d from actual observation. The reconnoissance was made from August
to October, 1540. It may be that one of the villages briefly described
is Pecos, which lies of course some distance east of the Rio Grande, and
the document is possibly the first one in which the nomadic Indians of
eastern New Mexico are mentioned from actual observation.

To these sources, which have both the merits and the defects of all
documents written under the impressions of first direct acquaintance
with the subject, must be added the "Relacion postrera de Sivola"
contained in a manuscript by father Toribio de Paredes, surnamed
Motolinia, and known as the _Libro de Oro_, etc., which is an augmented
and slightly modified version of that celebrated missionary's history of
the Mexicans. It is a condensed report that had reached Mexico after
Coronado had left for Quivira and before his return had become known.
Its allusion to the Rio Grande Pueblos and to Pecos is not without
value, although it adds little to what is contained in the sources
previously mentioned. On the Indians of the Plains it is, comparatively
speaking, more explicit. The general tone of the document is one of
sobriety. The "Relacion del Suceso," published in the _Documentos
Ineditos de Indias_ under the erroneous date of 1531, is similar to the
foregoing, but is more detailed in some respects and covers a longer
period of time. It manifestly was written in New Mexico by a member of
the expedition, but there is no clue as yet to the name of the author.
It is a useful corollary to the other contemporary sources.

Although written more than two centuries after Coronado's march, the
references to it and to New Mexico contained in the _Historia de la
Nueva Galicia_, by the licentiate Matias de la Mota Padilla, find a
place here, since the author asserts that he derived much of his
information from papers left by Pedro de Tovar, one of Coronado's chief
lieutenants. Mota Padilla generally confirms the data furnished by the
earlier documents, and adds some additional information. It is however
quite impossible to determine what he gathered directly from the
writings of Tovar and what he may have obtained through other and
probably posterior sources. At all events the _Historia de la Nueva
Galicia_ should never be neglected by students of the Pueblo Indians.

We now come to the two chief chroniclers of Coronado's time--both
participants in his undertakings and therefore eye-witnesses: Ped