Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1890-01-12

with whom they spent eight
months, and established so firmly a
reputation as healers of the afflicted, that
they were looked upon as superior beings,
and from dependents they rose to be
masters, and were able to dictate their
future motions. When the time for the
prickiy pears to ripen approached again,
the wanderers set out on their journey
again and passed to the Arbadoes, where
their food as usual was the cactus fruit,
but that not being quite ripe proved un-
satisfactory, and Nuuez exchanged some
nets and other things for two dogs.
After eating the dogs they were able to
renew their journey. and in two days
reached another tribe, subsiSting while
on their way upon roasted leaves of the
cactus plant. From the tribe now reached
they could only obtain for food the fruit
and leaves of the cactus. and after re-
naming with them few days they
passed on to the next, where with other
food they were given -four made up of
the seed of the mezGuite bush. After
leaving that tribe they came to river,
which they forded, the water coming up
to their breasts. This river is the one
1 suppose that Senator Moody refers to as
Vic 1CAuSS &c. IL l1C Jo0l liz ONSoL dt
or near Santa Rosa island and had
reached the Tennessee river, Nunez and
his companions had travelled through
nearly the entire state of Alabama, and
found no people possessing maize, beans
or pumpkins. but on the contrary, wan
dering tribes, living on the fruit and
leaves of the cactus plant, until they
reached the river, whre they were given
the mezqulte flour. As the mezquite
bush has never been known to flourish
east of the Mississippi river and the cac-
tus is not found in Alabama, it would
seem difficult to reconcile the senator S
theory of the journey with these facts,
and when we consider that in the very
district which he thinks was peopled by
degraded beings described by Nunez
Sato four years later, wintered an army
of fifteen hundred men with three humid
red and fifty horses among an agricul-
tural people, the adjustment becomes
more difficult. But if we say that the
itinerary of the Spaniards began about
sixty miles inland from the Texas coast,
near the Louisiana line. and that after
their success as healers of the sick had
made them their own masters, it was,
always in a westerly course, we shall
conclude that the river when the MeZ-
quite flower was obtained was probably
the Brazos, in which case the route
would have been through a region where
the cactus has always fiourished, and
would have reached point where the
Mezquite bush grew.
From central Texas to the Pacific
coast the seeds of the MeZquite bush
were raised as food by the Indian tribes
occupying that region. If we locate
Malhado near the southeastern coast of
Texas, we shall be able to verify nearly
every custom and feature mentioned by
Nunez. His description of the manner
Indian Villages is the same as that given
by Ioutel one hundred and fifty years
later. The reference he makes to the
season is verified by Bartlett in bis Per
sonal Narrative of Trip to Texas"
The cold winds from the north of which
ne complains are prevalent today as
northers, while the prairies of the in
terror, the moss on the trees, the cane
in the swamps, the seasons of the prick
ly pear and walnuts (pecans) and the
use of the Mezquito seed for food
are characteristics Of Texas
and not of Alabama. But little
variation is found in the meager recital
that Nunez gives of their wanderingS.
They gradually drew away from the
coast, because they felt safer with the
inland tribes, passing over ridges and
prairies and crossing rivers.
They lived on prickly pears, rabbits and
deer, and their companions or native
guides gathered spiders and worms.
Thus they journeyed until they came to
a great river coming from the north.
This river Senator Moody Identifies as
the Mississippi. If it was the Mississippi
Nunez and his companions had traversed
the entire length of Alabama and across
a large portion of Tennessee without
finding any agricultural people, or any
maize or vegetables of any kind, yet four
years later Soto, with force of hun
dreds of soldiers, their servants and
horses, passed over the same territ ry
and found plenty of supplies on which
to subsist his army. What miracu-
lous change this would be to take place
among savages.
Again, Nunez and his companions
were followed from tribe to tribe by
hundreds of Indians, proclaiming the
cures wrought and lauding the virtues
and proves of the travellers, yet no his
torian of Soto's expedition-which, If
Senator Moody's theory is correct, must
have passed over the same route that the
others did-mention hearing anything Of
Nunez or his cures, though they do men,
ton of bearing of Theodore the Greek,
who was landed from the boat of Narvaez
on the coast east of the Mississippi; hence
it is not strange they should hear of him.
but very strange that if Nunez and
his companions spent years on
the coast and then traversed
the country from the coast northward
through Alabama and westward through
Tennessee, followed by multitudes ascrib-
ing to them miraculous powers, SO that
when they arrived at the Mississippi
they were escorted by three or four thou
sand Soto, in traversiDg the same re-
gion four years later, should hear moth
ing of them or their work. Such would
not have been the case had Nunez and
his friends ever been in Alabama and
Tennessee, but at the time Senator
Moody thinks he was traversing the rich
valleys Of those states he was really
making his way over the cactus-covered
plains of Texas, and when he reached
the great river coming from thd north
he was on the banks of the Colorado,
across which he and his three or four
thousand Indians found no trouble in
passing. Continuing their course west
ward they crossed an inhabited tract of
country at least fifty leagues in extent,
changing their course slightly towards
the north, though assured by the Indians
that towards the north there were no
people and nothing to eat and no wa
.er,' description hardly applicable to
Arkansas or Missouri, which it would
refer 10 if they were following the route
aid down by Senator Moody, but emf