when he reached the village in person. He proceeded thither at once, but instead of being admitted, he was placed under guard in a house near by.[1] All the turquoises and other gifts which he had received from the Indians during his journey were taken from him, and he was confined with the people who accompanied him, over night, without receiving anything to eat or drink. The next morning Estevan tried to run away, but was overtaken and killed. The fugitives who brought this news to Friar Marcos said that most of their companions also had been killed. The Indians who had followed the friar forthwith began to mourn for three hundred of their relations and friends, who had perished, they declared, as a result of their confidence in his forerunner. This number was undoubtedly an exaggeration. Castañeda heard that the natives of Cibola kept a few lads from among those who were with the negro, "and sent back all the rest, numbering about sixty." The story of Estevan's death is reputed to have been preserved among the legends of the Indians of Zuñi. According to this tradition, the village at which the "Black Mexican" was killed was K'iakima, a village now in ruins, situated on a bluff at the southwestern angle of Thunder mountain mesa; but this is totally at variance with the historical evidence, which seems to point quite conclusively to Hawikuh, the first village encountered from the southwest, as the scene of Estevan's death.[2] One of the Indian stories of Estevan's death is that their wise men took the negro out of the pueblo during the night, and "gave him a powerful kick, which sped him through the air back to the south, whence he came!"
The killing of Estevan made it impossible for Friar Marcos, alone and unprepared for fighting, to enter the Cibola region. The first reports of the disaster, as is usually the custom, told of the death of all who accompanied the negro, and in consequence there was much wailing among the Indians who had followed the friar. They threatened to desert him, but he pacified them by opening his bundles and distributing the trinkets brought from Mexico. While they were enjoying these, he withdrew a couple of stone-throws for an hour and a half to pray. Meanwhile, the Indians began again to think of their lost friends, and decided to kill the friar, as the indirect cause of the catastrophe. But when he returned from his devotions, reinvigorated, and learned of their determination, he diverted their thoughts by producing some of the things which had been kept back from the first distribution of the contents of his packs. He expounded to them the folly of killing him, since this would do him no hurt because he was a Christian and so would go at once to his home in the sky, while other Christians would come in search of him and kill all of them, in spite of his own desires to prevent, if possible, any such revenge. "With many other words" he
- ↑ This is precisely the method pursued by the Zuñis today against any Mexicans who may be found in their vicinity during the performance of an outdoor ceremonial.
- ↑ This question has been fully discussed by F. W. Hodge. See "The First Discovered City of Cibola," American Anthropologist. Washington, April. 1895.
