Note 1448 — Chapter VII

Letter to Charles V., p. 360. There is a great difference of opinion as to the situation of Quivira. The earlier writers, Gallatin, Squier, Kern, Abert, and even Davis, have fallen into the error of fixing it at Gran Quivira, about one hundred miles directly south of Santa Fé, where are to be seen the ruins of a Franciscan Mission founded subsequently to 1629. See Diary of an excursion to the ruins of Abo, Quarra, and Gran Quivira, in New Mexico, 1853, by Major J. H. Carleton (Smithsonian Report, 1854, p. 296). General Simpson, however, (Coronado’s March, p. 339) argues against this view, and maintains that Coronado “reached the fortieth degree of latitude, or what is now the boundary line between the States of Kansas and Nebraska, well on toward the Missouri River.” Judge Savage believes that he crossed the plains of Kansas and came out at a point much farther west, upon the Platte River. Proceedings of American Antiquarian Society, April, 1881, p. 240. Prince (History of New Mexico, p. 141) thinks that “Coronado traversed parts of the Indian Territory and Kansas, and finally stopped on the borders of the Missouri, somewhere between Kansas City and Council Bluffs.” Judge Prince, who is President of the Hist. Society of New Mexico, adds that it would be impossible from what Castañeda tells us, to determine the position of Quivira with certainty. Bandelier (Historical Introduction, p. 25) is not satisfied that he reached as far northeast as General Simpson states, and believes that he moved more in a circle.