Page:The gilded man (El Dorado) and other pictures of the Spanish occupancy of America.djvu/164

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150
CIBOLA.

the single report which Fray Marcos, the only scribe in his party, wrote is unsatisfactory, or deficient in geographical data. No conclusions can be drawn from it in respect to the character of the country or to the number of rivers, the volume of water in them or their course. Equally indefinite are his statements concerning the inhabitants. The zealous Franciscan seems to have been animated by only one thought— that of finding the seven cities of Cibola. The farther he advanced, the more he heard of them, and the more definite were the accounts. Besides the Indians of Sonora, probably Pimas, by whom he was accompanied, men of the northern tribes joined him as he proceeded on his journey. It is still, however, possible that he continued entirely within the territory of the Pimas; for the Indians of Bacapa, who belong to the southern Pima tribe, served him everywhere as interpreters.[1] Only short distances separated them from their tribal relatives, who were known under the name of the Pápagos (Pápap Ootam), and then[2] formed the lowest, the most miserable, branch of the great linguistic group. Fray Marcos crossed the southeast corner of the "Papagueréa" and turned toward the northeast, where he successively met the Sobaypuris and, on the Gila, the Ootam (men) or northern Pimas. He was everywhere received in a friendly manner. Estévanico kept sending back the cross signs, as had been agreed upon, and thus fortified the zeal of the enthusiastic monk. The stories of the natives set forth the glories of Cibola in ever more brilliant

  1. They are also known in Sonora as Névomé.
  2. As they still did at the beginning of this century.