Humana
The
Coronado expedition gave the Spaniards the
first claim, the prior right and title to the Great Plains. The discovery,
together with the exploration of the country by De Soto, should have given
the great interior valley in the heart of the continent to Spain. This it
would have done had that country shown energy and persistency in its
conquest and settlement. But the unusual success of Cortez and Pizarro had
overwrought the Spanish common mind. Countries holding only possibilities
of trade and agriculture were not at that time considered worth much, and
they received little attention. The adventurers were seeking countries
full of gold and silver. It was their intention to seize those commodities
at all hazards, even though the lands so ravaged were utterly destroyed.
The Great Plains, those "sandy heaths" covered with wild cattle and
inhabited by naked savages, did not appeal to the average Spaniard. He was
often ruthless and cruel in his conduct toward the Indians in such
countries as he finally settled, sometimes perpetrating more atrocious
murders than the savages were guilty of, as witness the action of Coronado
when he burned the people of the pueblos at the stake.
In the occupation of the country north of Mexico the priests stopped in
the dead and desolate pueblos along the Rio Grande. A few
Spaniards—Mexicans—came with them. The burdens imposed on the miserable
Indians of the filthy pueblos were unbearable, and they were goaded into
desperation. They rose and slew to the utmost. This civilization brought
into the valley of the Rio Grande, nearly as barbarous as that which it
sought to displace, was thrown back whence it came. It was some years
before another attempt to colonize that country was made.
For many years the feeble and desultory efforts at exploration only
reflected the weakness of the Spanish in New Mexico. The discoveries made
by Coronado could not be continued. A few journeys were made to the
plains, but they constantly diminished in strength and purpose. They were
finally abandoned altogether. An empire of vast possibilities was
practically forgotten in the interest of goats and burros on the deserts
of New Mexico.
The first of the futile efforts to follow the grand march of Coronado was
a filibustering expedition led from Nuevo Viscaya by Francisco Leyva de
Bonilla and Antonio Gutierrez de Humana, in 1594. It is claimed that it
was unauthorized. Bonilla was the leader. He lingered about the old
pueblos a year, with Bove, the St. Ildefonso of later times, as his
headquarters. Then he began his movement to the northeastward. He is said
to have passed through Pecos and another pueblo, but he did not follow the
route of Coronado, though it is believed he ultimately reached the same
destination. A vagabond and wandering course was pursued to the eastward,
many streams crossed, and large herds of buffalo encountered. Far out on
the plains, Bonilla turned to the north. He probably entered Kansas
somewhere about the town of Kiowa, and crossed the Arkansas in the
vicinity of Wichita. There he found, no doubt, the
Quivira villages visited by Coronado. About these towns there were
extensive fields of corn. Three days beyond them to the north on the road
which led Coronado to the Nebraska border he was murdered by Humana, who
usurped command of the filibusteros. On that day a buffalo herd was seen
which seemed to cover all the plains. After this the herds were not so
large, and on the tenth day out from the Quivira
towns on the Arkansas, a river was reached which was a quarter of a leagne
wide, as remembered by the man who described the journey. It was possibly
the Platte. There six Indians deserted and started back to New Mexico.
Jusephe, one of the deserters, seems to have finally escaped, though he
was captured by the Apaches, who kept him a year. The other deserters were
lost or killed.
The narrative of this Contrabando is obscure and half-mythical, as are
most of the old Spanish chronicles. By one version it appears that while
the party lay encamped on the plains, "gold-laden," the grass was set on
fire by the Indians. They rushed forward with the flames and massacred the
entire band, except Alonzo Sanchez, whom the Indians saved, and who became
a great chief among them.
The route of Humana, after he left the towns of
Quivira, on the Arkansas, is a matter of conjecture. It is believed
that he reached the Platte River. It is likely that he lost his life in
the robbery of some Pawnee Indian Town. There was no good accomplished by
this band, and geographical knowledge was not increased by its journey
over the plains into what is now Kansas.
