Coronado and La Gran Quivira, 1537-1544
97
reached Tiguex, on or near the present site of Bernalillo on September 7, and from there explored the country to the east for almost three hundred miles beyond Cicuye, modern Pecos. Their march carried them into the northern limits of the great plains of Texas along the Canadian River, where they first came upon and hunted large herds of buffalo. To Alvarado and Fray Juan de Padilla, therefore, falls the honor of having been the first ones to traverse a portion of the great plains of our State. 3 ; News of Quivira. It was in Cicuye, at present Pecos, that the first news of Quivira was obtained from an Indian slave of that pueblo, whom the Spaniards nicknamed EI Turco, because his appearance reminded them of a Turk. This Indian said he was a native of Harale, a village which he claimed was three hundred leagues to the east of Cicuye. Many were the wonders he told of his country and Quivira, while he guided Alvarado and his men into the plains to hunt buffalo; so strange were these declarations that Alvarado decided to return to Tiguex and report the matter to Coronado. In the meantime winter quarters for the army had been established at Tiguex, at the recommendation of Alvarado, where the commander himself arrived late in September. El Turco lost no time in giving an even more startling account of Quivira to the leader of the expedition. "In his country," he said, "there was a river in the level country which was two leagues wide, in which there were fishes as big as horses, and large numbers of very big canoes with more than twenty oars on a side, and that they carried sails; and that their lords sat on the poop under awnings, and on the prow they had a great golden eagle. He said also that the lord of that country took his afternoon nap under a great tree on which hung a great number of little gold bells, which put him to sleep as they swung in the air. He said also that everyone had their ordinary dishes made of wrought plate, and jugs, plates, and bowls were of gold." 38 Could a more glowing account of a golden paradise be imagined? But to this, other equally surprising details are added by G6mara, who had access to sources now lost. "They learned there [at Tiguex]," he declares, "of Axa [Harale] and Quivira, where it was said there was a king named Tatarrax, who wore a long beard, was white- haired, and very rich. He dressed in a rich cloak, prayed from a book of 37 Castafieda, "Narrative," in Winship, op cit., 431 ; "Relacion de! Suceso," in Buckingham Smith, Coleccion de Vnrios Documenlos ... de la Florida, 151-152, 1 57-1 58 ; Lowery, of>. cit., 312-31 7. 38Winship, op. cit., 493.
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