Coronado and La G1·an Quivira, 1537-1544
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location reached by Coronado, he is undoubtedly correct in his deduc- tion, that the two formidable expeditions of De Soto and Coronado came within a short distance of each other, for there is conclusive evidence that each heard of the other, as shown and proved by Pichardo in his detailed discussion of this point. Coronado, after inquiring about the governor of Harahey and Quivira, for he thought they were both ruled by the same chief, sent for him. He came with about two hundred men, all armed with bows and arrows, but wearing little or no clothes and with peculiar headdresses. The chief was a large and powerful man, well built and intelligent. The general questioned him about the country and its people, but on learning that the former was very much like what he had already seen, and the latter not much better than the Indians he had met, he turned and asked his officers what they thought it was best to do. "Keeping in mind how we had left the army," says Jaramillo, "and the condition in which we were, and since it was almost the beginning of winter, for if I remember correctly it was more than past the middle of August, and since we were few in number to winter there with such supplies as we had, it seemed to all of us that it would be best for his lordship to return [ to Tiguex], before the winter snows made the roads impassable, and the floods of the rivers obstructed the way, in order to find out how the army had fared." 68 It is well to note before leaving Quivira, that the houses of these Indians were made of straw and were conical in shape, very much as those characteristic of the Wichita or Taovaya Indians, who lived on the upper Red River. Death of El Turco. Before starting on their homeward journey to Tiguex, a plot to murder all the Spaniards was discovered. The insti- gator proved to be no other than El Turco. When tortured and on the point of death, he confessed that he had purposely misled the Spaniards from the time they left Cicuye, and that he had lied about the riches of Quivira. He declared that the natives of Cicuye had instructed him to do this in the hope that all the Spaniards would be lost in the great plains, where their horses would starve or die of thirst and the men would be so weakened that such as returned could be easily put to death. We cannot help but pity this Indian guide, whose faithful execution of so perfect a plan is doubtful, when we remember how he gave false testimony against his masters and caused the imprisonment of Bigotes
6BJaramillo, op. cit., XIV, 315.
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