Page:The gilded man (El Dorado) and other pictures of the Spanish occupancy of America.djvu/198

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184
CIBOLA.

pointed out to him as "Chichiltic-calli." The itinerary of this writer, who marched with Coronado while Casteñeda probably followed the main body, deserves to be reproduced literally.

"After we had crossed these mountains, we came to a deep brook with steep banks, where we found water and grass for our horses. Leaving this brook, which is the other side of the Nexpa of which I have spoken, we took the direction toward the northeast (as it seemed to me), and came in three days, so far as I can remember, to a river which we named San Juan, because we arrived there on the day of that saint. Leaving this stream, we passed through a very mountainous country, and turning more to the north, we came to another stream which we named de las Balsas, because, it being very high, we had to cross it on rafts. I believe we were two days in going from one river to the other. . . . Hence we went to another brook, which we called de la Barranca (of the ravine). The distance from one to the other may be estimated at two short days' journey. The direction is northeast. We then came to a river, after one day's march, which we called Rio Frio, on account of the coldness of its water. Thence we passed through fir woods, at the end of which we found cool brooks. . . . In two days we came to another brook, called Vermejo— always in the same direction, namely, toward the northeast." There they met Indians from Cibola, and two days afterward they reached the last pueblo. Casteñeda mentions striking a "river" which "flowed" in a deep ravine three days after they entered the "wilderness" north of Chichiltic--