AMERICA. God said, I am tired of kings, I suffer them no more; Up to my ear the morning brings the outrage of the poor. Think ye I made this ball a field of havoc and war, Where tyrants great and tyrants small might harry the weak and poor? He shall cut pathways east and west, and fend you with his wing. As the sculptor uncovers the statue when he has wrought his best. I will divide my goods; call in the wretch and slave: Kings shook with fear, old empires crave the secret force to find -Ralph Waldo Emerson. THE ANNALS OF KANSAS. EARLY DISCOVERIES. 1541. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, a Spaniard, commanded an expedi tion which marched from Mexico to the northern boundary of Kansas. Albert Gallatin says, in the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, vol. II, p. 64: "Coronado appears to have proceeded as far north as the 40° of latitude." Gen. J. H. Simpson, U. S. A., in the Smithsonian Report for 1869, p. 337, says: "Coronado continued his explorations northwardly to the 40° of latitude, where he reached a province which the Indians called Quivira." He was in search of gold and silver. Coronado said: "The province of Quivira is 950 leagues (3,230 miles) from Mexico. The place I have reached is in the 40° of latitude. The earth is the best possible for all kinds of productions of Spain; for while it is very strong and black, it is very well watered by brooks, springs, and rivers. I found prunes (wild plums) like those of Spain, some of which were black; also, some excellent grapes and mulberries." He traversed "mighty plains and sandy heaths, smooth and wearisome, and bare of wood." "All that way the plains are as full of crookedback oxen as the mountain Serena in Spain is of sheep." This is the first authentic account of the buffalo. The route of Coronado was through the part of Kansas now embraced in the counties of Barber, Kingman, Reno, Harvey, McPherson, Marion, Dickinson, Davis, Riley, Pottawatomie, and Nemaha. The following statement is copied from Brantz Mayer's History of Mexico, vol. I, p. 145: "Between the years 1540 and 1542, an expedition was undertaken for the subjugation of an important nation which, it was alleged, existed far to the north of Mexico. A Franciscan missionary, Marcos de Naza, reported that he had discovered, north of Sonora, a rich and powerful people inhabiting a realm known as Quivara, or the Seven Cities, whose capital, Cibola, was quite as civilized as an European city. After the report had reached and been considered in Spain, it was determined to send an armed force to this region in order to explore, and if possible to reduce the Quivarans to the Spanish yoke. Mendoza had designed to intrust this expedition to Pedro de Alvarado, after having refused Cortez permission to lead the adventurers-a task which he had demanded as his right. But when all the troops were enlisted, Alvarado had not yet reached Mexico from Guatemala, and, accordingly, the Viceroy dispatched Vasquez de Coronado at the head of the enterprise. At the same time he fitted out another expedition, with two ships, under the orders of Francisco Alarcon, who was to make a reconnoissance of the coast as far as the thirty-sixth degree, and, after having frequently visited the shores, he was, in that latitude, to meet the forces sent by land. Coronado set forth from Culiacan, with three hundred and fifty Spaniards and eight hundred Indians, and, after reaching the source of the Gila, passed the mountains to the Rio del Norte. He wintered twice in the region now called New Mexico, explored it thoroughly from north to south, and then, striking off to the northeast, crossed the mountains, and wandering eastwardly as far north as the fortieth degree of latitude, he unfortunately found neither Quivara nor gold. A few wretched ruins of Indian villages were all the discoveries made by these hardy pioneers, and thus the enchanted kingdom eluded the grasp of Spain forever. The troop of strangers and Indians soon became disorganized, and disbanded; nor was Alarcon more successful by sea than Coronado by land. His vessels explored the shores of the Pacific carefully, but they found no wealthy cities to plunder, nor could the sailors hear of any from the Indians with whom they held intercourse." Hildreth says (vol. I, p. 48): "While De Soto was engaged in this exploration, a not less adventurous expedition was undertaken to regions still more interior and remote. By the orders of Mendoza, Viceroy of India, Vasquez Coronado, with a force of three hundred and fifty Spaniards and eight hundred Indians, set out from Culiacan, on the southeastern shore of the Gulf of California, then the northwestern limit of Spanish-Mexican conquest, whence he penetrated north along the shores of the Gulf to the river Gila, now the southwestern boundary of the United States. That river he followed to its head, and, crossing the mountains, reached the upper waters of the Rio del Norte, which he followed also to their sources, and then struck off northeasterly into the great interior desert as far as the 40th degree of north latitude." Gen. Simpson gives a map showing Coronado's line of march. He places the Province of Quivira, (Quivira and Coronado are slightly changed in spelling by different writers,) between the Platte and Kansas rivers, and between the 95th and 98th degrees of longitude. De Soto discovered the Mississippi in 1541, and was buried in it in 1542. Some writers say De Soto entered Missouri, and also went into the Indian Territory, to the place where Fort Gibson now stands. Bancroft says (vol. I, p. 51): "The highlands of White river, more than two hundred miles from the Mississippi, were probably the limit of his ramble in this direction. The mountains offered neither gems nor gold; and the disappointed adventurers marched to the south." The American Cyclopedia places "the highlands of the White river" in the "eastern portion of what is now the Indian Territory." It was in the month of August, 1541, that De Soto reached the most northern point of his journey. In volume XIII of the "Pacific States," published in 1884, Hubert H. Bancroft says, page 7: "Governor Coronado, with a force of three hundred Spaniards and eight hundred natives from Mexico, departed from Culiacan in April, 1540. He left a garrison in Sonora; followed Niza's route, cursing the friar's suggestions, and reached Zuni in July. Tobar was sent to Tusayan, or the Moqui towns; Cardenas to the great cañon of the Colorado; and Alvarado far eastward to Cicuye or Pécos. Then the army marched east to spend the winter in the valley of the Rio Grande, the province of Tiguez-later New Mexico. In May, 1541, after a winter of constant warfare caused by oppression, Coronado started out into the great plains northeastward in search of great towns and precious metals never found. He returned in September, having penetrated, as he believed, to latitude 40°, and found only wigwam towns in the province of Quivira, possibly in the Kansas of to-day. Expeditions were also sent far up and down the Rio del Norte; and in the spring of 1542, when nearly ready for a new campaign, the Governor was seriously injured in a tournament, and resolved to abandon the enterprise. Some friars were left behind, who were soon killed; and in April the return march began." At the farthest northeastward point that was reached, the General erected a great cross with this inscription: "Francisco Vasquez de Coroonado, commander of an expedition, arrived at this place." Bradford Prince (Historical Sketches of New Mexico, 1883) thinks that Quivira "consisted of a succession of towns and villages, on small streams which ran into this main river," and that Coronado "traversed parts of the Indian Territory and Kansas, and finally stopped on the borders of Missouri," north of Kansas City. Some writers assert that de Vaca was in Kansas earlier than Coronado. Hubert Bancroft believes (Pacific States, vol. X, p. 64) that Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca started from Espiritu Santo Bay, or San Antonio, Texas, in the summer of 1535, and traversed the present States of Texas and Chihuahua, to northeastern Sonora; "that he did not, probably, at any time reach so high a latitude as the Canadian and Arkansas rivers." He and his companions went to Culiacan and San Miguel, on the Gulf of California, thence to Compostella, and arrived in Mexico July 25, 1536. 1599. John B. Dunbar, a Kansas explorer in this field, says: "The contents of Spanish writings indicate that for many years after the permanent occupation of New Mexico, the authorities there entertained the purpose of extending their conquests east and northeast, over the country of the Plains, concerning which Coronado's expedition had given indefinite but alluring information. Don Juan de Onate, the conqueror of New Mexico, made an expedition of discovery to Quivirathe Kansas region-as early as 1599. Record exists of an embassy from the Quivira Indians to Santa Fé in 1602, asking aid from the Spaniards against their adjacent enemies, the Aijaos; and in 1662 Penalosa, then Governor of New Mexico, made a further expedition to Quivira. The subsequent career of Penalosa seems to indicate that he was specially impressed with the character and value of the country. From this date there were desultory efforts on the part of the Spaniards from the southwest, and of the French from the Mississippi valley, to gain control of the Indian tribes of the region. In 1719 an expedition from Santa Fé suffered defeat by the Pawnees, or Missouris, apparently in eastern Kansas; and in 1724 Sieur De Bourgmont made a counter expedition from Fort D'Orleans, on the Missouri, for the purpose of conciliating the good-will of the tribes of the plains. If the now missing archives of Santa Fé ever come to light, there will quite likely be found in them valuable matter bearing upon this period of Kansas history. The efforts of the Spaniards in this direction seem to have been continued till after the acquisition of the territory by the United States, in 1803, as Pike makes mention of a Spanish embassy negotiating with the Pawnees just before his arrival at their village in 1806." 1609. MAY 23. The second charter of Virginia (7th James I) granted "all those lands, countries, and territories, situate, lying and being in that part of America called Virginia," from Cape or Point Comfort, to the northward two hundred miles, and to the southward two hundred miles, and "up into the land throughout from sea to sea." This grant made Kansas English, Point Comfort being on the 37th degree of latitude. 1662. MARCH 6. Don Diego de Penalosa begins his march from Santa Fé. The expedition came eastward about 500 miles, and reached Quivira. Prince ("New Mexico") places Quivira in the vicinity of St. Joseph, Mo. 1670. In writing to the Superior of Missions, in 1670, Father Marquette spoke of the Missouri river, from the report he had of it from the Indians. "Six or seven days below the Ilois" (Illinois river), he says, "is another great river, on which are prodigious nations, who use wooden canoes; we cannot write more till next year, if God does us the grace to lead us there." Among these "prodigious nations" was the Kanzas. (Hale's Kanzas and Nebraska, p. 9.) 1673. JUNE 10.- Marquette, accompanied by Joliet, a trader of Quebec, and five other Frenchmen, descending the Wisconsin in canoes, entered the Mississippi. They floated down as far as the Arkansas. In returning, they ascended the Illinois river. Father Dablon published his narrative of this expedition in 1678, with a map on which appears the name of the Kansa tribe of Indians. Marquette's manuscript map is still preserved at St. Mary's College, Montreal. 1677. La Salle obtains from the King of France a commission for perfecting the discovery of the Mississippi, and, at the same time, a monopoly of the trade in buffalo skins. |