t be Conservative *
THE CORONADO EXPEDITION OF
Ifi41 ITS HEARING UPON THE
EMPIRE OF QUIVERA.
The point to which Corouado pene
trated these plains of Kansas and
Nebraska has been the theme of many
writers for many years. That the exact
point will ever be definitely fixed , is a
question which must be settled by
further exploration. The subject has a
curious fascination , however , for the
average reader ; although few are willing
to devote valuable time to the arduous
search and study necessary to add one
new point to the already voluminous
writings along these lines.
That Ooronado reached the fortieth
parallel of latitude is certain , from , not
only his own statement , but from two
other chroniclers who ware with him.
He must have known this definitely , as
latitude is easy to determine when one
knows the simple operations in general
use. This point is admitted by all
writers of repute , and here on the Kan
sas-Nebraska line he visited twenty or
thirty villages and consumed twenty five
days in his exploration of this region.
This is all we have of his account except
his description of the people , which is
not very flattering. They were , accord
ing to his account , very barbarous.
When we hear a description of any
thing we are very much inclined , in
ordinary life , to take into account the
condition of the desoriber. For instance ,
I once attended a lecture , advertised as
a great masterpiece to be delivered by a
very talented orator. Of course , I ex
pected something. My mind was made
up for a great treat. The lecture was
very mediocre. One of my friends
asked me the next morning how I liked
the lecture. I said there was nothing in
it. Now , upon sober thought , there was
something in it , but I was disappointed
and gave the worst side ; in fact , I was
not a competent judge and my friend
should have taken my condition into
account in forming his estimate of the
powers of that lecturer. The same is
true with regard to Coronado , in form
ing our judgment of the people he saw
and the villages , we should take into
account the Spaniards' thirst for gold ;
the disappointment attendant upon their
not finding a great empire as they ex
pected ; Coronado's personal desire to
return to his beautiful , young wife ; and ,
the inadequate diet of meat , alone. But
in the face of all these influences draw
ing him toward home , he stayed twenty-
five days to explore this region 1 He
must have been interested. He reminds
me of the man who went to the expo
sition to spend two days but stayed a
week ; when he returned he told his
wife and boys it was no good not
worth spending money to see.
'
Ooronado had a method to his mad
ness ; he was diplomatic , and gave the
story of the people which best suited his
purpose. It was doubtless the truth ,
too. How often have we enjoyed that
old , old story which an uncle told the
children about a now , strange land
where the people were BO poor and bar
barous that they dug roots for food , and
ate the seeds of various plants , crushing
them with stones , clothed themselves
with the bark and leaves of plants and
the skins of animals and so on , until
the bright boy discovered that he was
one of these new , strange people. This
story which the uncle gave was true ,
every word of it , but how strange it
sounded told in that way , and what a
false impression it would leave if one
did not use a little common sense and
take the narrator into account.
Ooronado said these people were wild
and barbarous ate raw meat. Now , I
know people who eat raw meat for
breakfast , in fact I enjoy rare steak
myself 1 Should Ooronado visit us he
would call us heathens because we are
a Methodist , or a Presbyterian , and not
a true Catholic ; and if he should witness
one of our modern political rallies I am
he could ' 'The
quite sure truthfully say :
people are very barbarous. " If they
were barbarous , as we understand the
term , how could a mere handful of
thirty men stay with these people
twenty-five days and make no record of
attempted harm ? Not a single account
is given of any violence being offered ,
but they were shown the villages and
entertained. I fear if he should come
here , today , unknown , as he was to
those people , he would not care to stay
twenty-five days ; our hospitality would
scarcely carry him as far as did theirs ,
unless he happened to have the price
with him.
These people domesticated the dog
and used it as a beast of burden. I want
you to note this point and consider how
much civilization it would take for a
people to domesticate any animal , and
then think of other countries where dogs
are the common beast of burden ; then
see if this one fact alone does not seem ,
first , a direct contradiction to the term
"barbarous" and , second , a key to the
country from which these people emi
grated to this land of promise. True ,
their customs were very different from
those of the Spaniards ; so are ours ,
thank Godl The resources of the
country were different from those of
Spain , but the people were a fair sample
of the human family in the days before
the art of writing was discovered ; before
the Bronze Age , or during the Stone
Age. They were stone workers , as their
relics show and their civilization had
advanced commensurate with their
environments.
There is little doubt that they were
transplanted from the parent stock of
the human family at the beginning of
the Bronze Age and being isolated and
having the bison for subsistence , had
advanced but slowly , if at all , in the
scale of civilization. They were a
numerous people , and had Corouado left
no account of them , had he never come
across these trackless plains and sun-
kissed valleys to report a community of
barbarous people , we would know from
the relics left by them that they had
attained a certain degree of art in stone
work ; that they lived in villages , and
that tlley were numerous ; that there
were different tribes , and that they had
widely differing customs. In fact , I
doubt not but we would arrive at the
truth much nearer without Ooronado's
account than we will with it.
I can remember when my very devout
uncle was ready to burn a valuable work
on geology , which I had borrowed ,
because he claimed it did not agree with
the Genesis account of the creation , the
scientific world would probably have
arrived at the real truth of the world
creation much sooner had Moses for
gotten to put that part of Genesis in. /
Some very painstaking research has /
been conducted by Mr. J. V. Brewer in
the field just south of the Nebraska line
in Kansas. Mr. Brewer has published
an account of his research in a memoir
which it has been my good fortune to
peruse. Thirty-two village sites have
been located and more or less explored
in an area forty miles from north to
south and thirty miles from east to west.
He states that there are , doubtless , many
more villages to be discovered in this
same area.
In his memoirs , Mr. Brewer carries
the idea that this was the field visited
and explored by Ooronado during those
twenty-five days he seemed to enjoy so
much among the "barbarous" inhabi
tants , and I think the evidence will bear
him out in this assertion. I do not
think , however , that his explorations
were confined to the territory south of
the line , wholly , as relics found in this
state go a long way in proving that he
visited our state as well as Kansas. The
entire absence of relics left by him in
the Kansas field seems to me very
strange , as every indication points to
this explored area as being on his route.
I will not enter here into a detailed
account of his route as described by
Oastaneda , as it is not germaiu to this
article ; but every written account seems
to confirm the theory which Mr. Brewer
champions.
Now , in this state a number of relics
have been found that may be taken as
conclusive evidence of Ooronado hav
ing been here. Near Eiverton , this
state , have been found two stirrups , a
bridle bit and a sword ; all of the kind
used by the Spaniards of that day.
Franklin county , where Eiverton is
located , is nearly due north of the Great
Bend in the Arkansas river and quite a
distance northwest of the village sites
mentioned by Mr. Brewer ; still ,
mounted soldiers could easily have ex
plored the villages from the mouth of
Mill Oreek , on the banks of the Kansas