Page:The gilded man (El Dorado) and other pictures of the Spanish occupancy of America.djvu/180

166. Not so much from suspicion as from prudence, based on a knowledge of the honest weaknesses of human nature, Don Antonio de Mendoza had ordered Captain Melchior Diaz to follow from Culiacan the route of the Franciscan toward the north, and approach as near Cibola as possible. Diaz started out with fifteen horsemen on November 17, 1539. On the 20th of March, 1540, the viceroy received a letter from him from Culiacan, whither he had returned with his task so far unaccomplished that he had not succeeded in getting farther north than "Chichiltic-calli." Beyond that point lay an uninhabited region at the end of which was Cibola. "When one has passed the great desert," wrote Diaz, "he will find seven cities which are about a day's journey from one another. All together are called Civola." Diaz received this information and a description of the houses of Cibola which was extraordinarily accurate from the Indians between Chichiltic-calli and Culiacan. There was much snow in the former region and the country began to be again mountainous there. He consequently returned, convinced that he could not go farther with his small means.

The name "Chichiltic-calli" is derived from the Nahuatl language of Central Mexico, and means literally "red house." It therefore probably came from the Indians who went with Fray Marcos on his first journey, among whom were some who spoke the Nahuatl language. The word has now disappeared as the name of a place. The position of Chichiltic-calli is thus an object of careful search,