principal basis upon which to establish conclusions. No source, however seemingly insignificant, should be neglected. A brief mention is sometimes very important, as it may be a clue to new data, or may confirm or refute accepted information and thus lead to further investigation. Some documents, of course, are much more explicit than others, but this is no reason why the latter should be neglected. The value of a source may be subject to investigation from a number of points of view, but it is not always possible to obtain the requisite information. Thus the biographies of authors are an important requisite, but how seldom are they obtainable with the necessary detail!

The sources of the history of the Rio Grande Pueblos, both printed and in manuscript, are numerous. The manuscript documents are as yet but imperfectly known. Only that which remainedp. 4 at Santa Fé after the first period of Anglo-American occupancy—a number of church books and documents formerly scattered through the parishes of New Mexico, and a very few documents held in private hands—have been accessible within the United States. In Mexico the parish and other official documents at El Paso del Norte (Juarez) up to the beginning of the eighteenth century have been examined by me to a certain extent, and at the City of Mexico the Archivo Nacional has yielded a number of important papers, though the research has been far from exhaustive, owing to the lack of time and support. Hence much still remains to be done in that field. Some destruction of papers of an official character appears to have taken place at Mexico also, yet with the present condition of the archives there is hope that much that appears to be lost will eventually be brought to light; in any event we still have recourse to the Spanish archives, principally at Sevilla. It was the rule during Spanish colonial domination to have every document of any importance executed in triplicate, one copy to remain at the seat of local government, another to be sent to the viceregal archives, and the third to the mother country. Hence there is always a hope that, if the first two were destroyed, the third might be preserved. So, for instance, the collection of royal decrees (cedulas) is imperfect at the City of Mexico. There are lacunæ of several decades, and it is perhaps significant that the same gaps are repeated in the publication of the "Cedulas" by Aguiar and Montemayor. In regard to ecclesiastical documents the difficulty is greater still. The archives of the Franciscan Order, to which the missions on the Rio Grande were assigned almost until the middle of the nineteenth century, have become scattered; the destruction of the archives at the great Franciscan convent in the City of Mexico in 1857, though not complete, resulted in the dispersion of those which were not burned or torn, and the whereabouts of these remnants are but imperfectly known. The documentary history of the Rio Grande Pueblos, therefore, can be only tentative at present, but it is given in the hope that it will incite further activity with the view of increasing and correcting the data thus far obtained.

The report of Cabeza de Vaca, commonly designated as hisp. 5 "Naufragios," is as yet the earliest printed source known with reference to the Rio Grande Pueblos, concerning whom it imparts some vague information. The briefness and vagueness of that information calls for no adverse criticism, for Cabeza de Vaca plainly states that he writes of these people from hearsay and that his information was obtained near the mouth of the Rio Pecos in western Texas. What he afterward learned in Sonora with respect to sedentary Indians in the north is hardly connected with the Rio Grande region. The same may be the case with the information obtained by Nuño de Guzman in 1530 and alluded to by Castañeda. That Nuño de Guzman had gained some information concerning the Pueblos seems certain, but everything points to the Zuñi region as the one mentioned by his informant. The same is true of the reports of Fray Marcos de Nizza and Melchor Diaz, which clearly apply to the Zuñi Pueblos, the most easterly settlement of sedentary Indians alluded to being the Queres pueblo of Acoma. It is to the chroniclers of the expedition of Coronado, therefore, that we must look for the earliest definite information concerning the Rio Grande valley and its inhabitants.

It must be borne in mind that the expedition of Coronado was not a mere exploration. What was expected of its leader, and indeed peremptorily demanded, was a permanent settlement of the country. Coronado and his men were not to return to Mexico except in individual cases. The Viceroy Mendoza wanted to get rid of them. Whether Coronado was a party to the secret of this plan is doubtful; the indications are that he was not, whereas Fray Marcos of Nizza certainly was, and perhaps was its original promoter.

The printed sources on Coronado's march may be divided into two chronologically distinct classes, the first of which comprises documents written in New Mexico in the years from 1540 to 1543; these reflect all the advantages and disadvantages of the writings of eye-witnesses. The mere fact that one had been a participant in the events which he describes is not a guaranty of absolute reliability: his sincerity and truthfulness may be above reproach, but his field of vision is necessarily limited, and the personal element controls his impressions, even against his will, hence his statep. 6ments. These earliest sources regarding Coronado consist of the letters of Coronado himself (with the related letter of Viceroy Mendoza), and several briefer documents written in New Mexico but without indication of their authors. The last two letters written by Coronado alone touch upon the Rio Grande Pueblos—those of August 3, 1540, and October 20, 1541.

As stated above, the expedition of Coronado was not designed as a mere exploration, but rather for the purpose of establishing a permanent settlement. Coronado's second letter, the first in which he touches upon the Rio Grande Pueblos, appears to have been lost. His letter of October 20, 1541, although written near the site of the present Bernalillo, New Mexico, contains very little in regard to the Rio Grande Pueblos.

The briefer documents pertaining to Coronado's expedition, and written while the Spaniards were still in New Mexico, with the exception of one (the report of the reconnoissance made by Hernando de Alvarado, accompanied by Fray Juan de Padilla to the east) concern Zuñi almost exclusively. The document respecting Alvarado's journey is contained in the Coleccion de Documentos from the archives of the Indies, but is erroneously attributed to Hernando de Soto. The celebrated historiographer of Spain, Juan Bautista Muñoz, unacquainted with New Mexico, its geography and ethnography, criticized it rather harshly; nevertheless, the document is very reliable in its description of country and people: it alludes to features which are nowhere else noticed, and which were rediscovered by the late Frank Hamilton Cushing and myself about twenty-eight years ago. The number of villages and people in the Rio Grande region, of which the document gives a brief description, are, as usual, exaggerated; and it could hardly have been otherwise in view of a first and hasty visit, but it remains the earliest document in which Acoma and a part of the Rio Grande valley are treated 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.p. 7

To these sources, which have both the merits and the defects of all documents written under the