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On the Trail of Coronado |
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Excerpts from Coronado's Journal |
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| Acoma |
| About
Taos This river rises where these settlements end at the north, on the slope of the mountains there, where there is a larger village different from the others, called Yuraba. 53 It is settled in this fashion: It has 18 divisions; each one has a situation as if for two ground plots; the houses are very close together, and have five or six stories, three of them with mud walls and two or three with thin wooden wails, which become smaller as they go up, and each one has its little balcony outside of the mud walls, one above the other, all around, of wood. In this village, as it is in the mountains, they do not raise cotton nor breed fowls; they [page 205] wear the skins of deer and cows entirely. It is the most populous village of all that country; we estimated there were 15,000 souls in it. There is one of the other kind of villages larger than all the rest, and very strong, which is called Cicuique. 54It has four and five stories, has eight large courtyards, each one with its balcony, and there are fine houses in it. |
| About Acoma Captain Alvarado started on this journey and in five days reached a village which was on a rock called Acuco, 29 having a population [page 39]
of about 200 men. These people were robbers, feared by the whole country
round about. The village was very strong, because it was up on a rock
out of reach, having steep sides in every direction, and so high that it
was a very good musket that could throw a ball as high. There was only
one entrance by a stairway built by hand, which began at the top of a
slope which is around the foot of the rock. There was a broad stairway
for about 200 steps, then a stretch of about 100 narrower steps, and at
the top they had to go up about three times as high as a man by means of
holes in the rock, in which they put the points of their feet, holding
on at the same time by their hands. There was a wall of large and small
stones at the top, which they could roll down without showing
themselves, so that no army could possibly be strong enough to capture
the village. On the top they had room to sow and store a large amount of
corn, and cisterns to collect snow and water. These people came down to
the plain ready to fight, and would not listen to any arguments. They
drew lines on the ground and determined to prevent our men from crossing
these, but when they saw that they would have to fight they offered to
make peace before any harm had been done. They went through their forms of making peace, which is to touch the horses and take their sweat and rub themselves with it, and to make crosses with the fingers of the hands. But to make the most secure peace they put their hands across each other, and they keep this peace inviolably. They made a present of a large number of [turkey] cocks with very big wattles, much bread, tanned deerskins, pine [piņon] nuts, flour [corn meal], and corn.
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