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Coronado and La G1·an Quivfra, ISJ7-I544
Coronado took as guides to the far-away Quivira, El Turco and two natives from that country named Xabe and Ysopete, who were given to him by the Pecos Indians. Four days after the expedition left Cicuye, following along the western bank of the Pecos which flows to the south- east for a distance, they decided to cross in the vicinity of present Santa Rosa, where several days were spent in building a bridge. It should be noted that an arm of the great Llano Estacado of Texas extends to this area. 42 A day or two after crossing, Coronado and his men found themselves in the great plains of Texas, "without sight of the mountain range, nor a hill, nor a hillock which was three times as high as a man . . . all so flat that, on seeing a herd of buffalo in the distance, the sky was visible between their legs. Around the rare lagoons grew high grasses, which elsewhere were exceedingly short. Trees were found only on the little water courses at the bottom of the ravines; and the latter were discovered only on reaching their very edge ... One sees absolutely nothing about one but the sky and the plains." 43 It was like being on the sea, affirm the various accounts, all agreeing on the character of the flat country traversed. Castaneda gives a vivid picture of the difficulty encountered in finding their way and at the same time reveals the size of the expedition that penetrated the great plains of Texas in search of Quivira. "Who would believe," he declares, "that a thousand horses and five hundred of our cows, and more than five thousand rams and ewes, and more than fifteen hundred friendly Indians and servants, in traveling over these plains, would leave no more trace, where they had passed than if nothing had been there--nothing- so that it was necessary to make piles of bones and cow dung now and then, so that the rear guard could follow the army. The grass never failed to become erect after it had been trodden down, and although it was short, it was as fresh and straight as before ... The country is like a bowl, so that when a man sits down, the horizon surrounds him all around at the distance of a musket shot." 44 Over these dreary plains they tried to pick their way. How far Coronado traveled before he reached Quivira, what was the general direction of his march, in what longitude and latitude was the farthest spot visited, these have been questions that have engaged the attention and interest
42 Donoghue, "The Route of the Coronado Expedition in Texas," Quarterly, XXXII, 190.
43 Lowery, op. cit. , 324-32 5. 44 Winsbip, op. cit., 466, 527.
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