At last he arrived at the walls of Zuni, and sent messengers thither; but they were ill-treated
and fired at, upon which, after an attack and skirmish without the walls, he boldly assaulted the
city, and, after considerable resistance, took it by storm. The Indians fought with bows and arrows,
and threw stones upon them from the walls; Coronado himself was twice unhorsed, but his Spanish armour
saved him. Plenty of corn was found in the town, of which they were greatly in need, several persons
having starved on the way.
"It remaineth now to testify," writes Coronado, "of the seven cities, and
of the kingdoms and provinces whereof the Father provincial (Father Marco) made report to your lordship; and, to be brief, I can assure your honour he said the truth in nothing that he reported, but all was quite contrary, saving only the names of the cities and the great houses of stone, whereof there are about two hundred encompassed with walls; and I think that, with the rest of the houses which are not so walled, there may be together five hundred."
In other words the conqueror found neither silver, gold, nor precious stones; but he gives a very accurate description of the appearance, dress, and mode of living of the people, which does not differ in any particular from that of the present day. "The seven cities are seven small towns, all made with this kind of [many-storied] houses that I speak of; they stand all within four leagues together, and are called collectively the kingdom of Cevola....
"They eat the best cakes I ever saw; and they have the finest order and way of grinding, so that one Indian woman of this country will grind as much as four women of Mexico." ... "That which these Indians worship, as far as we hitherto can learn, is the water; for they say it causeth their corn to grow and maintaineth their life." As regards the answers they gave him about other cities, Coronado says that he thinks they do not tell him the truth. They said that they killed the negro Stephen because "he touched their women."
After leaving Zuni, Vasquez de Coronado travelled eastward into the Rio Grande valley and discovered, or rather re-discovered, the pueblos built upon that stream. Amongst these were Acuco (Acoma), "a town upon an exceeding strong hill," Tiguex (Pecos), Quivera, Axa, and Cicuye, four leagues from which they met with a new kind of oxen (buffalo), wild and fierce, whereof the first day they killed fourscore, which sufficed the army for flesh. "All the way was as full of crooked-backed oxen as the mountain sierras in Spain are of sheep." Nowhere did they find gold, silver, or precious gems; and in the end of March 1542, Vasquez Coronado, after receiving a severe fall from his horse while tilting at Tiguex, returned in disgust with his army to Mexico. "It grieved Don Antonio de Mendoca very much that the army returned home; for he had spent about threescore thousand pesos of gold, and owed a great part thereof still."
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adapted from A. W. Bell
"On the Native Races of New Mexico"
1869 (Journal of the Ethnological Society of London)
