187
Ezplo,·ation of the Big Bend and Pecos Country
weeks later, early in April, the hopeful settlers reached the sand dunes south of El Paso, and painfully made their way along the dusty trail to the only ford of the river in this area, which was henceforth to be known as El Paso del Rio del Norte. It was on May 4, 1598, that the expedition crossed the river. 58 Zaldivar's mare/, to tlze plains. But the limits of our narrative will not permit us to give the details of Onate's settlement of New Mexico. Once he had established the headquarters of his colony, he turned his attention to the exploration of the surrounding country. On September 15, 1598, Vicente de Zaldivar with sixty men was ordered to explore the land to the east and north to find buffalo. In company with two missionaries, who stayed in the old pueblo of Pecos ( the Cicuye of Coronado), the little band set out over the plains to hunt buffalo, guided by the Indian Jusephe, the sole survivor of the Humana expedition. On September 20, they left Pecos and after traveling four leagues they reached a place where they found an abundance of plums, which Jusephe declared had been visited by H urnana. Two days later, after going nine more leagues in a general eastern direction, they came "to a small stream carrying but little water, but containing a prodigious quantity of excel- lent fish." This has been identified as the Gallinas, near Las Vegas. Here came four ·vaquero Indians, evidently Querecho chiefs from the plains, to meet the Spaniards. Presents were distributed and a guide secured from the visitors. Six leagues beyond, they came upon a fairly large ranclzer,a, and the following day they saw many Indians of the plains along their route, who gave them pinole. "Most of the men go naked," says Zaldivar, "but some are clothed with skins of buffalo and some with blankets .. . They asked him for aid against the Xumanos [Jumanos], as they call a tribe of Indians, who are painted after the manner of the Chichimecos." 59 58Bolton, Spanisk Exploration, 201 - 202; Villagra, Historia, Quivira Publica- tions, IV, 72-1 s; Hammond, "Onate and the Founding of New Mexico," New Mexico Historical Quarterly, Vols. 1 and 2. 59The most authentic source of this preliminary expedition undertaken by Zaldivar is the "Account of the Discovery of the Buffalo," first published by Bolton in op. cit., 223-232, from the transcript of the Lowery Collection in the Library of Con- gress. Villagra in Cantos XVI and XVII of the Historia gives a good summary, evidently based on the report of Zaldivar, but he adds a story of an Indian dis• guised as a devil to frighten the Spaniards, not found in the original. Cf. Bolton, op. cit., 223-232, and Villagra's Historia, Quivira Publications, IV, 150-151. In the remainder of this account the report of Zaldivar will be followed in the main.
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