The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire, 1713-1763

2: Exploiting Indigenous Geographic Understanding

69 2 Exploiting Indigenous Geographic Understanding The Indians [from the California coast to New Mexico] may very well have with each other some sort of communication and commerce, extending to considerable distances, although they do not maintain it very directly because they do not like to go very far from their native lands. It is true, however, that from hand to hand and from neighbor to neighbor they exchange the things which some have in abundance and others lack, and in these interchanges give reciprocal notices of their lands. —Miguel Costansó, 1772 From this square [in Cuzco] four highways emerge; the one called Chinchay-suyu leads to the plains and the highlands as far as the provinces of Quito and Pasto; the second, known as Cunti-suyu, is the highway to the provinces under the jurisdiction of this city and Arequipa. The third, by name Anti-suyu, leads to the provinces on the slopes of the Andes and various settlements beyond the mountains. The last of these highways, called Colla-suyu, is the route to Chile. Thus, just as in Spain the early inhabitants divided it all into provinces, so these Indians, to keep track of their wide-flung possessions, used the method of highways. —Pedro de Cieza de León, 1553 Consideration of the inhibiting effects of western exploratory difficulties and disappointments, of the Far West’s geographic position, and of the competitive allure of other potential targets of investigation yields a fair explanation for the pre-1763 Spanish failure to explore the better part of the North American West. Such consideration leaves open, however, the question of why, if the physical and human geography of the North American West rendered its thorough exploration by Spaniards themselves arduous and unappealing, they could not avail themselves of Indian information, utilizing native geographic knowledge as a substitute for Spanish sails and feet. When Vizcaíno sailed the coast, when Kino trudged along the Colorado, whenVélez Cachupín ransomed “Indian children ” taken from and by “all nations,” why not inquire about what lay beyond 70 | Exploiting Indigenous Geographic Understanding the frontiers of Spanish rule and reconnaissance? To give a more pointed example , Villasur’s death in 1720 demonstrated the dangers inherent in pushing Spanish expeditions onto the plains. In the sameyear, New Mexico captain Don Felix Martínez reported speaking to “captives in New Mexico” from the same Pawnee nation that had attacked Villasur and his men. Talking to Pawnees in New Mexico might have furnished an easier means of acquiring information than exchanging gunshots in Nebraska.1 Spanish investigators did, in fact, try to take advantage of Indian geographic awareness. Fray Posada, while serving as a missionary “on the more remote frontiers” of New Mexico in the 1650s, “acquired information about the lands from the infidel Indians.” He talked at Pecos with “Apacha Indians” holding “some captive Indian children from Quivira” and with an Indian from the Jemez pueblo “who told him . . . of having been captive in Teguayan provinces for a period of twoyears.” Kino, in 1701, at a Colorado Rivercrossing “a day’s journey” from the river’s mouth, asked “Quiquima,” “Cutgana,” and “Hogiopa” Indians “about everything farther on, particularly toward the west and south.” Members 1. Miguel Costansó to Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa, Sept. 5, 1772, in Herbert Eugene Bolton, ed. and trans., Anza’s California Expeditions,V,Correspondence (Berkeley,Calif., 1930), 8–11, esp. 9; Pedro de Cieza de León,The Incas of Pedro de Cieza de León, ed.VictorWolfgang von Hagen, trans. Harriet de Onis (Norman, Okla., 1959), 144; Cieza de León, La crónica del Perú, in Carmelo Sáenz de Santa María, ed., Obras completas (1553; rpt. Madrid, 1984), I, 117: “Desta plaza salían cuatro caminos reales; en el que llamaban Chinchasuyo se camina a las tierras de los llanos con toda la serranía, hasta las provincias de Quito y Pasto; por el segundo camino, que nombran Condesuyo, entran las provincias que son sujetas a esta ciudad ya la de Arequipa. Porel tercero camino real, que tiene por nombre Andesuyo, se va a las provincias que caen en las faldas de los Andes, y a algunos pueblos que están pasade la cordillera. En el último camino destos, que dicen Collasuyo, entran las provincias que llegan hasta Chile. De manera que, como en España los antiguos hacían división de toda ella por las provincias, así estos indios, para contar las que...