towns and villages.

New Mexico had now reached her period of greatest prosperity under Spanish rule. For fifty years more the country rather stood still than made progress. The Spaniards were too overbearing, and the old hostility too deep, for peace to endure. Then, the system of bondage which the Spaniards brought with them from Old Mexico, and most unwisely put in practice here, bore its usual bitter fruit. Determined to be slaves no longer, in 1680 the native New Mexicans rose in a body, and drove the invaders out of the country with great slaughter. Upon the frontier of Old Mexico the fugitives halted, and then founded El Paso del Norte, which they considered the gateway to New Mexico, and so named it. It took the Spaniards twelve years to recover from this blow. By that time little was left to show they had ever been masters of New Mexico. But a new invasion took place, concerning which few details remain, though we do know it resulted in a permanent conquest before the end of the century.

As far back as 1687 Father Kino had founded a mission on the skirt of the country lying round the head of the Gulf of California, to which the Spaniards gave the name of Pimeria.[16] It will be noticed that once again they were following up the traces of Father Marco and Coronado. When the Spaniards took courage after this defeat, and again entered New Mexico, Kino (1693) founded other missions in the Gila country which in time grew to be connecting links between New Mexico and California, in what is now Arizona.[17]

FOOTNOTES

[1] BY LAND AND SEA. As rivals, both Cortez and Mendoza strove to be beforehand with each other. Cortez despatched Ulloa from Acapulco, northward, July, 1539. Alarcon, sailing by Mendoza's order in 1540, goes to the head of the Gulf of California, and so finds the Colorado River, while a land force, under Coronado, marched north to act in concert with Alarcon.

[2] SURVIVORS OF NARVAEZ' EXPEDITION (FLORIDA, 1528). The chief among these was Alvar Nuñez, sometimes called Cabeça de Vaca (literally cow's head), who had been treasurer to the expedition of Narvaez.

[3] CIBOLA. The Zuñi country of our own day. Supposed to be derived from Cibolo, the Mexican bull, and therefore applied to the country of the bison. Cibola is on an English map of 1652 in my possession. Zuñi is thirty miles south of Fort Wingate.

[4] POOR BAREFOOTED FRIAR was Marco de Niza (Mark of Nice), a friar of the Franciscan order. For a long time his story was doubted. It is, in fact, an exaggerated account of what is, clearly, a true occurrence.

[5] VASQUEZ DE CORONADO. (See note 1.)

[6] COLORADO (Co-lor-ah´-doe) Spanish, meaning ruddy or red. First called _Tizon_, meaning a firebrand.

[7] GILA, pronounced Hee'la.

[8] RIO GRANDE DEL NORTE, Spanish, Great River of the North. Usually called, simply, Rio Grande.

[9] NEW BISCAY. Northernmost province of Mexico, capital Chihuahua (Shee´wah´wah).

[10] BY CHRISTIANS. Cabeça de Vaca and his companions.

[11] ACOMA, one of the seven cities of Cibola; forty-five miles south of old Fort Wingate.

[12] IRRIGATION. Without it, it would hardly be possible to raise crops in New Mexico to-day.

[13] VALLEY OF PECOS. East of, and parallel with that of the Rio Grande.

[14] BISON. Cabeça de Vaca is the first to mention this animal. One is said to have been kept as a show in Montezuma's garden, where the Spaniards saw it for the first time. See note 3.

[15] JUAN DE OÑATE. Hopeless confusion exists concerning the proper date of this invasion.

[16] PIMERIA essentially corresponds with Arizona. It took this name from the Pimos Indians of the Gulf.

[17] ARIZONA, or Arizuma, a name given by the Spaniards to denote the mineral wealth of Pimeria, where silver and gold were said to exist in virgin masses. Silver ores were, in fact, discovered by the Spaniards at an early day. Originally part of Senora (Sonora), Old Mexico.

"THE MARVELLOUS COUNTRY."

"_Antiquity here lives, speaks, and cries out to the traveller, Sta, viator._"—_V. Hugo, The Rhine._

Mention has been made of the towns which the Spaniards came to in the course of their marchings up and down the country. Men had told them, in all soberness, that far away in the north-west seven flourishing cities,[1] wondrous great and rich, lay hid among the mountains. We remember that their first expeditions were planned to reach these seven cities. Now, when, at last, the Spaniards did come to them, these wonderful cities proved to be large, but not rich, full of people, though by no means such as the white men expected to see there.

Though sorely vexed to think they had come so far to find so little, the Spaniards were very much astonished by the appearance of these cities, the like of which they had never seen before. So these cities hid away among desert mountains were long remembered and often talked about.

But these cities were not cities at all, as the term is now understood. Instead of many houses spread out over much ground, the builders plainly aimed at putting a great many people into a little space. Yet the cities they built were neither simply walled towns, nor simply fortresses, but a skilful combination of both.

In the open plain they commonly consisted of one great structure either enclosed by a high wall, or else so built round it that wall and building were one.

On the other hand, if the pueblo[2] stood upon a height, the houses would be built all in blocks, and have streets running through them, though in other respects the manner of building was everywhere the same.

In either case, this style of architecture made them look less like the peaceful abodes of peaceful men, than the strongholds of a warlike and predatory race, whence the inmates might sally forth upon their weaker neighbors, just as the lords of feudal times did from the rock-built castles of the Rhine. It is plain they had grown up out of the necessity for defence, as every thing else was sacrificed to its demands, and we know that necessity is the mother of invention.

The single great house, in which all the inhabitants lived together, is perhaps the most curious. Let us suppose this to be a three-story building, parted off into from sixty to a hundred little rooms, with something like a thousand people living in it. Could the outer wall be taken away, the whole edifice would look like a monstrous honeycomb, and in fact the pueblo was nothing else than a human hive, as we shall presently see.

Now the city of Acoma is one of those which are built upon a height. The builders chose the flat top of a barren sandstone cliff, containing about ten acres, which rises about three hundred feet above the plain. In New Mexico such table-lands are called _mesas_, from _mesa_, the Spanish word meaning table. Therefore, while no one knows its age, or history, all agree that Acoma must go far back into the past. Acoma was so strongly built that to-day it looks hardly different from what it did when the Spaniards first saw it, perched on the top of its rock, in 1582.

We see then in the builders of Acoma a people gifted with a much higher order of intelligence than the Red Indian, who is always found living in huts, or hovels, of the rudest possible kind. The wild Indian always carries his house about with him, and so is ever ready, at a moment's notice, to

"Fold his tent, like the Arabs, And as silently steal away."

The sedentary Indian sometimes patterned his after the burrowing animals, like the beaver, and sometimes after the birds of the air, like the sparrow.