Our Catlrolic Heritage in Texas
the little band of Spaniards traveled through a thickly settled region along the Rio Grande above the juncture of the Conchos and everywhere they were kindly received. The Indians lived in houses. "These houses resemble those of the Mexicans, except that they are made of paling," says the narrator. "They build them square. They put up the bases and upon these they place timbers, the thickness of a man's thigh. Then they add the poles, and plaster them with mud. Close to them [ the houses] they have their granaries built of willow, after the fashion of the Mexi- cans, where they keep their provisions and their harvest of mesquite and other things .. . They are people who cultivate and harvest." Upon seeing that the Spanish soldiers kissed the hands of the missionaries, they reverently followed the example. Much elated by the kind welcome and unusual behaviour of these natives, Gallegos declares that "these people are very well disposed," and adds, that "to judge from the way they acted, the labor that might be expended in teaching them will bear fruit." 13 Going up the Rio Grande for a distance of five or six leagues aboYe its juncture with the Conchos, which they left to the right, they came upon a beautiful valley, filled with large trees, whose soil was suited for the cultivation of grain and the grazing of cattle. The caciq1te who ruled the tribe in the valley was held in high esteem. \Vherever he went, the Indians carried a large tanned cowhide for him to sit down upon. Around the neck of one of the Indians the Spaniards noticed a copper bell. When asked where he had obtained this object, he replied that it came from a distant land to the west. In addition to a number of copper objects, the Spaniards noticed ornaments of red and white coral and several turquoises. Inquiry was made concerning peoples who lived beyond their land. To this the Jumanos replied that thirteen days' march up the stream were "many clothed people who cultivated and gathered much corn, calabashes, and beans, and much cotton which they spun, wove and made into blankets with which they covered an_d clotherl them- selves, the women as well as the men." They even showed the Spaniards by signs how they cultivated the land and declared that these things had been told to them by "the people who kill the cows and that they considered it very certain." 14 There can be little doubt that these Indians were the ones visited by 13Harnrnond, "The Rodriguez Expedition, " New Mexico Historical Review, II, 256. 14 /bid., 256-257.
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