Indians in New
Mexico.[74]

In sending the officers mentioned along the Rio Grande, as
far south as Mesilla probably, Coronado explored the territory
beyond the range of the pueblos, and he thus secured information
also concerning the roaming tribes. It is essential that
I should touch these here also, because the subsequent history
of the village Indians cannot be understood without connection
with their savage surroundings. I might as well state
here, that west of the Rio Grande and south of Zuni, the entire
south-west corner of New Mexico, appears to have been uninhabited
in 1540. Stray hunting parties may have visited
it, though there was hardly any inducement, since the buffalo
was found east of the Rio Grande only, as far as New
Mexico is concerned.[75]

The country visited along the Rio Grande, as far as Mesilla,
appears not to have given any occasion for its explorers, to
mention any wild tribes as its occupants. Still we know that,
east of Socorro and south-east, not forty years after Coronado,
the "Jumanas" Indians claimed the Eastern portions of
Valencia and Socorro counties; the regions of Abo, Quarac,
and Gran Quivira.[76] These savages, also called "Rayados"
("Striated" from their custom of painting or cutting their
faces and breasts for the sake of ornament), were reduced to
villages in 1629 only, by the Franciscans; and the ruins which
are now called Gran Quivira date from that time.[77] Dona
Ana county was (from later reports which I shall discuss in
a subsequent paper), roamed over, towards the Rio Grande,
by equally savage hordes, to which Antonio de Espejo and
others give the name of "Tobosas."[78] It is, of course,
impossible to assign boundaries to the Ranges of such
tribes.

Very distinct ethnographic information, however, is given
by Coronado himself, as well as by Castaneda and by Jaramillo,
in regard to north-eastern New Mexico. This information
was secured in the year 1542, during his adventurous expedition
in search of Quivira.

In regard to the route followed by him, I can but, in
a general way, heartily accept the conclusions of General
Simpson.[79] If, in some details, we may have some doubts
yet, I gladly bow to his superior knowledge of the country
and to his experience of travelling in the plains, in the
latter of which I am totally deficient. Coronado started
from Pecos, he crossed, probably, the Tecolote chain, threw
a bridge over the Rio Gallinas, and then moved on to the