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Coronado and La Gran Quivira, 1537-1544
from this province [Tiguex], and because from the place where I first met the Teyas to the land to which the guides were leading me was more than forty days' journey ... and there was a lack of water and of corn, I decided to go on with only thirty horsemen until I saw the land in order to give a true account [of everything] to Your Majesty." 55 Ysopete was closely questioned and asked to tell the truth. He assured them that El Turco had exaggerated. many things and that he was not leading them in the right direction, because the kingdom they sought was more to the north. He offered to guide them aright, asking as a reward that he be allowed to remain in Quivira, which was his country. He requested, furthermore, that El Turco should not be allowed to go with him, because he had beaten and abused him. All these conditions, made by Ysopete, were promised and later carefully fulfilled. 56 Tlze army is sent back to Tiguez. Coronado was determined to proceed at all costs. It was decided that the main body should return to Tiguex under the command of Arrellano, while he, thirty horsemen, and six footmen pushed forward to Quivira. "When the decision became known," says Lowery, "the soldiers, feeling that sense of desolation which, like the trackless waste of ocean, the plains with their limitless expanse are said to produce, besought him not to abandqn them, and declared their willingness to die with him." 57 But his mind was made up. He was willing to risk his life and that of a few chosen companions but not the entire expedition. Location of Quivira. Taking the best horses, he followed an almost due north direction from Palo Duro Canyon, where the consultation was held, while Arrellano and his men made their way back to the Pecos and Tiguex under the guidance of Teyas Indians along a more direct route to the west. For thirty days the little band under the command of Coronado made its way northward "traveling .[every day]," says Jara- millo, "but making no long marches." Coronado in his letter to the king agrees with Jaramillo and says the total time employed in the journey was sixty-seven days from Tiguex; first, thirty-seven days to Palo Duro Canyon, and then thirty to the province of Quivira. Throughout the expedition they had met buffaloes in varying quantities "so that we arrived at a river below Quivira on the day of St. Peter 55 Coronado to the King, October 20, 1541, in Documentos /neditos, Ill, 364-365. 56 Jaramillo, "Relacion," in Docmnentos lneditos, XIV, 312. S7 Lowery, op. cit., 328.
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