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Great Plains Quarterly Studies, Center for

1990

Spanish and the Great Plains in the Age of : Myth and Reality

Ralph H. Vigil University of Nebraska-Lincoln

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Vigil, Ralph H., "Spanish Exploration and the Great Plains in the : Myth and Reality" (1990). Great Plains Quarterly. 505. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/505

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. SPANISH EXPLORATION AND THE GREAT PLAINS IN THE AGE OF DISCOVERY MYTH AND REALITY

RALPH H. VIGIL

T his essay attempts to place Spanish explo­ "Age of Discovery," "Age of Reconnaissance," ration on the Great Plains within the context and "Age of Expansion."2 In a more circum­ of the temper and feelings prevailing in the first scribed sense, exploration in what became the century of the "discovery" of the West. 1 Because heart of America echoes the themes of discovery many writers of texts and more specialized works and settlement in the years 1492-1598, when view the past in the light of the present, Eu­ subjects of Castile explored vast regions of the ropean expansion in the sixteenth century ap­ by land and sea, conquered the pears to be more modem than it was. This paper dominions of the and the Incas, founded views of the early colonial period as in and New , began the more medieval than modem in outlook; it also spiritual conquest of America, and searched for suggests that mythological and mixed golden kingdoms in North and . spiritual and worldly motives, considered in­ Given the romantic nature of tales of ad­ compatible in our day, were as important as venture, English translations of explorers' nar­ curiosity and technology in Euro­ ratives and biographies of daring adventurers pean expansion overseas. appeal to university students. Traditional ac­ Spanish exploration on the Great Plains forms counts of discovery and exploration retain their part of the general theme of European discov­ authority and popularity. J The story of discovery ery, exploration, and settlement of lands be­ and conquest, as reflected in narrative works yond in the period variously called the without copious notes, also appeals to a wider public that no longer reads the often reprinted pioneer studies like William Hickley Prescott's Ralph Vigil is professor of history at the University of History of the Conquest of Mexico (1843), John Nebraska-Lincoln. His many publications include Alonso de Zorita: Royal Judge and Christian Humanist, 1512- Boyd Thacher's (1903-04), 1585, winner of the " and America in the Quin­ the works of the versatile and significant Hubert centennial of the Discovery Prize" for 1987. Howe Bancroft, or those of other traditional authorities. Because even the best of the new historical sagas emphasize the deeds of Renais­ [GPQ 10 (Winter 1990): 3-17] sance men of action, however, they break no

3 4 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1990

I , I I ~! I ,-e:..--­I I I I

~I ,0I I ~ I c- I : .>- y T-----~----,__------_\: I I o I

FIG. 1. Map of Coronado's Expedition. Drawn under the supervision of Frederick W. Hodge for his 1907 edition of The Narrative of Alvar Nunez Cabefa de Vaca. SPANISH EXPLORATION 5 new ground, and the motives and personalities peans naval superiority. Once a was of the men directing the expansion of European founded, the use of horses, dogs, armor, and seem more modem than they were. 4 superior weapons secured the settlement. 6

TEXTBOOK DISTORTIONS OF SPANISH MEDIEVAL AND MYTHIC ROOTS OF EXPERIENCE DISCOVERY

The imagined modernity of the Age of Ex­ Granted that discovery, exploration, and ex­ pansion is even more apparent in Western civ­ pansion beyond the seas took place when Eu­ ilization and American history textbooks. ropeans began to join theory and practice in a Written for white, primarily Protestant descen­ period that increasingly glorified the and dants of transplanted Europeans, these didactic the natural, the idea that Renaissance scientific surveys give limited attention to Spanish over­ curiosity, worldly ideals, and the growth of in­ seas expansion and the Old and New World dividualism fueled the voyages of discovery is backgrounds preceding the founding of James­ only a half-truth. As one better-than-average town and Plymouth. In addition to distorting text correctly observes, "the motives, the or ignoring Indian America, these texts give knowledge, and the wherewithal for the great the impression that a handful of Spanish soldiers discoveries were all essentially medieval." The exploited and inflicted their culture on Indi­ impulse for discovery and exploration of what ans. S became America was a mixture of mistaken me­ Although textbook authors give Indians and dieval geographical theory, the ancient desire Spaniards minor background roles in the story for , , and precious stones of the fab­ of the epic winning of the West beyond the ulous East, and the memory of medieval jour­ Atlantic, Iberians discovered and took posses­ neys made by and to the sion of America, and these authors have to in­ Mongol . 7 clude Spain in emphasizing developments America was not only a geographical goal to contemporaneous with overseas discoveries and be reached; it was a concept to be invented. In conquests. Most texts join voyages of discovery the beginning was the West of the imagination. beginning with Columbus to events progres­ West became East and was thought to be part sively leading from the Renaissance to the En­ of the tripartite world made up of Europe, Af­ lightenment. Overseas expansion is thus related rica, and . This unknown land, believed to the rise of nation-states and to the sixteenth­ by Columbus to lie at the world's end, evoked century "new ," new modes of feelings of wonder and mystery. The composite expression in art and religion, dynastic and re­ West was legendary, theological, and imperial, ligious rivalries in the contest for empire, new and "might be either a place, a direction, an forms of economic and social life, and the ad­ idea, or all three at once." For some, this car­ vance of geographical knowledge and technol­ dinal direction brought to mind the setting sun ogy. of the vanishing day, "the father of reflection As the textbooks have it, rulers of the "new and of the mind's meditation." In this region monarchies" favored foreign ventures and the of the world, "the natural goal of man's last class. Reconnaissance, or what may journey," lived death and justice and the second be called the preliminary exploration of the life that follows death. 8 world beyond Europe, was made possible by sci­ Others looking beyond the dark horizon of entific knowledge turned to practical account. the sun's descent saw the planet Venus, which Tools used by the explorers on their "stout, is both the evening and the morning star. Pedro handy, and seaworthy" vessels included the de Castaneda, the chronicler of the Coronado mariner's , the , and a rudi­ expedition, wrote that "the better land" he and mentary quadrant. Shipborne guns gave Euro- his companions did not see might perhaps be 6 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1990 entered "through the land which the Marquis cepted the hierarchic system in which each es­ of the Valley, Fernando Cortes, went in tate had different privileges and functions. search of under the Western star, and which Economic self-interest divorced from military cost him no small sea armament. "9 and religious ideals was condemned, but wealth Monsters, which Thomas More tells us "are joined to and civil power, one aspect common enough," lived in the West. So did of numerous feudal ties and patriarchal rela­ sirens, , griffins, giants, and canni­ tions, was tolerated. The incentive for gold as bals.lO But beyond the dangerous waters of the a motive for expeditions of discovery was also Atlantic and the fierce beasts and men of the considered honorable if it formed part of a trin­ islands and mainland were to be found the waters ity of motives: God, Glory, and Gold. i3 of life and legendary lands of happiness. There might be found , the golden apples of CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS the Hesperides, Solomon's mines, El Dor­ ado, the land of Cockaigne, the Seven Even Christopher Columbus, today a myth­ of Cfbola, , of Youth, and ical figure but described by Ramon Iglesias as the Terrestrial Paradise. America's first merchant and travel agent, Because modem man "with an almost Al­ clothed his economic interests with a halo of exandrian virtuosity" makes independent con­ chivalry. After losing his in December cepts of pieces of reality called economics, 1492, he founded the fortress and garrison of religion, legend, history, the natural, the su­ in Espanola. He trusted in God that pernatural, and so on, life becomes compart­ on his return from Castile he would find a barrel mentalized. We distinguish between the of gold, obtained by , and hoped that those "natural" and the "moral," while religion and he left on the island would have discovered gold economics, the world of the spirit and the world mines and spices in such quantity that the king of human affairs, form separate kingdoms that and queen, in less than three years, could un­ have no vital connections. As a result, most of dertake the conquest of the Holy Sepulchre. us would not question the statement that "mar­ "For so I declared to Your Highnesses, that all iners, explorers, and were reli­ the gain of this my enterprise should be spent gious and 'medieval' in justifying their actions, on the conquest of . And Your High­ materialistic and 'modem' in their behavior. "lJ nesses smiled and said that it pleased them, and But what we take as rhetoric, or hypocrisy, that without this profit they had that desire." reflects the social complex of an age that still Columbus, a figure in transition from the wan­ related all activities to religion. As late as the ing to the world of commercial sixteenth century, "contrasts which later were , wrote of wealth in terms of present to be presented as irreconcilable antitheses ap­ felicity and future salvation. "Gold," Ramon pear in it as differences within a larger unity. "i2 Iglesias quotes Columbus, "is most excellent, Unlike social theorists of today, Christian mor­ for it constitutes treasure, and he who has it alists as late as the sixteenth century attempted does whatever he wants in the world, and its to reconcile economic self-interest to a religious power is such that it rescues souls from Purga­ standard beyond the letter of the law. They also tory to the joys of Paradise."i4 accepted the feudal system, a hierarchic society The mythological geography of America be­ in which each stratum had different privileges gins with Columbus. His idea that "the world and functions. Wealth was necessary, but a man is but small" led him to underestimate the cir­ should receive only those temporal blessings cumference of the globe and expand the breadth necessary to maintain him in his station. of the eastern shores of Asia. These miscalcu­ Given the great power of the nobility in lations had in their favor the opinion of Aris­ Spain, the aristocracy determined the ideology totle, by way of Roger Bacon's Opus Majus of the age through its spokesmen. Religion ac- (1264) and Pierre d'Ailly's Imago Mundi (1483); SPANISH EXPLORATION 7 the Moslem geographer Alfragan of the late Columbus and Juan Ponce died believing that ninth and early tenth centuries; the Books of they had reached the shores of furthest Asia. Esdras and The Book of Ser . 15 Later explorers, including the chronicler of the Not only did Columbus's geographical con­ Coronado expedition, persisted in this belief. ceptions lead to his search for the gold and Pedro de Castaneda wrote in about 1562 that spices of Cipangu, , and the Malay Pen­ was part of Greater or China, insula (the Golden Chersonese), but on his third "there not being any strait between to separate voyage in 1498 he thought of the paradise lost them." He believed that the Indians of in the East when he reached the mouth of the Cfbola had come from "Greater India, the coast . Because the river made a great fresh­ of which lies to the west of this country. "18 water gulf, he correctly assumed that he had Neither Eden's garden nor its fountain was reached a continent. But he also believed that found, but the search for legendary kingdoms the great river had its source in the Terrestrial and a passage to India continued. Spanish ad­ Paradise. "Holy Scripture makes known that venturers in search of golden kingdoms sang or Our Lord made the Earthly Paradise and in it recited lines from popular ballads celebrating planted the , and from it issues a the heroic deeds of the , and many fountain from which rises in the world four prin­ were avid readers of the novels of chivalry. cipal rivers, the Ganges and Euphrates, the Ti­ Dreams of grandeur clouded their minds, and gris and the Nile."16 fact was frequently confused with fiction. These hard and austere men were visionaries who gam­ LEGENDARY KINGDOMS AND HEAVENLY bled temporal life for love of adventure and GLORY problematic hopes of glory and gain. 19 Earthly fame and heavenly glory harmonized Columbus's idea of a fountain in Paradise is in the idea of spreading the Gospel, gaining not mentioned in Genesis, but it is found in a great wealth, and winning a good lineage. Most literary forgery of the late twelfth century at­ conquistadors failed to win fame and prosperity, tributed to , thought to be a rich but sometimes the real and the unteal met in and powerful Christian ruler of the East or Af­ the quest for rich kingdoms. Bernal Dfaz del rica. This literary hoax was used by the pla­ Castillo's history relates that when the soldiers giarizing author of Sir 's Travels, led by Cortes saw the great cities and towns of written in the 1360s and widely read throughout the Aztecs, the fifteenth century. The fountain of Paradise, whose waters gave lasting health and rejuvena­ and that straight, level causeway leading into tion, was later sought by Juan Ponce de Leon, Mexico , we were amazed and we said a companion of Columbus. Gonzalo Fernandez that it was like the enchanted things related de Oviedo, who knew Juan Ponce personally, in the book of Amadis because of the huge explained his search in terms of credulity. The towers, temples, and buildings rising from , he said, chose to believe a fable that the water, and all of masonty. And some of "was a very great ridicule told by the Indians, the soldiers even asked whether the things and a greater stupidity on the part of the Span­ we saw were not a dream. 20 iards who wasted their time in looking for such a fountain." Still, as Leonardo Olschki con­ SEARCH FOR THE cludes, Juan Ponce's search, when placed in historical perspective, sheds light on the temper North of Mexico, the search for the Fountain and feelings prevailing in the Age of Discovery. of Youth was replaced by the search for the The search for the water of immortality is also transcontinental Strait of Anian and mythical "a symbol of the human effort to break the lands of wealth. This search began with Lucas power of death and fate."17 Vasquez de Ayllon, a royal judge of the Au- 8 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1990 diencia of Domingo, who was lured to products of the imagination. Thirteen years after his death by his Indian servant Francisco, cap­ Ay1l6n's death, landed in tured in the land of Chicora of the pearls. Fol­ Florida, turned his back to the sea, and went lowing the expeditions to Florida of a pilot in search of the of Cofitachequi. There named Miruelo and that of Alonso Alvarez de in the sepulchers of the dead Soto found eight Pineda in 1517 and 1519, Ay1l6n and other or nine arrobas of pearls, a dirk, green beads, rich men of sent two north in 152l. rosaries with their crosses, and the iron axes On this expedition the ships visited lands lo­ brought to that land by Ay1l6n. Many of the cated between thirty-five and thirty-seven de­ pearls, "worth their weight in gold," had lost grees north, where Francisco de Chicora was their hue because their holes had been bored captured and Chesapeake Bay was sighted. The with heat. At the town of T alomeco, a bay seemed as if it might be the mouth of the distant from Cofitachequi, a great store of pearls Northwest Passage sought by Pineda in 1519, was found in a temple more than a hundred feet and Ay1l6n's avarice was fired by Francisco de in length and forty in width. Many gems, how­ Chicora's tales. Ay1l6n took Francisco to Spain, ever, had been damaged by being buried in the where the Indian told Peter Martyr that in the and covered with the fat of dead Indians. lands visited by Ay1l6n's ships, there were white Close to the portals of the temple were twelve men (European fishermen?) with brown hair fierce giants, "carved in wood and copied from that hung to their heels. These people had do­ life." When the Spaniards showed the beautiful mesticated deer and pearls and other precious cacica of Cofitachequi rings of gold and stones they prized, and they were ruled by a as examples of the metals they desired, man of gigantic size named Datha. 21 her subjects brought Soto "a great quantity of In 1523 the contracted very golden and resplendent copper," and "great with Ay1l6n to settle and continue the discovery iron pyrites which were as thick as boards." No of the land ruled by giant King Datha. He was was found, but mulberry trees formed part to sail eight hundred leagues inland and was of the grove surrounding Cofitachequi. 23 authorized to barter for gold, silver, precious stones, silk, and pearls. Ay1l6n, who delayed LEGENDS AND TALES OF THE SEVEN his expedition until 1526, learned in 1525 that CITIES the pilot Esteban G6mez (who deserted Ma­ gellan in the straits to the south) had sailed At about the same time that Soto was ex­ from Florida to but had not found ploring and robbing graves in the great area a strait to Cathay. Ay1l6n now changed his ex­ known as Florida, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was pedition of discovery to one of and mapping the coastline north of Mexico, and . He left for the north with five hundred Francisco Vasquez de Coronado was chasing men, eighty or ninety horses, and a great quan­ down rumors of mythical Indian tity of trade goods. On the voyage the flagship and great wealth in and the Great and all supplies were lost, no pearls or other Plains of and West . Coronado's wealth were found, and Francisco de Chicora search for the Seven Cities of Cibola and the and other Indian interpreters escaped. After the fabulous land of Quivira has its origins in a settlement was founded (perhaps in ) medieval legend; tales told to Nuno Beltran de Ay1l6n died on 18 October 1526, "when there Guzman, president of the first Audiencia of followed divisions and murders among the chief Mexico; and the voyage of Panfilo de Narvaez personages, in quarrels as to who should com­ to Florida in 1528. Hence, while Plains explo­ mand." Of the five hundred men who left for ration in the eighteenth century was primarily the north, only 150 sick and starving men re­ for military or surveillance purposes, expedi­ turned to Espanola and . 22 tions north from Mexico led by Agustin Ro­ Not all of Francisco de Chicora's tales were driguez and Francisco Chamuscado (1581), SPANISH EXPLORATION 9

Antonio de Espejo (1582-83), Gaspar Castano chase down these rumors. Meanwhile, Fray An­ de Sosa (1590), and Francisco Leyva de Bonilla tonio de Ciudad Rodrigo, the Franciscan pro­ and Antonio Gutierrez de Humana in 1593 were vincial, sent three friars on ships commissioned inspired by dreams of wealth or the idea of spir­ by Don Fernando Cortes to make a voyage of itual conquest or combined both motives. discovery in the South Sea. This expedition of A legend of the related that 1538 "arrived in Obola, a thickly populated when King lost Spain to the in land similar to Spain which extends as far as 711, the of and six other bish­ Florida. "27 ops sailed westward with many people for the island of Antillia. There they built seven cities, CORONADO'S SEARCH FOR THE SEVEN and so that their subjects might not think of CITIES returning to the mainland, they burned their ships.24 This legend of seven fabulous cities in In the same year, Fray Antonio sent Fray the West merged with a story told to Nuno de and the lay brother Onorato to Guzman by an Indian he had in his possession the north by way of the Pacific coast. They in 1530. This Indian, called Tejo by the Span­ formed part of an expedition led by Francisco iards, told Guzman that as a boy be had visited Vazquez de Coronado in search of new lands. seven very large towns rich in gold and silver When the friars and Coronado found two roads with his father. These towns were named "The in the land of T opira north of Culiacan, Co­ Seven Cities" and were thought to be some forty ronado elected to explore the road to the right days' distance to the north of Michoacan. 25 Six and the friars took the road to the left. After a years later, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Andres few days, the group led by Coronado reached Dorantes de Carranza, Alonso de Castillo Mal­ rugged sierras and decided to return to San Mi­ donado, and Estevan, the slave of Dorantes and guel de Culiacan. Meanwhile, Brother Onorato a blackamoor of Azamor in western , fell ill, but Fray Marcos, in the company of the arrived on the northern of New . black slave Estevan and another interpreter, fol­ Their tale of adventure reinforced the idea of lowed the road that led to the coast. Fray Mar­ "another Mexico" beyond the northern hori­ cos came to a land inhabited by a poor people, zon. who treated him well; there he learned of a The four castaways, the only survivors of the thickly populated land farther north whose peo­ expedition to Florida led by the inept Panfilo ple had houses of two and three stories in en­ de Narvaez in 1528, made a report of their re­ closed towns on the shore of a great river. Beyond markable overland journey to Antonio the river were larger towns and the land was de Mendoza. Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, and rich in turquoise and buffalo. 28 Castillo in also drew up a report The legend of the Seven Enchanted Cities for the Audiencia of . This joint of the Seven Bishops, superimposed on the tales report and the more famous narrative of Cabeza told by the Indians, appeared confirmed by Fray de Vaca, first printed in 1542, related that the Marcos de Niza's second expedition to the north wanderers had heard from the Indians in 1539. Because Estevan was sent ahead of the that north of these people there were very pop­ main party, he reached the Zuni settlements ulous towns with very large houses whose in­ before Fray Marcos. At Zuni Estevan offended habitants possessed fine turquoises. 26 the Indians when he asked for turquoises and The rainbow seekers had also seen "clear women. The Indians also thought it unreason­ traces of gold and lead, iron, copper, and other able for him "to say that the people were white metals," and Cabeza de Vaca had been given in the country from which he came and that five emeralds made into arrowheads by Indians. he was sent by them, he being black." Estevan The idea of converting the Indians of the north was killed by the Indians of Zuni when he was and finding great wealth caused the viceroy to taken for "a spy or a guide from some nations 10 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1990 who wished to come and conquer them," but Everyone in that land had his "ordinary dishes the Sonora Indians who accompanied him "were made of wrought plate, and the jugs and bowls allowed to return freely to their own country. "29 were of gold."3l When Fray Marcos, sixty leagues from cr­ When the thawed out in the bola, heard of Estevan's death, he claimed to spring of 1541, the army left the vicinity of the have gone forward and seen Crbola, a city of future Albuquerque to search for Quivira on the fine appearance larger than the seat of the vice­ eastern plains. After crossing the river and the royalty, with stone houses, terraces, and flat mountains, they entered the Great Plains. Past roofs. This lie, or what may have been an op­ the Pecos River, where the present eastern tical illusion, persuaded the viceroy to send Co­ boundary of New Mexico is now located, they ronado north at the head of 300 Spaniards and met the eastern (Querechos). These some 800 Indians. Fray Marcos went along as "intelligent" people conversed so well by means father provincial. When the Spaniards arrived of sign , the lingua franca of the plains, at Hawikuh, the first of the seven villages of "that there was no need of an interpreter." After Zuni, they cursed Fray Marcos on discovering reaching the Canadian River, the Turk led the it to be "a little crowded village" which looked army southeastward to the Staked Plains. This "as if it had been crumpled all up together." flat country covered by gram a and buffalo grass Castaneda lists 71 villages with some 20,000 was described by Coronado "as bare of land­ men, agricultural communities with little marks as if we were surrounded by the sea. Here wealth. 30 the guides lost their bearings because there is nowhere a stone, hill, tree, bush, or anything CORONADO'S SEARCH FOR QUIVIRA of the sort. There are many excellent pastures with fine grass. "32 At Zuni, the Spaniards received a delegation The Texas Indians, a Caddoan-speaking peo­ of Indians from Pecos (Cicuye) who welcomed ple who guided the Spaniards, were a kind peo­ them to their country. The party that went to ple and faithful friends who hunted the buffalo. Pecos returned to the Tiguex on the Castaneda described buffalo hair as wool that Rio Grande, where Coronado chose winter "ought to make good cloth because of its fine­ quarters. With them they brought an Indian ness." The buffalo bulls had bulging eyes, very slave of the buffalo plains who had served at long beards, like goats, and short tails, "with a Pecos. From this Indian, called the Turk, they bunch of hair at the end. When they run, they heard that in his country to the east lay Golden carry it erect like a scorpion." The plentiful Quivira. This version of "" had fish white wolves of the plains hunted the buffalo as big as horses in a river two leagues wide cows. In their march to Quivira under a vast (catfish on the ?). Quivira had much expanse of sky, the army also saw foolish rab­ gold and silver, and the Turk claimed that on bits, kidney beans and prunes, groves of mul­ the river there were berry trees, walnuts, and rose bushes like those of France. After marching 250 leagues from the large numbers of very big , with more Tiguex villages on the Rio Grande, Coronado than twenty rowers on a side, and that they realized that he had been deceived by the Turk. carried sails, and that their lords sat on the After , his captains and ensigns all poop under awnings, and on the prow they agreed that Coronado "should go in search of had a great golden eagle. He said also that Quivira with thirty horsemen and half a dozen the lord of that country took his afternoon foot soldiers," and the rest of the army should nap under a great tree on which were hung go back to Tiguex. 33 a great number of little gold bells, which put Using Texas Indians as guides, Coronado him to sleep as they swung in the air. reached Quivira after traveling either forty-two or forty-eight days. He was received peacefully SPANISH EXPLORATION 11

by the Wichita Indians in the vicinity of Great Bend, Kansas. The people of Quivira lived in lead an expedition numbering approximately grass lodges, and their lord "wore a copper plate 100 soldiers and 20 into the Land on his neck and prized it highly." When no gold of War beyond Culiacan and or silver was found, Coronado had the Turk territory. The region to be entered led to garroted. After Coronado rejoined the army at Florida, New Mexico, Copala, lands discov­ Tiguex, the soldiers endured the winter "almost ered by Coronado, and other fertile prov­ naked and poorly clothed, full of lice, which inces inhabited by large populations ripe for they were unable to get rid of or avoid. "34 Al­ conversion and potentially rich in gold and though Coronado promised the soldiers that they silver mines. would again search for Quivira, he fell from a horse during a race, and in April 1542, still not fully recovered, he announced the army would This plan confirmed the idea of many Spaniards return to New Spain. of Mexico that the happiness of the province Many of the soldiers encouraged by Fray Juan would be assured by the conquest of the land de Padilla wanted to continue the search for of Florida, "which one can reach quickly and Quivira, but 'the general's orders pleased those easily by sea, and the way is not too difficult who "did not stumble over bars of gold and by land. "37 silver immediately upon commencing their Although the Council of the Indies found march into these regions, and because the the plan proposed by Fray Jacinto and Zorita streams and lakes and springs they met flowed fanciful and excessive, and the project did not crystalline waters instead of liquid golden vict­ bear immediate fruit, it did have a certain sig­ uals, they cursed the barren land and cried out nificance and result. In addition to being "the bitterly against those who had led them into first of many joint endeavors on behalf of the such a wilderness. "35 Indians during the next few years" by Bartolome de Las Casas and the Mexican missionaries, the plan may have resulted in the peaceful settle­ MORE SEARCHES TO THE NORTH ment of the region beyond in the Coronado's failure to find gold and silver did . Moreover, when the policy of "war by not dispel the idea that vast wealth was to be fire and blood" failed to win northern Mexico, found in the north. Five years after the disil­ new policies emerged "which closely resem­ lusioned Coronado returned home, "there was bled" the plan proposed by Zorita and the Fran­ official talk of sending new expeditions to col­ ciscans. 38 Spanish domination of northern onize Quivira," and the plan to Christianize the Mexico was finally achieved "by a combination north began immediately.36 When Fray Juan de of , purchase, and religious conver­ Padilla, obsessed by the Seven Cities, elected sion. " Gifts of food and clothing were given the to return to Quivira, he was soon killed by the natives, and prospective Indian farmers were Indians, but the utopian dream of the spiritual promised good land, seed, and agricultural im­ conquest of northern New Spain, including lands plements. "Out of the experience of this paci­ visited by Coronado and Soto, continued to fication grew the mission system that was to inspire the Franciscan Order of New Spain. A serve Spain so well in her expansion on the decade after the silver mines of Zacatecas re­ American continent. "39 vealed the mineral wealth of northern Mexico, The work of conversion by the regular orders Alonso de Zorita, royal judge of the Audiencia on "the rim of " led to a greater of Mexico, and Fray Jacinto de , knowledge of the native civilizations of north­ a lay brother of the Franciscan Order, encour­ ern Mexico, the Rio Grande Valley of New aged by the Franciscan missionaries and Fray Mexico, and the Great Plains. In many in­ Bartolome de Las Casas, offered to stances, this material was related to the Noble 12 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1990

Savage convention found in Renaissance gelical poverty and knowledge of the true God. 41 thought and literature, and founded on the idea of the of simplicity and the Garden CONCLUSION of Eden before the Fall. Gold and conversion connoted America in the sixteenth century, and he who would win AND MILLENNIALISM them would be covered with glory. Hence ex­ In the same way that tales of ploration and interpretation of America was a fantastic and marvelous EI Dorados obtruded European dream that gradually faded and be­ between the Spaniards and America's reality, came transformed into new myths and new real­ the idea of a Paradise or the Golden Age of ities. America became America, but was first antiquity plus the admired qualities of the In­ conceived as Asia and was measured by medi­ dians and their supposed freedom from mea­ eval Christian and classical traditions. Classical sures, money, and greed led to primitivism, or geography, Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman the idea that Indians lived in harmony with traditions, and myth, fable, and fiction of Old nature and reason. As Peter Martyr observed World origin accounted for the initial invention shortly after Columbus's first voyage to the In­ of America. Reality gradually impinged, but as dies, the Indians lived "in a golden age, without late as 1598 Jose de Acosta noted that Spaniards laws, without lying judges, without books, sat­ still remained ignorant of the lands between isfied with their life, and in no wise solicitous and . Some said it was an inundated for the future." Drawing on this imagery, Pedro land, full of lakes and marshes; others said it de Castaneda observed that the Pueblo Indians had great and glorious kingdoms, and imagined lived in peaceful simplicity. Ruled by a council the Paytiti, EI Dorado, and the Land of the of the oldest men and guided by their , Caesars, where there were marvelous things. 42 these communal people worked together to build in this period have an essential their villages. Their virgins went nude, in the unity in their mythic quality and religious the­ manner of Eve before the Fall. Before marriage matic elements. Exploration on the Great Plains "the young men served the whole village in cannot be understood if separated from the general, and only after taking a husband did the Spanish search for the Terrestrial Paradise, EI women cover themselves." The Pueblo people Dorado, King Solomon's mines, and other great were exceptionally clean and kept separate and glorious kingdoms. As America became houses where they prepared food. While a man better known, legendary kingdoms kept moving played the fife, the women sang and ground farther and farther west. For instance, the Span­ grain to the music. 40 ish search for King Solomon's mines eventually The Spanish linked millennialism to prim­ led to the discovery of the great circle route to itivism in articulating the role of the mission Mexico from the . 43 In this and other system of New Spain. Critical of the corruption instances fantasies acted as a motivating force of Europe and its deviation from the natural for discovery. Ideas and legends of medieval or­ law, friars and humanists looked backward to igin became a part of the history of America: an Indian Golden Age in which people lived takes its name from a mythical island happily and simply. They also looked forward "at the right hand of the Indies" ruled by Queen to a Christian utopia that would redeem the Calaffa and her Amazons and rich in gold and tragic life of the Indians under Spanish rule. griffins. Myth continues to influence the Amer­ Millennialism and primitivism were the oppo­ ican mentality and helps to determine the shape site sides of a single of humanity's desire of reality and the country's future. The smoke for fields distant in time past or time future, of dreams envelops the form of the actual for and the missionaries looked forward to an In­ good and evil. Those of us who settle for less dian terrestrial paradise consecrated to evan- than the possibility of Utopia today view Amer- SPANISH EXPLORATION 13 ica the Beautiful as the Mecca of the Miraculous Narratives. For major trends in the writings by United protected by one or another Western hero who States scholars on colonial Spanish America, see will actualize the myth of star wars technology Benjamin Keen, "Main Currents in Writings on Colonial Spanish America, 1884-1984," and preserve the land of the free and the agrar­ American Historical Review 65 (1985): 657- ian utopia of the Plains. 44 82. For literature on Southwestern exploration and conquest, see Ralph H. Vigil, "Exploration and Con­ NOTES quest," in E. R. Stoddard, R. L. Nostrand, and J. P. West, eds., Borderlands Sourcebook: A Guide to the 1. The elusive West can be either the entire West­ Literature on Northern Mexico and the American South­ ern Hemisphere or various New World where west (Norman: University of Press, .1983), westward-moving Europeans or their descendants pp. 31-35. confronted "in their own territory the original posses­ 4. See Samuel E. Morison's of the Ocean sors of the continent." For a definition of the my­ Sea: A Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus, 2 thological West and the "Western" as a type of vols. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1942). adventure literature, see Leslie Fiedler, The Return Rewritten for a wider public in 1954 and titled Chris­ of the Vanishing American (: Stein and Day, topher Columbus, Mariner, it appeared as a Mentor 1976), pp. 16-49; and Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr., The book. This work is traditional and conservative; the White Man's Indian (New York: Vintage Books, 1979), author states, "My main concern is with the Colum­ pp. 96-104. For those who subscribe to the frontier bus of action . . . I am content to leave his 'psy­ thesis of American history, there are successive Wests chology,' his 'motivation' and all that to others" or Anglo-American frontiers. The frontier, "a mi­ (1942, p.6). The most durable general work on Span­ grating geographic area," is "the meeting point of ish discovery, exploration, and conquest is Edward savagery and , the zone where civilization Gaylord Bourne's Spain in America, 1450-1580, first entered the wilderness . . ." (Ray Allen Billington, published in 1904. Bourne's sympathetic interpre­ Westward Expansion: A History of the American Fron­ tation of Spain's Indian policy was influenced by the tier [New York: The Macmillan Company, 1967], pp. climate of opinion that made for American expan­ 1-11). sionism and the creation of an overseas empire be­ 2. Arthur Percival Newton, ed., The Great Age tween 1865 and 1914. For a criticism of the "bardic of Discovery (London: University of London Press, version of the Columbian voyages and their conse­ 1932); J. H. Parry, The Age of Reconnaissance: Dis­ quences" by "narrative historians, most of them nine­ covery, Exploration and Settlement, 1450 to 1650 (New teenth-century writers" who described "the American York: Praeger Publishers, 1969); Charles E. Nowell, past in ways consonant both with the documentary The Great Discoveries and the First Colonial Empires record then available and with the ethnocentrism of (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1954). their fellow white citizens of the New World, par­ 3. Winship's translation of Pedro de Castaneda's ticularly of the United States," see Alfred W. Crosby, narrative of the Coronado expedition has been re­ Jr., "The Columbian Voyages, the Columbian Ex­ printed without scholarly apparatus several times. change, and Their Historians," Michael Adas, ed., See George Parker Winship, "The Coronado Expe­ Essays on Global and Comparative History (Washing­ dition, 1540-1542," in Fourteenth Annual Report of ton, D.C.: American Historical Association, 1987), the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smith­ pp. 1-29. sonian Institution, 1892-1893, Part 1 (, 5. For the role of Indians in American history D. c.: Government Printing Office, 1896). There are textbooks, see James Axtell, "Europeans, Indians, several translations of the journey of Alvar Nunez and the Age of Discovery in American History T ext­ Cabeza de Vaca. See "The Narrative of Alvar Nunez books," American Historical Review 92 (June 1987): Cabeza de Vaca," in Frederick W. Hodge and Theo­ 621-32; Frederick E. Hoxie, "Teaching History To­ dore H. Lewis, eds., Spanish Explorers in the Southern day," Perspectives 23 (April 1985): 18-22; and Neal United States (1907; rpt. New York: Barnes & Noble, Salisbury, "Indians in Colonial History," (Chicago: 1946), pp. 1-26; Fanny Bandelier, trans. and ed., D'Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the The Journey of Alvar Nu'iiez Cabeza de Vaca and His American Indian, Occasional Papers in Curriculum, Companions from Florida to the Pacific, 1528-1536 (New Washington Conference, 1985), No.4, pp. 1-26. York: A. S. Barnes & Co., 1905); and Cyclone Covey, As Axtell notes, American college students are trans. and ed., Cabeza de Vaca's Adventures in the "still being shown the through the Unknown Interior of America (1961; rpt. Albuquer­ distorting lens of the '. '" One learns que: University of New Mexico Press, 1983). Other from one popular college textbook that "only selected explorers' narratives are found in the Hakluyt So­ persons" migrated to the New World and these were ciety's Works and Cortes Society's Documents and few, male, and exploitative. We are also told that 14 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1990

Spanish colonists quickly mated with Indian and black dieval past. Similarly, mestizaje, always subject to women, "thereby creating the racially mixed popu­ denigration, is the most interesting, significant, and lation that characterizes America to the present enduring contribution of to a world day" (Mary Beth Norton et al., A People and a Nation: poisoned by deeply rooted racism" (Hispanic Ameri­ A History of the United States, 2 vols. [Boston: Hough­ can Historical Review 53 [1973): 671-72). For exam­ ton Mifflin Company, 1986], 1:16). This text also ples of mestizaje in Spain, see Vigil, Alonso de Zorita, claims that Spain failed to establish true colonies, pp. 44-45, 246, 248; Magnus Marner, Race Mixture i. e., agriculturally based settlements inhabited by lit­ in the America (Boston: Little, Brown erate, white men and women who read and under­ and Company, 1967), p. 16; and Claudio Esteva stood the King James version of the Bible (p. 20). Fabregat, El mestizaje en Iberoamerica (: Edi­ Norton et al. state that "approximately two torial Alhambra, 1988), pp. 127-28. For the different hundred thousand ordinary men and women" (p. 20) kinds of Spaniards who came to the Indies, see J. came to in the seventeenth century. Vicens Vives, ed., Historia de Espana y America, 5 Although the authors view America's early colonists vols. (: Editorial Vicens-Vives, 1961) 3:393- as very religious people, they fail to note Jon Butler's 97. At the end of the colonial period there may have point that "American colonists had an ambivalent been 3.2 million "whites" in Spanish America. Lucas relationship with Christian congregations" and that Alaman stated that 1.2 million Spaniards resided in the English colonists "proved surprisingly ignorant New Spain; of these, 70,000 were (Lucas of elemental Christian beliefs" (Jon Butler, "Magic, Alaman, Historia de Mexico, 5 vols. [Mexico: Edi­ Astrology, and the Early American Religious Heri­ torial Jus, 1942)1:17,30). tage, 1600-1760," The American Historical Review 84 6. For the tools of the explorers, see J. H. Parry, [April 1979): 317-46). They also fail to mention that Europe and a Wider World (London: Hutchison Uni­ emigration from Spain to the New World in the years versity Press, 1966), pp. 13-25. For the idea that 1492-1600 may have reached 200,000 or more. Per­ Spain under the Catholic was not the "new haps 450,000 Spanish emigrants came to the Amer­ " theoretically characteristic of the renais­ ican colonies in the seventeenth century. At the end sance state, see J. H. Elliott, Imperial Spain, 1469- of the sixteenth century, 35.3 percent of the emi­ 1716 (New York: New American Library, 1977), pp. grants to the Indies were women. See articles by 75-76. Woodrow Borah, Peter Boyd-Bowman, Magnus Mar­ 7. Edward McNall Burns et al., Western Civili­ ner, and James Lockhart in Fredi Chiappelli et aI., zations: Their History and Their Culture (New York: eds., First Images of America: The Impact of the New W. W. Norton, 1984), pp. 457-59; see also Edward World on the Old, 2 vols. (Berkeley: University of P. Cheyney, The Dawn of a New Era, 1250-1453 California Press, 1976),2:707-804. Although legally (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1962), pp. 276-97. forbidden to migrate to the Indies, converted 8. Loren Baritz, "The Idea of the West," American and and the hopeless, the bankrupt, the crim­ Historical Review 66 (April 1961): 618-40, quoted inal, and the delinquent of Spain were found in the pp. 619, 620; Hartley Burr Alexander, The World's Indies in abundant numbers. By 1550 the conversos Rim (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1967), of Espanola controlled the island politically and eco­ p. 17. nomically. See Ralph H. Vigil, Alonso de Zcnita: Royal 9. Hodge and Lewis, Spanish Explorers in the South­ Judge and Christian Humanist, 1512-1585 (Norman: ern United States, p. 283. For Venus as a symbol of University of Oklahoma Press, 1987), pp. 41-82. purity and evil, see Joseph Campbell, The Hero with Racial and cultural mixture between Spaniards a Thousand Faces (Princeton: Princeton University and other ethnic groups is usually considered to have Press, 1968), p. 303; Isaiah 14: 12-15. taken place in the New World colonies, giving rise 10. Thomas More, Utopia, Edward Surtz, S.J., to the idea that pure Spanish blood was diluted by ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964), p. Indians and blacks. This ignores the fact that Span­ 14. More had read 's account of iards had experienced ethnic and "racial" mestizaje his voyages, which mentions giants, cannibals, and before their arrival in America. As Brian R. Hamnett Indians who lived 150 years. On his first voyage notes in his review of Philip Wayne Powell's Tree of Columbus looked for human monsters; he found none Hate: Propaganda and Prejudices Affecting United States but did have a report of an island called "Caniba" Relations with the Hispanic World, "Much more needs by some Indians, and by others "Carib." This island to be said about the racial and cultural mestizaje within was inhabited by a ferocious people "who eat human Spain before the American expansion. Here, pre­ flesh." On 8 January 1493, Columbus "saw three cisely, may lie the real root of foreigners' contempt sirens, who rose very high from the sea, but they for Spaniards. The great flowering of sixteenth- and were not as beautiful as they are depicted for some­ early seventeenth-century Spain should not be viewed how their faces had the appearance of a man." The in our future research without references to this me- Indians at Samana Bay also told him that the island SPANISH EXPLORATION 15 of Matinino () was "entirely peopled by lieved that the (which began women without men" (Christopher Columbus, The 100 leagues beyond the ) was pear-shaped and Journal of Christopher Columbus, Cecil Jane, trans., had a high projection like a woman's nipple on a L. A. Vigneras, ed. [London: , 1960], round ball. As a result, ships rose gently toward the pp. 143, 146-47,200). For the idea that griffins had sky beyond the Azores and the weather became milder. lived in Mexico's great sierras and in the Rio de La He noted that the people he found at and Plata region and Peru, see Alonso de Zorita, Historia the mainland were whiter (or less dark) than Africans de la Nueva Espana, Manuel Serrano y Sanz, ed. living in the same . Moreover, the fairer peo­ (Madrid: Imprenta de Fortanet, 1909), pp. 222-24. ple he met at Trinidad and the mainland lived in a Zorita also noted that the Indians related things that milder temperature, their hair was long and smooth, appeared to be fables, stating that giants had arrived and they were more astute and of greater intelligence in Mexico by way of the Pacific Ocean. "In order to and not cowardly (Las Casas, Historia 2:41; Cecil feed each one of these giants, it was necessary for Jane, ed., Select Documents Illustrating the Four Voy­ one hundred Indians to grind com for tortillas. They ages of Columbus [London: Hakluyt Society, 1933], were thus assigned various regions in the land so that pp. 32-36). they might be fed, and their bones have also been 17. Leonardo Olschki, "Ponce de Leon's Fountain found in Peru and in the and in some of Youth: History of a Geographic Myth," Hispanic parts of Spain." The Indians of Mexico also told American Historical Review 21 (May 1941): 361-85; Zorita that "in ancient times bearded and very tall Malcolm Letts, ed., Mandeville's Travels: Texts and men had arrfved in the land; this surprised them Translations, 2 vols. (London: Hakluyt Society, 1953) because they have the custom of shaving their beards" 1:121-22,2:325-26,376,459-60. Prester John's let­ (pp. 224-26). ter stated that in the wood situated at the foot of 11. Julio Caro Baroja, The World of the Witches, Mt. Olympus (Ceylon) there "springs a clear foun­ O. N. V. Glendinning, trans. (Chicago: University tain which has within itself every kind of taste. It of Chicago Press, 1973), p. 9; R. H. Tawney, Religion changes its taste every hour by day and night, and and the Rise of Capitalism (New York: Mentor, 1954), is scarcely three days' journey from Paradise, whence pp. 11-60; John P. McKay et aI., A History of West em Adam was expelled." He "who tastes of this fountain Society, 2 vols. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983) thrice, fasting, will suffer no infirmity thereafter, but 1:519. remains as if of the age of 32 years as long as he 12. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, p. lives." Mandeville wrote that the Terrestrial Paradise 25. "is the highest land of the world, and it is so high 13. Mariano Picon-Salas, A Cultural History of that it touches near the circle of the moon" (Letts, Spanish America from Conquest to , Irving Mandeville's Travels 2:505, 1:215-16). Columbus, like A. Leonard, trans. (Berkeley: University of Califor­ Mandeville, understood that "no man living may go nia Press, 1971), pp. 34-35. to Paradise." By land, says Mandeville, the way is 14. Ramon Iglesias, El hombre Co16n y otros en­ blocked by wild beasts and impassable hills and rocks. sayos (Mexico: EI Colegio de Mexico, 1944), pp. 17- "By water also may no man pass thither, for those 49, quoted p. 49; Bartolome de Las Casas, Historia rivers come with so great a course and so great a birr de las , Agustin Millares Carlo, ed., 3 vols. and waves that no may go ne sail against them." (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1951) 1:282- In summary, Mandeville and Columbus placed Eden's 83. garden "so far in the east that it is also at the extremist 15. Boies Penrose, Travel and Discovery in the Re­ end of the west" (Newton, Travel and Travellers, p. naissance, 1420-1620 (Cambridge: Harvard Univer­ 164). See also George Boas, Essays on Primitivism and sity Press, 1952), pp. 8-9; Ferdinand Columbus, The Related Ideas in the Middle Ages (Baltimore: Johns Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus, Benjamin Hopkins Press, 1948), pp. 154-74; Gonzalo Fernan­ Keen, trans. and ed. (New Brunswick: Rutgers Uni­ dez de Oviedo, Historia general y natural de las Indias, versity Press, 1959), p. 16; George E. Nunn, The 5 vols. (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Espafioles, Geographical Conceptions of Columbus (New York: 1959) 2:102. As Campbell observes (Hero with a American Geographical Society). See also A. P. Thousand Faces, pp. 172-92), the desire for physical Newton, "Introduction: The Conception of the World immortality is as old as the epic of Gilgamesh and in the Middle Ages," in A. P. Newton, ed., Travel as modem as George Bernard Shaw's Back to Methu­ and Travellers of the Middle Ages (New York: Barnes selah. and Noble, 1926), pp. 1-18. 18. Winship, "The Coronado Expedition," pp. 16. Nunn, Geographical Conceptions of Columbus, 447, 454, 513, 525. pp. 70-75; Las Casas, Historia 2:43. Columbus be­ 19. Ramon Menendez Pidal, The Spaniards in Their lieved that the Earthly Paradise would be found far History, Walter Starkie, trans. (New York: W. W. inland where earth was closest to heaven. He be- Norton, 1966), p. 20; Antonio Pastor, "Spanish Civ- 16 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1990

ilization in the Great Age of Discovery," in Newton, 26. Oviedo, Historia general, 4:311. Great Age of Discovery, pp. 10-44; Federico Fernandez 27. Hodge and Lewis, Spanish Explorers in the de Castillejo, La Ilusi6n en la Conquista (: , pp. 106, 111; Alonso de lor­ Editorial Atalaya, 1945), pp. 13-17. ita, "Relacion de las cos as notables de la Nueva Es­ 20. Bernal Dfaz del Castillo, The Discovery and pana y de la conquista y pacificacion della y de la Conquest of Mexico, 1517-1521, A. P. Maudslay, trans. doctrina y conversion de los naturales," Biblioteca (New York: Grove Press, 1956), pp. 190-91, quoted del Real Palacio, Madrid, MS 59 (1585), folio 496. in Irving A. Leonard, Books of the Brave (New York: For interpretations of the route of the castaways, see Gordian Press, 1964), p. 43. Donald E. Chipman, "In Search of Cabeza de Vaca's 21. Francis MacNutt, De Orbe Novo: Route Across Texas: An Historiographical Survey," The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D'Anghera (New Southwestern Historical Quarterly 91 (October 1987): York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1912), pp. 259, 267-68. 127 -45. 22. Manuel Lucena Salmoral, "La extrana capi­ 28. lorita, "Relacion," folios 496-97; Fray To­ tulacion de Ayllon para el poblamiento de la actual ribio de Motolinia, Historia de los indios de la Nueva Virginia: 1523," Revista de Historia de America, nos. Espana (Barcelona: Herederos de Juan Gili, Editores, 77-78 (January-December 1974), pp. 9-31; Oviedo, 1914), pp. 173-75; Francis Borgia Steck, trans., Mo­ Historia general, 4:327; Hodge and Lewis, Spanish Ex­ tolinfa's History of the Indians of New Spain (Wash­ plorers p. 174. ington, D.C.: Academy of American Franciscan 23. Oviedo, Historia general, p. 168; Garcilaso de History, 1951). Other than lorita and Motolinia la Vega, El Inca, The Florida of the Inca, J. G. Varner (Fray Toribio de Bonavente), I have failed to find and J. J. Varner, trans. and eds. (Austin: University other chroniclers or documentary sources that men­ of Texas Press, 1951), pp. 303-16. The weight of the tion Fray Marcos making a journey north in 1538. pearls found varies depending on the report con­ What is certain is that the instructions for the 1539 sulted. The factor (business manager) of the expe­ expedition given to Fray Marcos were accepted by dition, Luis Hernandez de Biedma, stated that about him on 20 November 1538. As early as 15 July 1539, seven arrobas were found (an arroba is equivalent to Coronado wrote the king that Fray Marcos accom­ 25 pounds). The Gentleman of Elvas states that there panied by native Indians and the Negro Estevan had were found 350 pounds' weight of pearls. It thus traveled into the interior of the country beyond Cu­ appears that the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega exagger­ liacan and had discovered "a very fine country" ates when he writes that "there were more than 1,000 (George P. Hammond and Agapito Rey, trans. and arrobas of pearls and seed pearls." See Inca Garcilaso eds., Narratives of the Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542 de la Vega, La Florida del Inca: Historia del Adelantado [Albuquerque: Coronado Cuarto Centennial Publi­ Hernando de Soto, Gobernador y Capitan General del cations, 1940], pp. 45-49, 61, 63-82). Reino de la Florida, y de otros heroicos caballeros es­ 29. Hodge and Lewis, Spanish Explorers in the panoles e indios (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Econ­ Southern United States, pp. 289-90. Fray Marcos's re­ omica, 1956), p. 220. port does not agree with Castaneda's narrative. The 24. Enrique de Gandfa, Historia crftica de los mitos friar wrote that two of the Indians who escaped told de la conquista americana (Madrid: J. Roldan y com­ him that of the Indians who accompanied Estevan pania, 1929), pp. 59-69. The island of Antillia, or to Cibola, "more than three hundred were dead" the Island of the Seven Cities, described as some (Hammond and Rey, Narratives of the Coronado Ex­ 2,500 miles from and 200 leagues due west of pedition, p. 76). the Canaries in the 1470s, was allegedly visited by 30. Hammond and Rey, Narratives of the Coronado a Portuguese ship in the time of Prince Henry the Expedition, p. 79; Chavez, Coronado's Friars, p. 12; Navigator (1394-1460). When the sailors visited the Hodge and Lewis, Spanish Explorers in the Southern church of Antillia, "the ship's boys gathered sand for United States, pp. 300, 358-59. the firebox and found it was one third fine gold." 31. Hodge and Lewis, Spanish Explorers in the Other ships of sought Antillia in the years Southern United States, p. 314. before Columbus's discovery but could not find it. 32. Ibid., p. 330; Hammond and Rey, Narratives Following the discovery, the island of Espanola was of the Coronado Expedition, p. 186. In his study of called Antillia by the Portuguese; Amerigo Vespucci the Llano Estacado, or the Staked Plains, William called it Antiglia. F. Columbus, The Life of the Ad­ B. Conroy notes that the landscape through which miral, pp. 21, 25-27; Las Casas, Historia 1:64, 68; the Spaniards passed "and the forms of life they en­ 2:119, 161,212. See also Angelico Chavez, O.F.M., countered, including the buffalo and the Plains In­ Coronado's Friars (Washington, D.C.: Academy of dian, were described with accuracy and in detail" American Franciscan History, 1968), pp. 15-16. ("The Llano Estacado in 1541: Spanish Perceptions 25. Hodge and Lewis, Spanish Explorers in the of a Distinctive Physical Setting," in Oakah L. Jones, Southern United States, pp. 285-87. Jr., The Spanish Borderlands-A First Reader [Los An- SPANISH EXPLORATION 17 geles: Lorrin L. Morrison, 1974]' pp. 24-32; origi­ York: Harper, 1960), pp. 39-43; Hoxie Neale Fair­ nally published in}ournal of the West [October 1972)). child, The Noble Savage: A Study in Romantic Nat­ 33. Hodge and Lewis, Spanish Explorers in the uralism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1928), Southern United States, pp. 335, 382-83. pp. 1-22; and Henri Baudet, Paradise on Earth (New 34. Ibid., pp. 336,337,367; Hammond and Rey, Haven: Yale University Press, 1965). For the Fran­ Narratives of the Coronado Expedition, p. 187. ciscan belief that they had been "given the unique 35. Chavez, Coronado's Friars, p. 58; Gaspar Perez opportunity of creating, on the eve of the world, a de Villagra, , Gilberto Espi­ terrestrial paradise where a whole race of men would nosa, trans. (: The Quivira Society, be consecrated to evangelical poverty," see John Leddy 1933), pp. 58-59. Phelan, The Millennial Kingdom of the Franciscans in 36. , Coronado, Knight of the New World (Berkeley: University of California Pueblos and Plains (Albuquerque: University of New Press, 1970). Mexico Press, 1940), p. 400. As late as 1720 the 42. Jose de Acosta, The Natural and Moral History of , the Marquis of San Miguel de of the Indies (London: Hakluyt Society, 1880), p. Aguayo, led 500 mounted troops into to 171. Acosta also noted that "some affirm there is check French defenses beyond the River and to another strait under the North, opposite to that of discover Gran Quivira. See Luis Weckmann, La he­ Magellan," and that "the new world, which we call rencia medieval de Mexico, 2 vols. (Mexico: Colegio Indies, is not altogether severed and disjoined from de Mexico, Centro de Estudios Hist6ricos, 1984) the other world . . . I have long believed that the 1:63. one and the other world are joined and continued 37. Vigil, Alonso de Zorita, p. 218, quotation p. one with the other in some part, or at the least are 217. very near" (pp. 18, 60). 38. Alonso de Zorita, Life and Labor in Ancient 43. Harry Kelsey, "Finding the Way Home: Span­ Mexico: The Brief and Summary Relation of the Lords ish Exploration of the Round-trip Route Across the of New Spain, Benjamin Keen, trans. (New Bruns­ Pacific Ocean," Western Historical Quarterly 1 7 (April wick: Rutgers University Press, 1963), p. 50; Henry 1986): 145-64. Raup Wagner with Helen Rand Parish, The Life and 44. The name "California" probably comes from Writings of Bartolome de Las Casas (Albuquerque: a novel of chivalry called Las Sergas de Esplandidn, University of New Mexico Press, 1967), p. 231. written by Gard Rodriguez de Montalvo and pub­ 39. Philip Wayne Powell, Soldiers, Indians and lished in Saragoza in 1508, in in 1511, in Silver: The Northward Advance of New Spain, 1550- Rome in 1519, and in many subsequent editions. It 1600 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1952), was translated into French, Italian, English, Ger­ p. 204. man, Dutch, and Hebrew, and forms part of the series 40. MacNutt, De Orbe Novo, pp. 79, 103-04; of the Amadis de Gaula novels of chivalry. For Am­ Hodge and Lewis, Spanish Explorers in the Southern azons and Calafia's islands, see Leonard, Books of the United States, pp. 352-54. Brave, pp. 36-53; for the American West as symbol 41. For primitivism and millennialism and their and myth in the imagination of nineteenth-century relationship to the Golden Age of simplicity and the America, see Henry Nash Smith, Virgin Land: The Garden of Eden where "no pleasing habit ends," see American West as Symbol and Myth (Cambridge: Har­ Berkhofer, The White Man's Indian, pp. 72-75; see vard University Press, 1950). also Mircea Eliade, Myths, Dreams and Mysteries (New